Two of Adelaide University’s brightest researchers will head to the US after being awarded 2026 Fulbright Scholarships.
Dr Brandon Stretton, School of Medicine, was named the South Australia Scholar and will head to New York University (NYU) Langone Health to explore how advanced AI can deliver high fidelity clinical education, personalised feedback and decision support.
Dr Stretton said his scholarship belongs to the whole community, including his family, colleagues and partner.
“This honestly means the world to me,” he said.
“At a practical level, this scholarship will let me spend dedicated time working with Professor Jessie Burk-Rafel and his amazing team at NYU.
“They are recognised leaders in building, evaluating and scaling teaching innovations across the continuum of medical training.
“I will learn how to design, validate and implement advanced educational tools that genuinely change clinician performance.
“Most importantly, it will allow me to bring those learnings back to Australia with a clear goal to strengthen how we train clinicians and improve access to high quality learning experiences across diverse settings.”
Dr Stretton said AI powered case learning could create interactive scenarios on demand, adjust difficulty based on each learner and keep content in line with current guidelines.
“I am passionate about it because I have lived the reality of how much training quality can depend on where you are, who you are rostered with, what cases happen to come through the door, and whether someone has time to teach you that day,” said Dr Stretton.
“Some people get incredible teaching and feedback. Others are just trying to survive the shift. That variability is not anyone’s fault, but it is real, and it matters.
“Personalised feedback is the bit I am most excited about. Good feedback is one of the rarest resources in clinical training as it is often delayed, generic, or inconsistent.
“With the right guardrails, AI can provide immediate, specific feedback on clinical reasoning and decisions, and help learners identify what to focus on next.”
Dr Natansh Deepak Modi, School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, was named the national Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar (Australia). He will undertake his scholarship at Yale University, working with Professor Joseph Ross, a global leader in clinical trial transparency and data sharing.
“The Fulbright scholarship is an invitation to keep learning with intent, which is why it feels like both an honour and a responsibility,” said Dr Modi.
“It acknowledges my past work, but more importantly it gives me the chance to ask bigger questions about how knowledge is made, who it serves and what we owe to the people whose lives make research possible.
“Research holds infinite problems and infinite solutions at once and this scholarship gives me the time, mentorship and accountability to follow the solutions that matter.”
Dr Modi said the scholarship will allow him to work at the intersection of research and the systems that make research usable.
“We often talk about breakthroughs as if they arrive fully formed, but most depend on the frameworks underneath, including access to data, shared expectations around transparency and whether evidence can be trusted,” he said.
“The Fulbright will allow me to study how those frameworks operate in a setting where data sharing is established and working at scale. The goal is to reduce waste.
“Clinical trials are expensive, time-consuming and built on the generosity of participants, yet too often the data yields only a fraction of what it could.
“If we can responsibly combine de-identified participant-level trial data, we can answer questions that single trials cannot, including how outcomes and toxicities shift with age and do so in a transparent and reproducible way.
“In that sense, equity is about strengthening the evidence so clinical judgement is supported by data that fits the patients being treated.”
Facilitated by the US government’s Fulbright Scholar program, the scholarships foster closer bonds between United States researchers and those from universities in other countries around the world.
“I congratulate Dr Stretton and Dr Modi on being awarded prestigious Fulbright scholarships,” said Adelaide University Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Nicola Phillips.
“I wish them the greatest success as they pursue further research and study which will not only assist them to excel in their chosen fields, but to return to Australia with valuable knowledge, networks and experience that may will afford even greater positive impact in the future.”