Rohit Singla

About

I am a physician-engineer working to change how doctors diagnose and treat disease using AI. I hold an MD/PhD, MASc in Biomedical Engineering, and BASc in Computer Engineering, all from the University of British Columbia. I now practice as a Family Medicine Resident at Lions Gate Hospital while continuing research as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UBC.

The dual perspective of engineering and patient care shapes everything I do, from how I design studies to what I choose to build. My doctoral work developed machine learning methods for non-invasive ultrasound diagnostics in kidney disease. That same drive to bridge disciplines led me to co-lead the development of Canada's first AI medical curriculum and build hands-on AI training programs for physicians.

Outside of academia, I advise biotech and health-tech companies on strategy and due diligence, and previously co-founded a startup in epilepsy drug development.

I have received over $465,000 in awards and scholarships, including the CIHR Canadian Postdoctoral Research Award, Canada's top-ranked Vanier Scholarship, and the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Award. As co-investigator, I have contributed to over $1.2M in grant funding from CIHR. I review for over 30 journals including NeurIPS, MICCAI, and IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

Industry and Consulting

I served as Venture Scout for UBC's SBME Innovates program, identifying and evaluating early-stage health technology companies for the university's innovation pipeline. I consult for biotech and health-tech companies on scientific strategy, indication prioritization, landscape analysis, and technology due diligence. I have done this work through firms like Bloom Burton & Co., SeraGene Therapeutics, Amplitude Ventures, and others.

Previously, I co-founded Epiloid Biotechnology (2021-2023), a startup using brain organoid phenotypic screening to de-risk epileptic drug development. I am also an alumnus of the Pre-Amp Fellowship at Amplitude Ventures and the NYC Founders Fellowship at Primary Ventures.

Research

My research spans AI-enabled ultrasound diagnostics for nephrology and transplantation, computer vision and physics in medical imaging, augmented reality and image-guided surgery, and AI in medical education. I founded UBC Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, led one of Canada's earliest hands-on AI workshops for medical students, and have co-authored multiple national studies on how to teach AI effectively to future physicians.

Selected Contributions

  • Open Kidney Ultrasound Dataset — Conceived and delivered the first high-quality benchmark kidney ultrasound dataset available worldwide, with 500+ expert-annotated images and benchmark deep learning models. Adopted by 450+ institutions globally and the foundation for multiple peer-reviewed publications demonstrating novel techniques in renal imaging AI.
  • Canada's first AI medical curriculum — Led a national Delphi study to establish expert-consensus competencies for AI in Canadian medical education, published in npj Digital Medicine. This built on hands-on workshops reaching 300 medical students and a nationwide survey of 2,000+ healthcare trainees — the first broad Canadian trainee perspective on AI in medicine.
  • Mentorship and training — Directly supervised 4 undergraduate engineering co-op students and 11 medical students in research, producing 2 Best Paper Awards, multiple conference presentations, and trainees who have gone on to graduate programs at UBC, ETH Zurich, and EPFL.

For a complete list, see my Google Scholar.

Education

Residency in Family Medicine, Lions Gate Hospital, North Vancouver 2025 - now

MD/PhD in Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia 2018 - 2025

MASc in Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia 2015 - 2017

BASc in Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia 2010 - 2015

In the News

Connect

I am always open to new collaborations, whether in research, industry, or consulting. If you are working on something at the intersection of AI, medical imaging, healthcare technology, or clinical medicine, I would like to hear about it. I also provide mentorship to trainees on occasion. Reach out at rohit [at] rsingla [dot] ca.