Earlier this year, the Department of Radiology welcomed Johannes C. Paetzold, Ph.D., as an Assistant Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Radiology. Dr. Paetzold, who earned his doctorate from the Technical University of Munich, joins WCM from Imperial College London, where, as a postdoctoral researcher, he advanced medical image analysis with deep learning.
Now working alongside Mert Sabuncu, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering in Radiology and Vice Chair of AI and Engineering Research, Dr. Paetzold is developing interpretable, interactive deep-learning methods that integrate multimodal data—tools clinicians can trust and employ effectively.
“I believe clinicians and patients will adopt AI models more readily when they are not black boxes but rather human-understandable,” says Dr. Paetzold. “Modern generative models, such as large language models, can enhance model interpretability, enabling intuitive, conversation-like interactions for both patients and clinicians.”
Dr. Paetzold’s work lies at the intersection of AI and medicine. It targets clinicians and AI researchers and aims to enhance clinical practice with novel AI concepts while advancing machine-learning methodologies.
“Dr. Min and the Radiology Department’s leadership have set forth an ambitious AI-first vision to transform and improve patient care," says Dr. Paetzold. "With a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, we hope to develop AI solutions that are both innovative and impactful in real-world healthcare settings.”