Lyn D Ferguson

Dr Lyn Ferguson is a Clinician Scientist Fellows collaborating with industry partner Optum. Her project will use Artificial Intelligence to better target weight loss medicines to those at greatest risk of obesity-related complications.

When did your Fellowship start and how long will it last?

My fellowship is due to start in October 2025. It will last for five years.

What were you doing prior to your Fellowship.

Working as an NHS Consultant in Metabolic Medicine.

Why did you choose this Fellowship Programme?

I chose the Medicines Development Clinician Scientist Fellowship as it provides a unique and exciting opportunity to collaborate with an industry partner to develop novel prediction tools for disease outcomes and treatment response.

What is the aim of your research?

The aim of this project is to use novel artificial intelligence (AI) solutions on real health data to better target weight loss medicines to those at greatest risk of obesity-related complications. I aim to produce a digital decision aid that will help healthcare professionals screen electronic health records to identify individuals predicted to be at greatest risk of obesity related health conditions and who are most likely to benefit from weight loss medicines.

What inspired you to look at this field?

In my daily clinical practice, I see the impact living with obesity has on individuals often with complex multiple health conditions. Despite being a common upstream driver of many health conditions, obesity is often poorly managed compared to downstream end-organ disease effects. With the advent of highly effective weight loss medicines, it is important we are better able to target these medicines to those at the greatest risk of obesity related health conditions and who are predicted to benefit most. With my interest in data science analysing real world health data to answer clinical questions, and the advent of novel AI approaches, this provided the inspiration of applying AI to help optimise the use of weight loss therapies in the NHS.

Which industry partner are you working with and how will they support you in achieving your goals? What will your partner gain from working with you?

I am collaborating with Optum, which is part of UnitedHealth Group. They are a clinically led organisation that use advanced analytics, digital products, and advisory services to help make health and care systems work better for everyone. They will provide access to and training and expertise in their digital products that will be adapted to help create a new decision support tool for obesity management.

Why did you choose University of Glasgow as your HEI partner?

The University of Glasgow has world leading clinical expertise in the fields of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, epidemiology, and machine learning. It also collaborates closely with NHS Greater and Clyde to develop and maintain the West of Scotland Safe Haven, a unique real world Scottish health dataset. Together with DataLoch, these datasets provide well phenotyped real world health data accessed through secure trusted research environments. In Glasgow, this environment is undergoing significant development to enable AI and machine learning research on large datasets. In addition to the unique skill mix and datasets available, the University of Glasgow provides the supportive academic environment needed to develop my fellowship, building on the support provided during my PhD and Clinical Lectureship at the University of Glasgow.

What do you plan to do when you have completed your Fellowship?

When I complete my fellowship, I intend to continue as a clinical academic, progressing in my university appointment, growing my research team, and applying for further funding. Through continuing my clinical work as an honorary consultant in the NHS, I will apply my research using data science approaches to better manage the care of people living with obesity and related health conditions.