Biography

Alaa Alahmadi is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Computational Medicine at the School of Computing, based in the Interdisciplinary Computing and Complex BioSystems (ICOS) research group. She has also held an honorary position at the University of Manchester since 2021.

She completed her MSc and PhD at the University of Manchester (2016-2021), working on data visualization across multiple clinical trials (with AstraZeneca) during her MSc, and then devising, developing and evaluating novel interdisciplinary methods for intuitively monitoring drug-induced acquired long QT Syndrome during her PhD using explainable artificial intelligence and science-of-perception-based novel data visualisations approaches, collaborating with The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Cancer Research UK, and AstraZeneca. She is currently establishing her research team and shaping her research vision at Newcastle University, leading a number of basic and translational research to build on her strong foundational work in drug-induced long QT syndrome monitoring, moving into a more holistic view of cardiotoxicity, pharmacogenomics & sudden cardiac death. The research vision aims to advance precision medicine in cardio-oncology and beyond with novel clinical decision-making tools, collaborating with The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cancer Research UK - Newcastle Cancer Centre, International Centre for Life, and NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre.

Research Interests

Alahmadi is passionate about interdisciplinary research that crosses the fields of Computer Science, Cognitive Science, and Medicine. She has a special interest in blending Artificial Intelligence & Human-Computer Interaction novel methods to better engineer Healthcare Technologies - integrating concepts, theories, perspectives, and novel computational & visual perception methods to advance Cardiac Monitoring in Cardiotoxicity, Drug-Induced Proarrhythmia, Pharmacogenetics, and Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndromes (SADS). She is interested in exploring new approaches to engineering healthcare technologies that use integrative knowledge & modelling for heart monitoring across multiple complex disciplines. Her research on drug-induced long QT syndrome monitoring has been recognized with numerous accolades, including the MIT Innovators Under 35 Award, the IET Healthcare Technology Awards (Highly Commended), and the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee STEM for Britain Awards (only Computer Science finalist). She also won multiple university awards, including the University of Manchester Outstanding Doctoral Paper in Computer Science (2019), Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in Computer Science (Runner Up, 2022), and UK-SACB Saudi Excellence Doctoral Research Awards in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Research interests

Alaa Alahmadi has a special interest in Explainable Artificial Intelligence & Human-Computer Interaction, Cardiac Monitoring for Cardiotoxicity, Proarrhythmia, Pharmacogenetics, and Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndromes (SADS). She is interested in exploring new approaches to engineering healthcare technologies that use integrative knowledge & modelling for heart monitoring across multiple complex disciplines.