Matthew Riley

Why did you choose to study at the University of Birmingham?

I chose to study at Birmingham because I was a medical student here! I knew the high quality of teaching that would be on offer and they offered some great bursaries for alumni.

What made you choose your course, and what interested you most about the subject?

I chose the course because I am currently a doctor heading into internal medicine training and I am aware of the impact that AI will have on mine and my colleagues future. I'm interested in having a career that's both clinical and non-clinical and in particular I'm interested in the impacts that artificial intelligence will have in Cardiology. My dream would be to be helping patients by researching artificial intelligence alongside a procedural cardiology subspecialty. The course attracted me because it involves exposure to artificial intelligence on the full life cycle from idea creation to implementation. I'm most interested in translational medicine and seeing real results from research. The focus of having a capstone project as the dissertation therefore really interested me.

What do you enjoy most about your course?

The course has been incredibly interesting and engaging. It's kept true to the description from Dr. Hogg at the start of the course which was a foot deep mile wide exposure to artificial intelligence implementation. From the key concepts module where I got my first exposure to having some understanding of AI all the way through to assurance and implementation I have really enjoyed learning about a new subject to a high level. The course leads make great effort to organize fireside chats with really interesting people from industry. The modules have been engaging with lots of breakout rooms. Finally, everyone on the course and the faculty have been really engaged and excited which has made the experience really fun.

How would you describe the teaching, learning environment, and support from your lecturers?

The teaching has been great because of the variety of approaches and backgrounds of the lecturers. This included clinicians, industry team members, senior academics and trust board members. Having breakout rooms with discussion and didactic lectures with online resources has been really helpful and supported by learning. Everyone on the faculty has been super responsive and supportive throughout the whole year.

How has your course helped you develop the knowledge and skills you'll need for your future career?

A large part of undertaking this course was having an exposure to a career potentially outside of my initial sites. The fireside chats and exposure to people from industries and different walks of life has been super helpful in developing my ongoing career plans. Discussions with the faculty and with other people on the course has really helped. I now feel well equipped to gain some more real world exposure to AI implementation following the masters. For those coming from a clinical background, the course has been an extremely useful experience in complementing the understanding I have of the technologies that the NHS is investing in, how our future might look and I have been able to notice the changes since day one of the course.

What are your career goals after graduation, and how has your course prepared you to achieve them?

As mentioned, I want a career with variety ideally part-time clinical and non-clinical. I'm not sure whether this definitively means being a clinician alongside an academic or an industry role, but this course purely from networking and discussions with the faculty has allowed me to make some first steps. The course will give you some exposure to the roles that currently exist in this space, however, as it's a developing field, my best advice to anyone considering joining is to just reach out to people. Next year I'll be joining the AI implementation team at the trust that I'm starting my internal medicine training, which came off the back of the LinkedIn message inspired by a discussion with one of the faculty.