CHICAGO — The American Medical Association (AMA), the nation's largest physician organization, today announced the election of Karthik V. Sarma, M.S., to its Board of Trustees.

Sarma is a dual degree candidate in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where he is pursuing doctoral degrees in medicine and bioengineering.

“I am deeply honored be elected to the Board of Trustees of the AMA, which has tirelessly worked to improve the health of the nation for over 170 years,” said Sarma. “The practice of medicine is in the midst of great change, and as the youngest member of the Board, I look forward to bringing my experience and perspective on innovation to our discussions. I will support the AMA’s critical efforts to ensure that the continual changes in health policy, technology, and the practice of medicine all lead to our common goal of improving the lives of our patients.”

Sarma’s primary research focus is the development of novel artificial intelligence techniques for medical applications. He is also involved in work in a variety of other areas, including natural language processing for health care, real-time social media phenotyping, and electronic health record usability. He is the recipient of an F30 fellowship from the National Cancer Institute and several other awards and recognitions, including a Trainee Research Award from the Radiological Society of North America, and an AMA Foundation Seed Grant, and has authored over a dozen peer-reviewed publications.

Sarma previously served a one-year term on the AMA Council on Medical Service, where he helped produce reports on a variety of issues from value-based pharmaceutical pricing to the regulation of mobile medical apps. He also founded and served as the first chair of the AMA Medical Student Section's Health Information Technology Task Force.

He is also a member of the California Medical Association (CMA), where he served as a member of the CMA Board of Trustees and is currently the vice chair of CMA's Subcommittee on Health Information Technology.

Sarma is co-founder and chief technology officer of SimX, Inc., which has developed the first professional grade virtual and augmented reality platform for medical simulation training. Born and raised in Chicago, Ill., he is an alumnus of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and received his Bachelor of Science with Honors in Computer Science from the California Institute of Technology.