Dr Robert Free

My research focuses on producing advanced algorithmic and Artificial Intelligence-based tools which can be trusted to support patients and clinicians make decisions. As well as developing underpinning models, my group also produces general downstream methodologies for evaluation, monitoring and implementation of tools, ensuring that they can be safely and responsibly deployed into clinical practice.

My group uses a range of pragmatic approaches to achieve these goals, including statistical and AI modelling, software engineering and systems-based approaches (such as agent-based modelling and discrete event simulation) to develop tools and evaluate their utility and actionability in clinical pathways prior to implementation.

Current research projects include:

• building self-learning health-based digital twins for A&E patients admitted to hospital with a respiratory problem such as pneumonia, asthma or other lung disease
• developing methodologies for effective evaluation of dynamic clinically-focussed AI models
• responsible packaging approaches for secure AI-based clinical decision support tool implementation incorporating data validation and monitoring
• generic approaches for embedding logical and AI/ML models into data-driven workflows to provide trusted/interpretable clinical decision support to healthcare workers

Injety R. J. et al (2026) Ethnicity-Stratified Normative Retinal Vascular Features from the UK Biobank Using Deep Learning. doi:10.1016/j.xops.2026.101221

Gao, R. et al. (2025) A Clinical Data Based Framework for Outcome Forecasting in Patients With Pneumonia, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics. doi: 10.1109/JBHI.2025.3628188

Free, R.C. et al. (2023) A data-driven framework for clinical decision support applied to pneumonia management, Frontiers in Digital Health, 5. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2023.1237146.

Jong, V. M. T. de, Rousset, R. Z., Antonio-Villa, N. E., Buenen, A. G., Calster, B. V., Bello-Chavolla, O. Y., Brunskill, N. J., Curcin, V., Damen, J. A. A., Fermín-Martínez, C. A., Fernández-Chirino, L., Ferrari, D., Free, R. C., Gupta, R. K., Haldar, P., Hedberg, P., Korang, S. K., Kurstjens, S., Kusters, R., Major, R. W., Maxwell, L., Nair, R., Naucler, P., Nguyen, T.-L., Noursadeghi, M., Rosa, R., Soares, F., Takada, T., Royen, F. S. van, Smeden, M. van, Wynants, L., Modrák, M., Collaboration,  the C., Asselbergs, F. W., Linschoten, M., Consortium, C.-C., Moons, K. G. M. & Debray, T. P. A. Clinical prediction models for mortality in patients with covid-19: external validation and individual participant data meta-analysis. BMJ 378, e069881 (2022).

Free, R. C., Richardson, M., Pillay, C., Hawkes, K., Skeemer, J., Broughton, R., Haldar, P. & Woltmann, G. Specialist pneumonia intervention nurse service improves pneumonia care and outcome. BMJ Open Respiratory Research 8, e000863 (2021).

Free, R. C. & Ali, A. Headfake: a Python-based tool for generating fake data. (2021) doi:10.5281/ZENODO.4890383.

Zhao, B., Bryant, L., Cordell, R., Wilde, M., Salman, D., Ruszkiewicz, D., Ibrahim, W., Singapuri, A., Coats, T., Gaillard, E., Beardsmore, C., Suzuki, T., Ng, L., Greening, N., Thomas, P., Monks, P., Brightling, C., Siddiqui, S. & Free, R. C. LabPipe: an extensible bioinformatics toolkit to manage experimental data and metadata. BMC Bioinformatics 21, (2020).

Wilde, M. J., Zhao, B., Cordell, R. L., Ibrahim, W., Singapuri, A., Greening, N. J., Brightling, C. E., Siddiqui, S., Monks, P. S. & Free, R. C. Automating and extending comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography data processing by interfacing open-source and commercial software. Analytical Chemistry 92, 13953–13960 (2020).

Free, R. C. Simpler handling of clinical concepts in R with clinconcept. arXiv:2002.11431 [cs, stat] (2020).

John, C., Reeve, N. F, Free, R. C., Williams, A. T., Ntalla, I., Farmaki, A.-E., Bethea, J., Barton, L. M., Shrine, N., Batini, C., Packer, R., Terry, S., Hargadon, B., Wang, Q., Melbourne, C. A., Adams, E. L., Bee, C. E., Harrington, K., Miola, J., Brunskill, N. J., Brightling, C. E., Barwell, J., Wallace, S. E., Hsu, R., Shepherd, D. J., Hollox, E. J., Wain, L. V., Tobin, M. D. Cohort Profile: Extended Cohort for E-Health, Environment and DNA (EXCEED). Int J Epidemiol 48, 678–679j (2019)

Beck, T., Hastings, R. K., Gollapudi, S., Free, R. C. & Brookes, A. J. GWAS Central: a comprehensive resource for the comparison and interrogation of genome-wide association studies. Eur J Hum Genet 22, 949–952 (2014).

Haldar, P., Thuraisingam, H., Patel, H., Pereira, N., Free, R. C., Entwisle, J., Wiselka, M., Hoskyns,E. W., Monk, P., Barer, M. R. & Woltmann, G. Single-step QuantiFERON screening of adult contacts: A prospective cohort study of tuberculosis risk. Thorax 68, 240–246 (2013).

Beck, T., Free, R. C., Thorisson, G. A. & Brookes, A. J. Semantically enabling a genome-wide association study database. Journal of Biomedical Semantics 3, 9 (2012).

I currently supervise several interdisciplinary PhD students across multiple research areas of interest.

Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in research or development projects in these areas:

• Innovative data-driven AI health data tools, including adaptive models and digital twins
• Technical methodologies for safe and responsible evaluation and deployment of AI models

• https://www.ukri.org/news/13-million-for-22-ai-for-health-research-projects/

• https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-software-blocks-incorporate-artificial-intelligence.html

• Director of Informatics for National Institute for Health and Social care research Leicester Biomedical Research Centre (https://leicesterbrc.nihr.ac.uk)
• Board member of Leicester Institute for Precision Health (https://le.ac.uk/research/institutes/precision-health)
• Associate Director of Health Data Research UK Midlands (https://www.hdrmidlands.org.uk/)