I am a physician and computational health scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, where I am affiliated with the Psychiatry RRTP and the Clinical Informatics Fellowship. I work with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, and the Division of Clinical Informatics and Digital Transformation. I founded the UCSF AI in Mental Health Research Group (AIMHealth), and I’m co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at SimX. I am a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Research

At UCSF, my research develops novel AI techniques for clinical applications, particularly large language models that interpret patient and clinical text, perform clinical reasoning, and assist in the delivery of care. I’m also studying how consumer-facing AI chatbots interact with mental illness, with a particular interest in the phenomenon described in the media as “AI-associated psychosis.” In collaboration with colleagues at the Stanford Brainstorm group, I’m working to develop methods for measuring and simulating these interactions.

SimX

I co-founded SimX and now lead technology strategy. Before the company’s acquisition by Madison Industries, I served as Principal Investigator on a $20M+ extramurally funded research program advancing virtual medical simulation training. I also founded and led the company’s advanced development division, including our internal R&D lab, the Virtual Advancement of Learning for Operational Readiness (VALOR) Program, which focused on next-generation work in AI and extended reality.

Policy & organized medicine

I serve as Trustee-Elect of the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association. In the American Medical Association House of Delegates, I represent the APA and co-chair the Informatics Caucus. I’m also an Alternate Delegate in the California Medical Association House of Delegates, where I serve on the Councils on Medical Service and Legislation. Previously, I sat on the Boards of Trustees of both the AMA and CMA.

Background

I received my MD and PhD (Medical and Imaging Informatics) from UCLA, where I trained in the Biomedical AI Research Lab under Corey Arnold, and my BS (Computer Science) from the California Institute of Technology. At UCSF, I was mentored by Atul Butte in the Butte Lab. I live in San Francisco and grew up in Chicago.

Contact

UCSF: karthik.sarma (at) ucsf.edu
Advisory: ksarma (at) ksarma.com