PhD Studentship: Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence for Paediatric Healthcare: Fully Funded PhD Studentship in digitising healthcare records using Natural Language Processing

This PhD project aims to transform paediatric healthcare by addressing critical data and research gaps through advanced artificial intelligence (AI). Despite its importance, paediatric healthcare remains under-researched, particularly in areas like rare diseases, neonatal care, and chronic conditions. A major barrier is the lack of AI-ready data due to a lack of electronic health records (EHR) in Wales, meaning most paediatric records are handwritten and unstructured.

The project will prioritise digitising these records using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to create structured datasets. These will support AI applications in paediatric care, enabling early detection of conditions and personalised treatment planning.

A human-in-the-loop (HITL) approach will ensure clinical expertise guides model development, improving accuracy and trust. Ethical considerations, including data privacy and collaboration with hospital ethics boards, are central to the project. Ultimately, this research seeks to produce AI-ready data creation techniques that will help establish scalable, globally relevant AI solutions and elevate paediatric healthcare to the standards seen in adult medicine.

The ideal candidate should have background in one of the Machine Learning or Data Science domains with high motivation for upskilling and filling any gaps in their knowledge based on the requirements of the project at the early stages of the study. 

Funding 

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees and an annual stipend at UKRI rate (currently £20,780 for 2025-26) for 4 years.

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