Ph.D. student advances AI in health as part of competitive national program

DEKALB, IL - Dalia Khaizaran, a second-year Ph.D. student in computer science at NIU, has been selected for a competitive national training program focused on artificial intelligence in healthcare.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) program draws applicants from across the United States, including physicians, biomedical engineers, public health professionals and researchers working at the forefront of health technology. Only 25 participants were selected from more than 240 applicants, and Khaizaran was among them.

"This training experience is a chance to learn from experts working at the leading edge of AI for health," she said. "I want my research to contribute methods that are scientifically rigorous and practically useful for care teams and health systems."

As part of the NIH AIM-AHEAD Bridge2AI AI-READI Training Program, Khaizaran will work to make health AI more understandable, reliable and testable in practice.

The initiative focuses on developing researchers who can responsibly apply AI and machine learning to pressing health challenges, including conditions such as Type 2 diabetes. The training program runs for 8 months and includes research collaborations, mentorship and participation in national conferences.

For Khaizaran, the experience represents not only a milestone in her academic career but also an opportunity to contribute to the future of health technology.

Khaizaran, who earned her master's degree in computer science at Cleveland State University, taught at the university level in Ohio before pursuing her doctoral degree at NIU.

She has also worked in telemedicine and health technology roles, including contributing to a telehealth startup and serving as a systems analyst. These experiences helped shape her research interests in using technology to improve healthcare access, decision-making and patient outcomes.

"Combining the two fields felt like the right direction for me," she said. "AI is shaping the future of healthcare and research. I want to contribute to that progress by developing rigorous, meaningful work in this area and helping others understand how these tools can be used responsibly and effectively."

The NIH program is designed to help participants turn training into shareable research outcomes and to strengthen collaboration across the wider AI for health community.

Khaizaran will explore ideas related to the early detection of chronic disease and how AI could help guide patients to appropriate medical specialists.

Her research focuses on how AI systems behave in real clinical contexts, particularly when generative AI tools are used to analyze medical information. The goal is to determine how accurately AI systems reason through medical questions and whether their responses align with expert clinical judgment.

She will examine issues such as bias, reasoning quality and diagnostic reliability, factors that are especially critical when AI systems are used in healthcare environments.

At NIU, Khaizaran works under the guidance of Hamed Alhoori, an associate professor of computer science and director of the DATA Lab, where the team advances AI methods for science, society, and decision-making.

"Dalia's research illustrates the power of an interdisciplinary approach, merging technical depth with questions that matter for health outcomes," Alhoori said. "Her selection for this NIH program highlights her potential to contribute to a field of growing importance."

This milestone also highlights NIU's broader efforts to apply AI research across health, the sciences, social sciences, engineering, education and policy to address complex real-world challenges.

Media Contact: Jami Kunzer

About NIU

Northern Illinois University is a student-centered, nationally recognized public research university, with expertise that benefits its region and spans the globe in a wide variety of fields, including the sciences, humanities, arts, business, engineering, education, health and law. The Wall Street Journal and CollegeNET recognize NIU as a leading institution for social mobility, or helping its students climb the socioeconomic ladder. Through its main campus in DeKalb, Illinois, and education centers for students and working professionals in Chicago, Naperville and Rockford, NIU offers more than 100 areas of study while serving a diverse and international student body.