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For five days in February, third-year student Talia Lilikakis was among several students who traveled to Puerto Rico with Assistant Professor of Psychology and Counseling Robert Alexander, Ph.D., for the . There, Lilikakis earned an award for Best Student Oral Scientific Presentation.

During the conference鈥檚 third day, Lilikakis, an undergraduate student in the life sciences/ osteopathic medicine (B.S./D.O.) program, presented her research, 鈥淣odules on CT: Factors Leading to Detection Errors,鈥� based on her work with Alexander and radiologists. Her presentation centered on the reasons why radiologists miss pulmonary nodules on CT scans. The study aims to raise awareness of those reasons to help prevent future errors through methods such as a systematic approach and review of challenging areas in an image.

鈥淚 felt like a part of the scientific community and proud to know that real clinicians were listening to my work and valued what I had to say,鈥� she says. 鈥淢y work might help radiologists become aware of potential challenges and help them adopt strategies that could improve their accuracy.鈥�

Working in the Lab

When she wasn鈥檛 prepping for her presentation, Lilikakis worked with her peers from Alexander鈥檚 (HFAN) research lab, Audrie Saad, Jana Radwan, and Ayesha Mulla, conducting hands-on data collection as part of a National Institutes of Health grant Alexander received in 2025. The four-year award supports eye movement research that examines how radiologists interact with data from artificial intelligence (AI) tools and addresses a leading cause of medical error鈥攎issed detections in radiology. At the Puerto Rico conference, the group of students set up an eye tracker and recruited participants to collect data on site.

Lilikakis is an HFAN lab research coordinator on the New York City campus, managing scheduling and communication of HFAN lab participants and student research assistants, as well as mentoring two fellow pre-medical students. These responsibilities are in addition to several ongoing lab research projects, but she handles them all with passion and enthusiasm.

鈥淚 expect that Talia will have her name on more than four papers over the next few years,鈥� Alexander says. 鈥淪he has been extremely productive, and I鈥檓 very proud of her for the work she鈥檚 been doing.鈥�

Now, Lilikakis is part of an HFAN lab experiment investigating whether providing cues before a chest X-ray image can assist in diagnosing pulmonary nodules. Using some information from the students鈥� eye-tracking data collection during the Puerto Rico conference, this experiment鈥檚 results can help radiologists understand how to best use AI as a preliminary screening tool before reading images. If AI鈥檚 cues improve radiologists鈥� diagnostic accuracy, then AI can serve as an effective first-screening tool to guide radiologists on where to find abnormalities in an image.

Lilikakis is also contributing to several literature reviews in the lab, including one examining relationships between fixational eye movements in patients with ADHD and another on Parkinson鈥檚 disease and fixational eye movements.

While she helps draft the manuscript for the Parkinson鈥檚 review paper, Lilikakis 鈥渆ffectively 鈥榦wns鈥� the ADHD project,鈥� Alexander explains. 鈥淪he has the authority to make decisions about our day-to-day activities related to this ADHD paper and is guiding the other students in conducting the work.鈥�

As her third undergraduate year wraps up before shifting to study at the College of Osteopathic Medicine, Lilikakis is excited to begin her medical studies in the fall. She plans to pursue either neurology or radiology when she enters residency training, but she is keeping an open mind should another specialty pique her interest.  

鈥淢y time at the conference in Puerto Rico is one of my most memorable experiences ever, and I look forward to indulging in my passion for medicine both academically and professionally,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 look forward to starting medical school and gaining new experiences.鈥�