Gopika SenthilKumar was a student in the MD-PhD program at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. She completed her Bachelors of Science in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin Madison. At the ANaiLab, she spearheaded numerous projects that assess the utility of Automated Machine Learning tools for surgical risk prediction. Given the easy-to-use, scalable, and adaptable nature of these tools, her projects are aimed at lowering the barrier to implementing machine learning algorithms within healthcare. She has presented and published her work widely, and won the Association for Academic Surgery Outstanding Medical Student Presentation Award at the Academic Surgical Congress 2023 conference. 

Gopika has a PhD in cardiovascular physiology, and her work utilized discarded surgical samples to discern mechanisms contributing to human microvascular dysfunction. As a surgeon-scientist, she hopes to combine her translational research and bioinformatics skills to develop strategies that decrease cardiovascular disease burden and morbidity, including its effects on surgical care. At the ANaiLab, she has begun to work towards this goal by studying the impact of preoperative COVID-19 on postoperative cardiovascular outcomes in various patient populations. 

Gopika is passionate about promoting and encouraging trainees - especially those interested in physician scientist and surgical careers. She currently serves as the Chair for Association of Women Surgeons National Medical Student Committee 24’-25’, and served as the Vice Chair and Mentorship Coordinator for the committee for the past three years. She is also working with the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons and Association of Academic Surgeons to develop national mentoring events for medical students interested in surgery.