Ricky R Savjani

Ricky R Savjani is an Assistant Professor-in-residence in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), David Geffen School of Medicine. He clinically treats patients with Head & Neck cancers, as well as Brain and Spine metastases. He leads a research laboratory focused on advanced imaging, clinical informatics, and artificial intelligence applications in radiation oncology.

Dr. Savjani's research interests span radiation oncology, medical imaging, and artificial intelligence in healthcare. His work focuses on translating neuroimaging advances to capture cancer tissue properties and guide radiotherapy. He has developed innovative frameworks for sharing radiation dose distribution maps in electronic medical records (Push2PACS project published in Radiology: Imaging Cancer) and works with industry partners including Varian and NVIDIA. His research integrates machine learning models into clinical radiation oncology practice, with emphasis on image registration, motion management, and tumor segmentation.

His recent publications demonstrate strong trends in applying AI and advanced imaging techniques to radiation oncology challenges, particularly in head and neck cancer, brain metastases, and motion management. The research spans from clinical implementation of novel imaging techniques like 5DCT to developing machine learning models for treatment prediction and optimization. His work bridges the gap between advanced computational techniques and practical clinical applications in radiation therapy.

• ASTRO-Varian Research Training Fellowship (2020-2021)
• Trainee Editorial Board of Radiology: Imaging Cancer

Dr. Savjani mentors a diverse research team including postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, medical students, and research staff. His lab has developed computational infrastructure with multiple GPU servers (totaling 14 GPUs, 256 CPU cores, 3086 GB RAM, 376 TB storage) to support AI research in radiation oncology. Current projects include functional MRI neuroscience, resting-state fMRI, radiation therapy dose distribution sharing (Push RT 2 PACS), and saccadotopy functional mapping.