UNC Department of Radiology congratulates R3 Abiola Femi-Abodunde, MD, for being named the American College of Radiology (ACR)’s 2021-2022 Informatics Fellow. Each year, the ACR’s annual Informatics Fellowship is awarded to one Diagnostic or Interventional Radiology resident, or an early-career professional, with a demonstrated interest in the field of informatics. Each fellow is provided hands-on informatics experience, one-on-one project mentoring, and an introduction to the ACR’s Data Science Institute® and AI-LAB™. The ACR Data Science Institute established the ACR AI-LAB™ to enable radiologists to meet their needs on clinical duty through learning how to apply data science tools to algorithm development, using systems-level healthcare patient data.
Over a 12-month fellowship, data scientists and informatics and A.I. experts will instruct Dr. Femi-Abodunde on how to apply informatics, data science and A.I. to her own clinical realm of systems-level imaging workflow. She will additionally learn how to develop and implement an informatics-driven pilot project in clinical setting in ACR’s AI-LAB™ and via didactic lectures, one-on-one mentoring, hands-on learning projects, and independent study. To culminate her learning, Dr. Femi-Abodunde will write develop a white paper on a newly learned area of informatics and present it at the ACR’s 2022 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.
UNC Radiology Chief Medical Informatics Officer Ben Mervak, MD, has mentored Dr. Femi-Abodunde on her pre-career pursuits in informatics application to clinical practice and encouraged her to apply for the American College of Radiology (ACR)’s 2021-2022 Informatics Fellowship. At the Society of Imaging Informatics (SIIM) 2021 Annual Meeting in June, Dr. Femi-Abodunde presented a poster on a study led by Dr. Mervak (P.I.) that she contributed to — “Speech-Recognition Dictation Errors with COVID-19 Protective Equipment: Does Wearing a Surgical Mask Increase Dictation Error Rate?” 
Dr. Femi-Abodunde noted: “I am very extremely excited to delve deeper this year into imaging informatics under the guidance and tutelage of Dr. Tessa Cook and with the support of the ACR. My deepest gratitude to Dr. Mervak for his continued support and mentorship.”
Dr. Mervak noted: “Abiola has been an extraordinarily hard-working resident, and we are so pleased to hear of her interest in informatics. With the field of Radiology poised for significant changes as we implement AI in our workflows, strong leaders like Abiola will be a tremendous asset.”
PHOTOS: (Top) American College of Radiology 2021-2022 Informatics Fellow Dr. Abiola Femi-Abodunde / (Bottom R) Chief Medical Informatics Officer Dr. Ben Mervak