Meet the Team

John Del Gaizo, Ph.D., Lead AI Researcher, has years of industrial experience and extensive knowledge of the MUSC data infrastructure and IT capabilities, creating a unique opportunity to support and lead data science efforts in the center.

Brett Welch, MBA, MHA is the program manager for the Harvey and Marcia Schiller Surgical Innovation Center, managing more than 50 projects and facilitating the research from start to finish, including the QI process. Mr. Welch is a data scientist with experience in managing healthcare projects, operational management, and analytics.

Ruoyu (Michael) Zhang, MS is a biostatistician in the clinical outcomes research group at the Medical University of South Carolina. He earned his Master's degree in Healthcare Analytics from Carnegie Mellon University, where he developed an interest in applying AI and ML to the healthcare sector. At the Surgical Innovation Center, Ruoyu leads various projects focusing on natural language processing, large language models, and ETL pipeline design to improve health

Andrew Wright is a Ph.D. student in the Clemson-MUSC joint Biomedical Data Science and Informatics program. He obtained a B.S. in Mathematics from Anderson University in Anderson, SC, and a M.S. in Mathematical Sciences from the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC. He began working at MUSC in 2021 in Information Solutions where he has gained valuable experience dealing with healthcare data. With a background in applied mathematics, as well as experience in healthcare technology, he is currently researching applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the surgical and transplant domains.