Candidate for 2026 Resident-Fellow Member Trustee-Elect (RFMTE)
Biography
Karthik V. Sarma M.D., Ph.D., is a third-year psychiatry resident at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He has been a committed trainee advocate and leader for over a decade and has worked to ensure that the voices and values of students, residents and fellows are heard by the organizations that are building the healthcare system of tomorrow. In this work, he has championed access to affordable, high-quality healthcare for all, science-based policymaking, investments in fighting discrimination and disparities in health, and fair compensation and workplace protections for residents and fellows.
Currently, as the resident-fellow sectional delegate in the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association (AMA) for the APA, his policy priorities include protecting Medicaid, stopping Federal policy changes that would deprive people of access to affordable health insurance and care, and opposing anti-science efforts (such as cutting NIH funding, removing qualified members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and spreading health misinformation) through public advocacy. He previously served as the medical student member of the AMA Board of Trustees from 2017-2019, where he is most proud of his work to defend the Affordable Care Act, establish the AMA’s first comprehensive internal anti-harassment and anti-discrimination programs, and create the AMA’s Center for Health Equity.
In addition to his work at the AMA, Dr. Sarma also serves as the Resident-Fellow Member (RFM) Deputy Representative to the APA Assembly for Area 6, is a second-year APA Foundation Leadership Fellow, and is an active participant in the APA Resident-Fellow Member Caucus. At the state and local levels, he serves in the leadership of the Northern California Psychiatric Society, the California Medical Association, and the SEIU Committee of Interns and Residents PAC, where he focuses on legislative advocacy.
A computer scientist by training, Dr. Sarma’s research focuses on the intersection between artificial intelligence technology and behavioral health. His research focus on how AI tools, such as ambient digital scribes, can reduce provider burnout and improve patient care, how digital tools might enable new forms of measurement-based care, and how patient interactions with generative AI-based chatbots (such as ChatGPT) impact their mental health. He is also co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of SimX, Inc., a virtual reality medical education company. He lives in San Francisco, CA, and will be starting at the UCSF Clinical Informatics Fellowship (fast-track) in 2026.
Education
- B.S. Computer Science (Hons), California Institute of Technology, 2011
- M.S. Bioengineering, University of California Los Angeles, 2016
- Ph.D. Bioengineering, Medical and Imaging Informatics Track, University of California Los Angeles, 2021
- M.D., David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 2023
- GME Certificate, Clinical Informatics and Data Science, University of California San Francisco, 2024
- Residency (Psychiatry), University of California San Francisco, 2023 – 2027 (expected)
- Fellowship (Clinical Informatics), University of California San Francisco, 2026-2028 (expected)
Awards and Honors
- 2025: Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA)
- 2025: NIMH Outstanding Resident Award (ORAP)
- 2025: APA Research Colloquium
- 2025: Travel Award, ACNP
- 2024-2026: APA/APAF Leadership Fellowship
- 2024: Travel Award, ACNP
- 2024: Winner, Medical Student/Resident Poster Competition, APA Annual Meeting
- 2023: Louis Jolyon West Award for Excellence in Psychiatry, UCLA
- 2022: Best Paper, ITEC
- 2020: RSNA Student Research Award in Medical Informatics
- 2016-2022: NIH NCI F30 Predoctoral Fellowship
- 2016: RSNA Student Research Award in Medical Informatics
- 2011: Bhansali Prize in Computer Science, Caltech
- 2011: Robert L. Noland Leadership Award, Caltech
- 2010: Dean’s Cup, Caltech