Rakesh Sharma

PhD Student in Bioengineering · University of Pennsylvania

I build multimodal AI for clinical decision support — systems that read the full breadth of patient data, and that clinicians can inspect, verify, and trust. I am advised by Prof. Walter R. T. Witschey and Prof. Victoria M. Gershuni.

My family hails from a remote village in Nepal where seeing a nurse can mean a two-hour walk. Democratizing healthcare is my life’s mission, and explainable AI is how I work toward it.

Before my PhD I spent four years as a data scientist at Eli Lilly, co-founded a surgical robotics company as CTO, built microfluidic diagnostics at Achira Labs, and developed computer-vision systems at Wipro. I hold a B.Tech–M.Tech in Bioengineering from IIT (BHU) Varanasi and review for Journal of Imaging Informatics in Medicine, Korean Journal of Radiology, Nature Communications (student reviewer), ACM-BCB, and SIIM-CAIMI.

Multi-agent clinical systems
LLM evaluation
Explainability & AI ethics
CT/MR body composition

Email / CV / Scholar
GitHub / LinkedIn / ORCID

News

Aug 2026ETHOS is on arXiv — a modular ethics framework for clinical multi-agent systems. arXiv:2608.15424 · under review at the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing 2027.
2026DISCERN accepted for an oral presentation at AMIA 2026 — a clinical impact-aware framework for radiology report comparison.
2026CURA accepted at MICCAI 2026 — calibrated uncertainty with retrieval and agents for medical decision support.
Jul 2026Our study of adiposity and cardiac function in early breast cancer is published in Breast Cancer Research. paper
2026Presented a poster on LLM-based attending-to-resident feedback at the SIIM Annual Meeting.
2025Oral presentation at CLINICCAI (MICCAI 2025) on CT body composition for predicting complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Publications

† equal contribution · * under review. Filter by topic:

First author

ETHOS: Towards a Modular Ethics Framework for Clinical Multi-Agent Systems

R. Sharma†, S. Pugh†, C. Beeche, P. Singhal, R. Wu, M. Eby, J. Duda, J. Gee, K. O’Brien, H. Sagreiya, M. Serper, V. Gershuni, A. Bradbury, A. Verma, E. Eaton, K. B. Johnson, W. Witschey († equal contribution)

Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB), 2027 — under review *

arXiv pdf

DISCERN: A Clinical Impact-Aware Framework for Radiology Report Comparison

R. Sharma, C. Beeche, J. Dong, R. Zhuang, H. Qu, R. Zhang, V. Gangaram, P. Goswami, J. Xin, J. Ballard, A. Goldberg, H. Sagreiya, Q. Long, T. Chen, W. Witschey

AMIA Annual Symposium, 2026 — accepted, oral presentation

preprint code

Graphical abstract: automated CT body composition pipeline for preoperative risk stratification in pancreaticoduodenectomy

Automated CT-Based Volumetric Body Composition Analysis Predicts Post-Operative Complications Following Pancreaticoduodenectomy

R. Sharma, S. Vasisht, G. M. Vargas, R. Damani, J. Duda, J. C. Gee, C. M. Vollmer, W. Witschey, V. Gershuni

CLINICCAI (MICCAI), 2025 · oral presentation · manuscript under review *

ROC curves for CR-POPF and total parenteral nutrition: clinical variables versus clinical variables plus imaging derived phenotypes

Muscle Quality on Preoperative Imaging is Associated with Postoperative Pancreatic Fistula Risk

S. Vasisht†, R. Sharma†, G. M. Vargas, R. Damani, J. C. Gee, W. Witschey, C. M. Vollmer, V. M. Gershuni († equal contribution)

American College of Surgeons Annual Meeting, 2025 · oral presentation

ROC curves by sex showing volumetric body composition features add predictive value for surgical complications in females

Volumetric Body Composition Analysis on Preoperative CT Scans Improves Risk Prediction in Colorectal Surgery Patients

R. Damani†, R. Sharma†, S. Vasisht, G. M. Vargas, J. Duda, G. Wu, J. C. Gee, W. Witschey, V. Gershuni († equal contribution)

RSNA Annual Meeting, 2025 · poster

Pipeline comparing radiology reports and operative notes to produce a report penalty score

Enhancing Diagnostic Concordance and Quality Assurance Through Automated MRI and Arthroscopy Report Comparison Using Large Language Models

R. Zaki†, R. Sharma†, P. Goswami, H. Yang, J. C. Gee, C. E. Kahn, J. B. Kneeland, A. Borthakur, W. Witschey († equal contribution)

RSNA Annual Meeting, 2025 · poster

Osteoconductive Amine-Functionalized Graphene–Poly(methyl methacrylate) Bone Cement Composite with Controlled Exothermic Polymerization

R. Sharma, G. Kapusetti, S. Y. Bhong, et al., P. Maiti

Bioconjugate Chemistry, 28(9), pp. 2254–2265, 2017

paper

Collaborations — 2026

CURA: Calibrated Uncertainty with Retrieval and Agents for Trustworthy Multimodal Medical Decision Support

R. Zhang, J. Dong, J. Xin, J. Ballard, C. Beeche, R. Sharma, X. Zhao, N. Konz, Q. Long, W. Witschey, T. Chen

MICCAI, 2026 — accepted

code

The Association Between Adiposity and Cardiac Function in Patients with Early Breast Cancer Receiving Cardiotoxic Therapies

G. Aleixo, W.-T. Hwang, R. Sharma, W. Jung, C. Xia, V. Narayan, Y. M. Martei, R. Sedhom, W. Witschey, B. Ky

Breast Cancer Research, 2026 · also ASCO 2026, abstract 12021 (J. Clin. Oncol. 44.16_suppl)

paper

Aortic Geometric Atlas: Centile-Based Reference Charts and Pathological Signatures Across the Adult Lifespan

C. A. Beeche, H. Tavolinejad, Z. Li, Z. Fan, B. Zhao, H. Wei, L. Steger, R. Sharma, et al., J. A. Chirinos, W. R. Witschey

medRxiv, 2026 *

preprint

Automated CT-Based Body Composition Analysis and Utility in Risk Stratification for Adult Spinal Deformity Correction

J. L. Golubovsky, R. Sharma, E. Massaad, Y. Ghenbot, et al., W. R. Witschey, V. M. Gershuni, A. K. Ozturk, J. H. Shin

Manuscript under review, 2026 *

Pipeline combining automated CT body composition segmentation with electronic health record features to predict malnutrition risk

Development of an Automated, Imaging-Based Preoperative Screening Model for Early Identification of Malnutrition in an Abdominal Surgery Cohort

V. Gershuni, R. A. Damani, S. Vasisht, R. Sharma, et al., G. D. Wu, W. R. Witschey

medRxiv, 2026 *

preprint

Study overview: Penn Medicine CT volumes by field of view and contrast, split into training and validation cohorts

Generalizable CT Vision-Language Modeling for Population Health and Disease Risk

C. Beeche, J. Kim, H. Tavolinejad, B. Zhao, J. Dong, R. Sharma, et al., B. Hou, W. R. Witschey

medRxiv, 2026 *

preprint

Automated Pipeline for Analysis of Paraesophageal Hernias

S. Lee, R. Sharma, W. R. Witschey, M. S. Altieri, D. A. Mankoff, V. Gershuni, D. A. Hashimoto

Digestive Disease Week, 2026, abstract 1280 (Gastrointest. Endosc. 103.5) · also ACTS 2026, abstract 78 (J. Clin. Transl. Sci.)

Enhancing Attending-to-Resident Feedback by Using LLMs to “Understand” Clinical Significance: A Proof of Study

P. Goswami, R. Sharma, H. Sagreiya, C. E. Kahn Jr., W. R. Witschey

SIIM Annual Meeting, 2026 · poster

Collaborations — 2025

Adapting Vision-Language Models for 3D CT/MRI Understanding on PMBB via Slice Selection and Explanation Analysis

H. Chen, R. Shukla, R. Wu, S. Yang, et al., R. Sharma, C. Davatzikos, W. Witschey, B. Hou, L. Shen

ICCV Workshops, 2025, pp. 2273–2282

Body Composition Analysis of Weight Loss Induced by GLP-1 Receptor Agonists

K. Lee, R. Sharma, E. Bouche, C. Quy, V. Gershuni, W. Witschey

Korean College of Radiologists Annual Meeting, 2025 · oral presentation

Trends in Muscle and Fat Metrics and Their Association with Outcomes Following CAR T-Cell Therapy in Older Adults with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

G. Aleixo, L. Paruzzo, R. Sharma, W. Witschey, et al., S. Dwivedy Nasta

ASH Annual Meeting, 2025, abstract 3553 (Blood 146, suppl. 1)

Collaborations — 2024 and earlier

Bar charts of tissue back pressure and post-injection leakage mass by needle length and injection volume in lean and non-lean subjects

Clinical Investigation of Large Volume Subcutaneous Delivery up to 25 mL for Lean and Non-Lean Subjects

X. Dang, H. Shih, R. Sharma, D. T. Angwin-Kaerner, et al., D. S. Collins

Pharmaceutical Research, 41(4), pp. 751–763, 2024

paper

Computational Modeling and Simulation of the Cerebrospinal Flow and Drug Delivery

G. Montoya, J. V. Teli, C. Kadamus, K. Lin, et al., R. Sharma, V. K. Sharma

Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 20, e094612, 2024

Optimal Sample Pooling: An Efficient Tool Against SARS-CoV-2

S. Goyal, P. Bist, R. Sharma

medRxiv, 2020

preprint

A Point-of-Care Immunoassay Platform for Thyroid Function Based on Hydrogel Sensors Embedded Inside a Microfluidic Device

J. Pai, M. Azad, B. Goyal, R. Nair, R. Sharma, D. Dendukuri

MicroTAS, pp. 102–103, 2019

Patents

H. Desai, M. Kawiecki, R. Sharma, A. Tiwari, J. Venderley. Methods and Apparatuses for Detecting Anomalies When Filling a Container with Fluid. WO2023044089A1, US Patent App. PCT/US2022/043937, 2023.
K. B. Gururaj, S. Kalme, S. K. Raghunath, R. Sharma. System for Renal Puncturing Assistance. US Patent App. 17/294,009, 2022.
R. Sharma, M. Madhusudhanan. Image Processing Method of Enabling Financial Transaction and an Image Processing System Thereof. US Patent App. 14/459,428, 2015.

Invited Talks

“The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Are You Ready?” 36th Annual Seminar and 20th Triguna Sen Memorial Lecture, Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, New Delhi, 2019.