Dr Joseph E. Alderman BMedSc (Hons) MBChB FRCA

Dr Joseph Alderman

Department of Inflammation and Ageing
AI and Digital Health Clinical Research Fellow

Contact details

Email
j.e.alderman@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@jaldmn
Address
Department of Inflammation and Ageing
College of Medicine and Health
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
STANDING Together: STANdards for Data Diversity, Inclusivity and Generalisability

Dr Joseph Alderman is a postgraduate doctor specialising in anaesthesia & intensive care medicine at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, and a clinical researcher in AI and digital health at the University of Birmingham.

He is interested in how machine learning and artificial intelligence can be safely applied to health and social care, enhancing treatment quality and patient experience whilst ensuring robust quality assessment to protect people from harm.

His doctoral research focuses on how data driven technologies – including artificial intelligence algorithms – can introduce biases and inequity into healthcare, and how this can be mitigated. He is co-lead for the STANDING Together project with Dr Jo Palmer, Dr Xiaoxuan Liu, and Professor Alastair Denniston. Through collaboration with an international team of stakeholders and consultation with members of the public, STANDING Together aims to set standards to encourage health data to better reflect society, meaning that AI algorithms are more likely to work well for everyone.

Google Scholar Profile

Qualifications

  • FRCA - Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, 2022
  • PGCert in Clinical Research Methodology (with distinction), University of Birmingham, 2022
  • MBChB, University of Birmingham, 2015
  • BMedSc (Hons), University of Birmingham, 2014

Biography

Dr Alderman studied medicine at the University of Birmingham between 2009 and 2015. In 2014 he graduated with an intercalated BMedSc degree, and graduated again in 2015 in medicine & surgery.

His intercalated BMedSc degree involved an extended period of laboratory research studying the pathophysiology of measles, and other similar viruses. He used this experience as a springboard to secure a place on the West Midlands academic foundation programme, undertaking several speciality rotations at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

In 2017 Dr Alderman started postgraduate speciality training in anaesthesia (ACCS CT1) at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, and in the same year was appointed as an NIHR academic clinical fellow in intensive care medicine at the University of Birmingham. During this fellowship Dr Alderman secured funding from the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia to run a laboratory study aiming to better understand why people who are critically ill develop high blood ‘lactate’ levels, and what impact this may have on their immune and metabolic systems.

He was appointed as a speciality registrar in intensive care medicine in 2020, and additionally as a speciality registrar in anaesthesia in 2021. In 2022 he was admitted to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (FRCA).

In February 2022 Dr Alderman joined the AI and digital health research team at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, and began studying towards a PhD. He is interested in how machine learning and artificial intelligence can be safely applied to health and social care, enhancing treatment quality and patient experience whilst ensuring robust quality assessment to protect people from harm.

His doctoral research focuses on how data driven technologies – including artificial intelligence algorithms – can introduce biases and inequity into healthcare, and how this can be mitigated. He will focus on the perioperative care pathway, which includes patients who are admitted for surgery, and their subsequent recovery. He will research how risk prediction scoring systems are used by medical professionals, and assess how these affect patients’ recovery and other outcomes.

He is supervised locally by Dr Xiaoxuan Liu, Professor Alastair Denniston and Dr Dhruv Parekh, all from the University of Birmingham, and by Professor Charlotte Summers from the University of Cambridge.

Teaching

Research

Research interests

Dr Alderman’s main research interest is in the intersection between artificial intelligence / machine learning and healthcare, particularly focussing on how best to maintain quality and safety when these technologies are used in time-critical clinical situations.

He is also interested in the consequences of elevated circulating lactate in critically ill patients, and is collaborating with other researchers to investigate this area.

Publications

Alderman JE, Palmer J, Laws E et al. Tackling algorithmic bias and promoting transparency in health datasets: the STANDING Together consensus recommendations. The Lancet Digital Health. 2024: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(24)00224-3

Alderman JE, Palmer J, Laws E et al. Tackling algorithmic bias and promoting transparency in health datasets: the STANDING Together consensus recommendations. NEJM-AI. 2024.

Gath J, Leung C, Adebajo A, Beng J, Arora A, Alderman JE et al. Exploring patient and public participation in the STANDING Together initiative for AI in healthcare. Nature Medicine. 2024. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03200-6

Laws E, Palmer J, Alderman JE et al. Diversity, inclusivity and traceability of mammography datasets used in development of Artificial Intelligence technologies: a systematic review. Clinical Imaging. 2024; 118: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinimag.2024.110369

Alderman JE, Charalambides M, Sachdeva G et al. Revealing transparency gaps in publicly available Covid-19 datasets used for medical artificial intelligence development – a systematic review. The Lancet Digital Health. 2024; 6(11): E827-847. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(24)00146-8

Liu X, Alderman JE, Laws E. A Global Health Data Divide. NEJM AI. 2024; 1(6). https://ai.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/AIe2400388

Arora, A., Alderman, J.E., Palmer, J. et al. The value of standards for health datasets in artificial intelligence-based applications. Nature Medicine. 2003; 29: 2929–2938. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02608-w

Chotalia M, Ali M, Alderman JE, et al. Cardiovascular Subphenotypes in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Critical Care Medicine. 2023; 51(4) 460-470.

Ganapathi S, Palmer J, Alderman JE et al. Tackling bias in AI health datasets through the STANDING Together initiative. Nature medicine. 2022; 28 (11).

Alderman JE, Sharma A, Patel J, Gao-Smith F, Morgese C. Intrathecal diamorphine for perioperative analgesia during colorectal surgery: a cross-sectional survey of current UK practice. BMJ open. 2022; 12(8)

Bion J, Alderman JE. Peer review of quality of care: methods and metrics. BMJ Quality & Safety. Published Online First: 21 July 2022. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2022-014985

Stanley B, Burton T, Percival H, et al. Skill decay following Basic Life Support training: a systematic review protocol. BMJ Open 2021;11:e051959. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051959

Chotalia M, Ali M, Alderman JE et al. Right Ventricular Dysfunction and Its Association With Mortality in Coronavirus Disease 2019 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Critical Care Medicine. 2021; 49(10): 1757-1768

Alderman JE. Surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet. 2020;396(10261):e76.

Mahida RY, Chotalia M, Alderman JE et al. Characterisation and outcomes of ARDS secondary to pneumonia in patients with and without SARS-CoV-2: a single-centre experience. BMJ Open Respiratory Research. 2020 Nov;7(1).

Bangash MN, Owen A, Alderman JE et al. COVID-19 recovery: potential treatments for post-intensive care syndrome. Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 2020 Nov;8(11):1071–3.

Johnston A, Alderman JE. Thoracic Injury in Patients Injured by Explosions on the Battlefield and in Terrorist Incidents. Chest. 2019; 157(4): 888-897

Kelly JT, Human S, Alderman JE et al. BST2/Tetherin Overexpression Modulates Morbillivirus Glycoprotein Production to Inhibit Cell–Cell Fusion. Viruses. 2019; 11(8): 692

Alderman JE, Owen A. How fast is too fast? Chest compression rate revisited from a new perspective. Resuscitation. 2017; 100: A1-A2