Image: Dr Rachel Beatty
Self-described ‘roboticist’ Dr Rachel Beatty on her role as a researcher in the emerging area of anatomy and AI applications in medicine.
“I’ve a strong commitment to advancing healthcare through innovative technology. I consider myself a roboticist, with research interests including robotics, bioinspired advanced biomaterials, drug delivery and advanced microscopy.”
Last year, Dr Rachel Beatty saw her doctoral research published in the Science Robotics journal. Along with her mentor Prof Garry Duffy and a team of MIT researchers, Beatty developed an AI-powered implantable device that can deliver tailored amounts of drugs to a patient on demand.
The journal article was published approximately a year after she was awarded her PhD by the University of Galway in 2022. These days, Beatty remains at the University of Galway, where she is working as a lecturer and researcher in anatomy and AI applications in healthcare. It is, she says, “an exciting new area of research” that has not yet been taught at a large scale by the School of Medicine.
Beatty tells us she is eager to start her new role at the university. “I’m looking forward to improving my teaching of anatomy and also the new area of AI applications in medicine.”
Scoping out gaps where new tech can help patients
“More generally, with my new position, I’m going to focus my research on how and where AI is already being employed in medicine to identify potential gaps and spaces for new technologies on the market.”
“I’m really interested in technologies that can have an impact on people’s living with chronic health conditions. I enjoy researching the fundamental scientific questions but where I see the most potential impact is getting these technologies into the hands of patients and healthcare providers.”
It’s such a new area that Beatty isn’t sure where it will take her yet. But she says that it is great to be able to do this kind of research as part of the discipline of anatomy “because our understanding of the human body plays a huge role in the success of these technologies, particularly implantables.”
She plans to continue her exploration of implantable tech to target chronic diseases. In particular, she wants to improve the longevity of these devices.
“I’m hoping to incorporate my sensing technology into an external device to deliver insulin for people living with Type 1 diabetes, which will hopefully accelerate its commercialisation,” she says.
“AI will play a role in my research, how we generate and process the signal from the device, what algorithms we’ll need to develop and power supply.” This is outside her original area of research, but Beatty is interested in the “wide variety of potential collaborations” that can arise.
Collaborations from Galway to Germany
Beatty has previously collaborated with Galway-based companies such as Boston Scientific on medical device projects. She has also worked with researchers from abroad, including scientists from Universitat Tubingen in Germany and MIT in the US.
Taking the lecturing role at the University of Galway is in a way bringing Beatty’s career to date full circle. She worked with her former supervisor Duffy on two separate occasions, first as a research assistant following her graduation with a BSc in anatomy, and subsequently when she was completing her PhD under his supervision.
“I do think I’ve carried out a huge amount of my work with Prof Duffy because he is a great role model in how he supports women in STEM,” she says of her colleague. “I think it’s phenomenal to be surrounded by people that genuinely champion women’s success. I know that isn’t always the case and it’s definitely not something to take for granted.”
“I think I’m fortunate to be in a position where there are a lot of very accomplished women working in the field, of course, Prof Ellen Roche at MIT, Dr Eimear Dolan and Dr Joanne O’Dwyer here in Galway are some examples that spring to mind.”
Striving for high standards
Beatty hopes to travel more in the future with her research; she missed out on the opportunity to travel to MIT because of the pandemic, but she hopes she can take what she learned from working with more senior scientists to her lecturing.
“The standard that these world-class universities work at is apparent from the first interaction you have with them, and I think it’s something to aspire towards. I certainly make sure I’m doing everything to the highest standard and hopefully, my experience with Prof Roche in MIT and Prof Duffy here in Galway will permeate through my own teaching in the future in both research and academia.”
She believes that AI will play an increasingly more significant role in medicine in the future. The fact her position was created is a testament to that, she adds. “I don’t think it will be solely limited to medical device research,” she says of AI, “But it will definitely play a huge part in it going forward, particularly in how we design, test and use the medical devices.”
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