CADDI Lab
Clinical Automation & Data Driven Insights
Who We Are
About the CADDI Lab
The Clinical Automation & Data Driven Insights (CADDI) Lab at UCSF leverages clinical data, automation, and machine learning to improve patient care, clinical workflows, and operational efficiency in radiation oncology. We sit at the intersection of clinical practice and cutting-edge computational research.
Bridging Disciplines
We unite clinical practice, data science, and software engineering, translating research directly into deployed clinical tools.
Our Approach
We follow an iterative, clinician-in-the-loop development process, moving from raw clinical data to validated models to deployed tools that live inside real workflows.
Research Portfolio
Four Core Research Themes
The CADDI Lab organizes its research around four interconnected themes, each combining rigorous investigation, clinical deployment, and measurable impact. Together, they form a cohesive vision for the future of radiation oncology.
AI for Quality Assurance
Machine learning models stratify plan complexity and predict patient-specific QA outcomes, enabling smarter and more efficient quality assurance in radiation therapy, and reducing reliance on time-intensive physical measurements.
Predictive Models
Identify high-risk treatment plans before delivery
IQA Platform
Intelligent QA platform serves as clinical decision support system
Clinical Validation
Prospective studies confirming clinical accuracy
Reduce Unnecessary QA
Focus resources on the cases that truly need attention, not routine checks.
Improve Patient Safety
Catch high-risk plans proactively before they reach the treatment room.
Visualize Complexity
Compare complexity to thousands of past treatment plans to understand drivers of risk of QA failure.
Clinical Automation & Quality
Our commitment to patient safety and treatment excellence drives our innovations in clinical automation. The CADDI Lab develops tools that streamline workflows, ensure consistency, and enhance the quality of radiation therapy planning and delivery.
SafePlan
Developed by Dr Evan Porter, automated treatment plan verification at multiple workflow hand-off points to identify potential risks and deviations from quality standards before treatment begins.
Scripting Workflows
Custom-built scripts automate routine tasks, reducing manual effort, standardizing processes, and minimizing human error for improved efficiency.
Plan Comparison Tools
Advanced tools visualize and compare dose distributions and organ-at-risk sparing across multiple treatment plans, empowering clinicians to make optimal treatment decisions.
Operational Informatics & Data Insights
Raw clinical data holds untapped potential. The CADDI Lab transforms data from Epic, oncology information systems, and departmental sources into real-time dashboards and actionable intelligence, empowering leadership and clinical teams to make decisions grounded in evidence.
Key Platforms & Projects
Treatment Planning Dashboards
Visual workflow analytics covering planning throughput, bottlenecks, and resource utilization.
Quality & Accreditation Tracking
Automated systems ensuring compliance metrics and department KPIs are captured and reported in real time.
Patient Pipeline
A live whiteboard showing where each patient sits in the treatment workflow, surfacing which tasks are overdue, who is at risk of delay, and where bottlenecks are forming.
Technical Capabilities
SQL-Based Data Pipelines
Robust integration with Epic and oncology information systems for structured data extraction.
Tableau Dashboards
Intuitive, interactive visualizations deployed across the department for clinical and operational use.
Email Alert System
Automated notifications that flag when tasks become available or are completed, keeping the care team informed and accountable without manual follow-up.
Big Data & Research Infrastructure
The CADDI Lab builds scalable, reproducible data ecosystems that bridge the gap between clinical operations and translational research, enabling multi-institution collaboration and large-scale analytics that were previously out of reach.
RADAR Platform
A self-service research data platform empowering investigators to access and analyze structured clinical data independently.
BigROC Consortium
Multi-institutional collaboration enabling pooled dataset analysis across leading radiation oncology centers, with harmonized data models for reproducible findings.
O3 Data Standards
Adoption and development of oncology data models (O3) to standardize data representation across systems, sites, and studies.
Our People
The CADDI Lab Team
Alon Witztum, DPhil
Lab Director
Associate Professor and Director of Reporting & Analytics at UCSF Radiation Oncology. Dr. Witztum leads the lab's research agenda, clinical deployments, and academic partnerships, combining deep clinical expertise with a passion for computational innovation.
Clinical Collaborators
The lab works in close partnership with clinical faculty, medical physicists, and data scientists across UCSF Radiation Oncology, ensuring every tool is informed by frontline clinical experience and operational realities.
Students & Trainees
The CADDI Lab actively mentors UCSF and USF students, physics residents, and research trainees.
Join Us
Open Positions
The CADDI Lab is seeking motivated, technically skilled trainees eager to work on problems that matter — real clinical systems, real data, and real impact. We offer a unique environment where research directly shapes patient care.
Research Intern — Clinical Automation
Join a team building and deploying automation tools in live radiation oncology workflows at UCSF.
  • Strong Python programming skills required
  • Experience with SQL preferred
  • Interest in healthcare systems, error prevention, and clinical informatics
  • Opportunity to contribute to deployed clinical tools and peer-reviewed publications
Research Intern — General
A broader research internship spanning the lab's full portfolio — ideal for those wanting exposure to multiple domains of clinical AI and data science in oncology.
  • Work across AI, automation, and data-driven healthcare
  • Access to real clinical datasets and systems
  • Mentorship from faculty, physicists, and data scientists
  • Open to health informatics, computer science, and physics backgrounds

What makes CADDI different: Interns work on problems deployed in actual clinical environments - not sandbox simulations. Your work will be used by clinicians caring for real patients.
Get Involved
Collaborations & Contact
The CADDI Lab actively seeks partnerships across academia, industry, and clinical institutions. Whether you are a researcher exploring data collaboration, an organization with clinical deployment opportunities, or an institution looking to bring automation tools to your radiation oncology program - we want to hear from you.
Academic Collaborations
Partnerships with UCSF Radiation Oncology, the University of San Francisco Health Informatics Program, and national and international research collaborators including BigROC consortium members.
Industry Partnerships
We welcome engagement with companies seeking to validate, co-develop, or clinically deploy AI and automation tools in radiation oncology settings.
Clinical Deployment
Institutions interested in adapting CADDI Lab tools for their own clinical environments are encouraged to reach out.
📍 CADDI Lab, UCSF Mission Bay
1825 4th Street, San Francisco, CA
Contact the Lab