Dr. Darren Liu Awarded Dr. Kathy Yip Award in Nuclear Medicine
University of Toronto (U of T) Temerty Faculty of Medicine prioritizes the recognition of its faculty, residents, and fellows, through numerous awards, including the Dr. Kathy Yip Award in Nuclear Medicine. This year, Medical Imaging’s Nuclear Medicine resident Dr. Darren Liu has been awarded this important award.
After completing his five-year diagnostic radiology residency, Dr. Liu entered the Nuclear Medicine program in July 2023 and has been making waves ever since – as well as promoting advancements in the field. The Dr. Kathy Yip Award in Nuclear Medicine supports a PGY6 nuclear medicine trainee who has demonstrated excellence or leadership in nuclear medicine through research, clinical service, seminars, mentorship, or contribution to the promotion/enhancement of the nuclear medicine field. Dr. Liu checks many of those boxes.
“Being a part of a growing field like nuclear medicine is very exciting,” Dr. Liu says, referring to the innovative research project he’s currently working on in his residency. The project revolves around training artificial intelligence (AI) for classification of myocardial perfusion tests, a nuclear stress test that illustrates the functionality of a patient’s heart muscle.
“This is really helpful when working with patients who have chest pain or just had a heart attack,” he explains. “With this algorithm, AI will be able to classify patients as at risk or normal/low risk for heart-related medical events.”
On top of this cutting-edge research, Dr. Liu has been a vocal advocate for the Nuclear Medicine program, mentoring other trainees in the program on the field’s merits and how to pursue education and career outcomes in nuclear medicine.
“With treatments and medicine as a whole becoming more personalized in the future, nuclear medicine and molecular imaging will play an increasingly important role” he says. “Ontario is still catching up to the advancements in the field, but the future of medicine is in more targeted therapies and more targeted therapies require similar advancements beyond anatomic imaging.”
Speaking about the award, Dr. Liu said he felt very honoured and excited. “It’s very encouraging as someone new in the program and feels like an extremely warm welcome. I’m very excited to continue contributing to the program, research, and the nuclear medicine field.”
Congratulations on your well-deserved award, Dr. Liu!
