Podcast Link : Generative AI Healthcare Professional Podcast
AI driven solutions are bringing about unprecedented efficiencies in healthcare, by providing access to vast repositories of medical knowledge that provide timely information for medical practitioners !
Dolcy Dhar, our next pathbreaker, Healthcare AI Product Lead at CellStrat, solves problems related to various aspects of the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical industry using AI.
Dolcy talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about the immense potential of GenAI in helping doctors and other medical professionals serve their patients better.
For students, in the medical industry where time and knowledge are key, AI can be a gamechanger in improving healthcare outcomes !
Dolcy, can you explain your background for our young readers?
Hi guys, This is Dolcy (dol–c). I am 29 years old and I live in Bangalore. Right now, I am working as a “Healthcare AI (Artificial Intelligence) – Data Scientist”. But I wasn’t always working like this.
Here’s a bit about me,
I was born in New Delhi into a Kashmiri family. I used to live with my parents and grandparents. But when I was almost 5 years old, my parents and I shifted to “Agartala (Tripura)”. Growing up there, I tried to learn a lot of things (actually, mom wanted me to do everything! Boomers!). I was put into drawing, chess, dancing and even guitar classes (briefly for a year, the teacher was terrible). However, eventually I grew out of this. School was a bit hard. In Delhi, I was in CBSE and when I moved here, it was another school board – ICSE. I did okay eventually. I was never in the ranking system however, I did fairly well during my 10th and 12th. I was lucky actually to get great teachers for science subjects which helped me learn well. During 12th, I was mostly focused on board exams, so when I appeared for AIPMT (now NEET), I did okay in Biology but very poorly in Physics, so my rank wasn’t great. I had to write 15 competitive exams that year including engineering exams (I qualified JEE Mains and even got a place to join). Since I was determined to get into a medical college, I didn’t join other courses I had taken that year. I dropped a year to reappear for exams again. This time I attended classes at Aakash Institute in Delhi.
What did you do for graduation/post graduation?
I did my graduation from Christian Medical College, Vellore (Tamil Nadu). I studied “Neuro-Electrophysiology”. It is the study of the recording, estimating and interpreting electrical signals from the body’s nervous system (brain, spinal cord and nerves). I was always fascinated by the brain. Such a tiny thing and the man has done so many things.
I also did a Postgraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence from Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi
What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional and unique career in Medical Data Science?
I was always intrigued by computers. I used to carry around my laptop everywhere during my drop year (after 12th). Some of the influential books I read were from Ankur Wadia and “For dummies” collection, which helped me play around with different aspects of computers. Also, my schooling in ICSE board forced me to learn the basics of C++ and JAVA.
I was always fascinated by studying the workings of the human brain. My love for neuroscience drove me to join CMC because, when I was looking for bachelor’s in India, there weren’t many options and hence, Neuro-Electrophysiology was my go-to option.
When I couldn’t clear any of the entrance exams in the first attempt, I was so determined that I took the decision of dropping a year. I prepared for all medical entrances at Aakash Institutions Delhi.
When I was coursing through exams for applications, I found the website of CMC and saw that there are almost 20 types of medical courses apart from MBBS and Nursing. I was so excited about it though my understanding was limited. I didn’t know until then that we can do a whole of things apart from medicine.
I had always wanted to be a neuroscientist and so I found the next best thing I could apply for.
My course was through CMC’s private entrance exam and there was only 1 seat all over India for all Non-Christian candidates. And the exam had English and General Knowledge sections too. I think that’s what made the difference.
During my bachelor’s, I used to try out different things on my laptop though my working hours were hectic and time was limited. After Covid, employment in labs in Delhi was hard to come by and so, I had to work odd jobs to earn money. The college applications were delayed and I was visibly frustrated. I scouted for online short programs that could give me something to study. I wholeheartedly believe in taking structured courses, it helps you develop a thought process in the subject matter. I came across a Post-graduate program in Artificial Intelligence, it was intriguing. I assessed my options and decided to go for it.
How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Tell us about your career path
Yes indeed this path has been rare. When I started out, it wasn’t my intention though.
Well, the bachelors coursework took us through many diagnostic tests where we learnt abnormal and normal findings, learnt patient handling and how to conduct these tests in a timely manner.
Some of the projects we were part of were related to finding better assessment techniques within existing technologies for better patient outcomes. I conducted a study where we devised a very low-cost solution for assessing a clinical symptom in Stroke patients
The study bagged me 3 awards for being innovative and simplistic. These accomplishments really paved my ongoing interests in Neuroscience.
As we had a mandatory one year job obligation after our 4 years of coursework, I worked at CMC Vellore. I was also the only intern to be selected to substitute as a Head of the Department at a Christian Fellowship Hospital in a remote area in Assam. The whole experience made me confident in my skills, and helped take decisions on patient cases independently.
Our job was to conduct these specialised tests like EEG and EMG for accurate diagnosis of neurological disorders.
Honestly, when Covid hit, all of us were called to help. I was also a part of the crew in CMC. Almost 5 years of hospital work and then the pandemic had made me very insensitive to death. As soon as my obligation ended, I wanted to take a break from all the ordeal and wanted to do something entirely different. When you look at neurological diseases almost daily, it takes a toll on your mental health. I wanted to try out other things and hence, when I moved back to Delhi, I looked for jobs outside medicine. That plus the covid wave diminished most of the hiring opportunities for us and so I found a Human Resources company which put me in touch with companies that hired for Tech Support Roles and that’s how I landed a job in Adobe Tech Support. It was rewarding as I learnt different software and that honed my computer skills.
I then pursued the program “Post-graduate Diploma in AI & Computer Science” offered by Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. The modules included different aspects of computational methods. We were taken through mathematics (especially statistics and probabilities, matrices), python and other conceptual topics such Data Structures and Machine Learning. We also solved almost 16 projects, two for every module and major capstone project. The program was for 1 year and started in Mar 2021.
I had always dreamt of doing a PhD in Neuroscience, but I realised that without an official masters, a BS grad cannot enroll for a PhD in India even though a 4 year degree student can. Though I tried my best to talk to authorities to consider it, they dismissed it saying there was no such criteria for 4 year medical courses. I had no other choice but to pick a masters. Since my background in neuroscience was directly linked to Human Psychology, I decided to pursue that as a distanced learning program. My degree in Psychology has helped me navigate a lot of social situations in my corporate workplace.
I was also hired as part of government led project at the National Institute of Mental Health which assessed the neurophysiological aspects that correlate with the activity of dreaming in long-term meditators. This was a very interesting project as it involved studying the brain’s electrical activity during dreaming. The project was cut short due to funding problems and so I had to look for another job.
How did you get your first break?
In Feb 2021, I came across the advertisement for a Research Assistant position for a joint project in Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at IIT and IIIT Delhi. The job responsibilities included driving the research project independently, working with PIs to tackle planning, execution and evaluation of the project. This was to study the nuances of brain regions in normal subjects with non-clinical anxiety (mild-moderate). I conducted 50 MRI scans and their analysis. Apart from this, I also handled a study for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We found interesting correlations in brain regions and depression (usually found in patients with ASD).
My BS degree and PGD helped me immensely in conducting analysis for my research.
Well, I was introduced to the founder of the company CellStrat (where I work currently) via my previous boss who was at Infosys. I was asked to qualify a 3 step interview process where I showed a working project in Generative AI, was required to present it in front of 100 AI scientists and was asked to build the project for healthcare. After my assessment, the senior management was really intrigued by the vast applications of AI in Healthcare that they decided to start a whole new division in it. And I was invited to lead it.
What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
Challenge 1: I think the first major key challenge was to be able to upskill myself in driving a research project. How do you create a research design? How do you plan the experiments? How to apply for regulatory approvals, documentation? And even, you have to justify the minimum number of people you would need for conducting the study.
In order to tackle this, I spent a lot of time reading in order to get a conceptual understanding of the field. I followed a few renowned educators on Youtube, and read books which taught the basics first.
Another challenge was managing time and working around a lab schedule. In academic positions, you are usually working in a lab where other professors and students also have a say or access to the resources. You have to be good at planning time slots for common/shared resources. In order to tackle this, the schedule was planned according to our sleep cycles. We were 6 members in the lab, 4 of which were early risers, and I and another were late owls. So, I used to plan my time in late evenings when most of the people had gone home.
Challenge 3: Another challenge was maintaining health. Eventually the work exponentially increased, as I was handling 3 things parallelly, I had a PGD going on and two research projects. And additionally, I had to prepare for my NET entrance exams which were in Psychology (studying and working in different fields was exhausting), however, it allowed me to think about problems from different points of views. I had to set up reminders and take a few decisions, I would never work on an empty stomach. I also carried a box of healthy snacks to munch during intense work.
Where do you work now? What problems do you solve?
I currently work as a Healthcare AI Engineer. I try to solve problems related to various aspects of the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical industry using AI.
For e.g., many things that doctors want, require a lot of time and effort, we try to build software that can help them save time or effort.
So one of the current products I am building is utilising Generative AI. It’s a healthcare search engine for doctors and other medical professionals. It uses the latest models such as GPT and Anthropic that use relevant biomedical research and create a chatbot for healthcare providers. GenAI models are known for their fast processing and vast skills and we are trying to leverage those for saving time and effort on the professionals part.
You can check it out at www.cellbot.ai
How does your work benefit society?
The benefits are yet to be measured; however, the potential is immense. Many people don’t want to study for 10 years now to become a doctor. So, slowly, we will have a shortage of healthcare professionals, we need to tackle this. AI can help us make existing people better at their jobs, help them study faster and better.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!
I am developing a search engine for healthcare professionals. It helps them study and find answers faster and in a better way. This is the first product that I have ever built, I am excited about it since it is actually solving a problem in the real-world.
Your advice to students based on your experience?
I think the best advice I can give you is to study smartly. The world is changing so fast that you won’t have time to do hard work, so find ways to be efficient in whatever you do.
Some of the techniques that helped me were, creating a priority list of things, including hours for self-study, and reading different things from different places.
Always try to ask Why? And How? Questions.
It’s always easier said than done but guys don’t lose hope, if you don’t understand some concept, try to look for alternate explanations, usually different perspectives can help you understand things better.
Also, always believe in excellence of concepts and fundamental understanding. You should be able to explain the concept or idea to a 5 year old.
Future Plans?
My future plan is to explore more problems and solve them. I want to use my knowledge of healthcare and AI together. I believe that we need to find efficient ways of living so that Mother Earth breathes better.