Kang Wang, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor
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Biography

Dr. Wang earned his PhD in biomedical engineering at Cornell University and his MD at the University of California, San Diego. Following his internship at Kaweah Delta Health District in Visalia, CA, Dr. Wang completed his diagnostic radiology residency at UC San Diego followed by a body MRI diagnostic radiology fellowship at Stanford.

Dr. Wang has received the Resoundant Innovation Research Award from the Society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance, as well as the RSNA Resident Research Award, and the Society of Abdominal Radiology Wylie J. Dodds Research Award. He was the founding member and manager of the ultrasound clinic at UC San Diego Free Clinic, and a founding member of RAD-AID chapter at UC San Diego Health. He has published research on various aspects of quantitative imaging biomarkers for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, including automated CT and MRI liver segmentation and biometry, and hepatic MR elastography, with a long-term interest in developing automated, accurate, and reproducible quantitative imaging biomarkers to diagnose, stage, and monitor chronic liver disease.

Education

Fellowship, 2023 - , Body MRI Fellowship in Diagnostic Radiology. Stanford Unversity, Palo Alto, CA.
Residency, 2022 - , Diagnostic Radiology Residency, University of California, San Diego CA.
Internship, 2017 - , Transitional, Kaweah Delta Health District, Visalia, CA.
M.D., 2016 - , University of California, San Diego
Ph.D., 2011 - Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University
B.S., 2006 - Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley

Honors and Awards

UCSF Chen Scholar, Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, 2025-2027
Summa Cum Laude Merit Award (top 5% of trainee abstracts in ISMRM), International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), 2023
Elliot C. Lasser Award for Excellence in Research, UC San Diego, Department of Radiology, 2022
Robert Mattrey Clinician-Scientist Award, UC San Diego, Department of Radiology, 2022
Wylie J. Dodds Research Award, Society of Abdominal Radiology, 2018-2020
RSNA Resident Research Award, RSNA, 2018-2019
Resoundant Innovation Research Award, Society of Advanced Body Imaging (SABI), 2018
NIH Training Grant from the Clinical and Translation Research Institute, UC San Diego -- provides dedicated research funding for medical students to take advanced coursework and training in clinical research, UC San Diego, School of Medicine, 2015
NIH Summer Research Training Grant for Medical Students, UC San Diego, School of Medicine, 2013
Departmental Research Scholarship from Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, 2007

Publications

Wang K, Middione MJ, Loening AM, Syed AB, Hannum AJ, Wang X, Guidon A, Lan P, Ennis DB, Brunsing RL. Motion-Compensated Multishot Pancreatic Diffusion-Weighted Imaging With Deep Learning-Based Denoising. Invest Radiol. 2025 Jan 20.
Liu J, Zhang Y, Wang K, Yavuz MC, Chen X, Yuan Y, Li H, Yang Y, Yuille A, Tang Y, Zhou Z. Universal and extensible language-vision models for organ segmentation and tumor detection from abdominal computed tomography. Med Image Anal. 2024 Oct; 97:103226.
Zecevic M, Hasenstab KA, Wang K, Dhyani M, Cunha GM. Signal Intensity Trajectories Clustering for Liver Vasculature Segmentation and Labeling (LiVaS) on Contrast-Enhanced MR Images: A Feasibility Pilot Study. J Imaging Inform Med. 2024 Apr; 37(2):873-883.
Wang K, Cunha GM, Hasenstab K, Henderson WC, Middleton MS, Cole SA, Umans JG, Ali T, Hsiao A, Sirlin CB. Deep Learning for Inference of Hepatic Proton Density Fat Fraction From T1-Weighted In-Phase and Opposed-Phase MRI: Retrospective Analysis of Population-Based Trial Data. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2023 11; 221(5):620-631.
Cunha GM, Delgado TI, Middleton MS, Liew S, Henderson WC, Batakis D, Wang K, Loomba R, Huss RS, Myers RP, Sirlin CB, Fowler KJ, Hasenstab KA. Automated CNN-Based Analysis Versus Manual Analysis for MR Elastography in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Intermethod Agreement and Fibrosis Stage Discriminative Performance. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2022 08; 219(2):224-232.
Tadros A, Manning P, Smitaman E, Chong A, Wang K, Tamayo-Murillo D. Starting a Free Ultrasound Clinic for the Underserved: Considerations and Overcoming Challenges. Acad Radiol. 2021 07; 28(7):938-943.
Cunha GM, Hasenstab KA, Higaki A, Wang K, Delgado T, Brunsing RL, Schlein A, Schwartzman A, Hsiao A, Sirlin CB, Fowler KJ. Convolutional neural network-automated hepatobiliary phase adequacy evaluation may optimize examination time. Eur J Radiol. 2020 Mar; 124:108837.
Hasenstab KA, Cunha GM, Higaki A, Ichikawa S, Wang K, Delgado T, Brunsing RL, Schlein A, Bittencourt LK, Schwartzman A, Fowler KJ, Hsiao A, Sirlin CB. Fully automated convolutional neural network-based affine algorithm improves liver registration and lesion co-localization on hepatobiliary phase T1-weighted MR images. Eur Radiol Exp. 2019 10 26; 3(1):43.
Lucas A, Wang K, Santillan C, Hsiao A, Sirlin CB, Murphy PM. Image Annotation by Eye Tracking: Accuracy and Precision of Centerlines of Obstructed Small-Bowel Segments Placed Using Eye Trackers. J Digit Imaging. 2019 10; 32(5):855-864.
Wang K, Mamidipalli A, Retson T, Bahrami N, Hasenstab K, Blansit K, Bass E, Delgado T, Cunha G, Middleton MS, Loomba R, Neuschwander-Tetri BA, Sirlin CB, Hsiao A, members of the NASH Clinical Research Network. Automated CT and MRI Liver Segmentation and Biometry Using a Generalized Convolutional Neural Network. Radiol Artif Intell. 2019 Mar; 1(2).
Zhang YN, Fowler KJ, Ozturk A, Potu CK, Louie AL, Montes V, Henderson WC, Wang K, Andre MP, Samir AE, Sirlin CB. Liver fibrosis imaging: A clinical review of ultrasound and magnetic resonance elastography. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2020 01; 51(1):25-42.
Bahrami N, Retson T, Blansit K, Wang K, Hsiao A. Automated selection of myocardial inversion time with a convolutional neural network: Spatial temporal ensemble myocardium inversion network (STEMI-NET). Magn Reson Med. 2019 05; 81(5):3283-3291.
Wang K, Manning P, Szeverenyi N, Wolfson T, Hamilton G, Middleton MS, Vaida F, Yin M, Glaser K, Ehman RL, Sirlin CB. Repeatability and reproducibility of 2D and 3D hepatic MR elastography with rigid and flexible drivers at end-expiration and end-inspiration in healthy volunteers. Abdom Radiol (NY). 2017 12; 42(12):2843-2854.
Manning PM, Hamilton G, Wang K, Park C, Hooker JC, Wolfson T, Gamst A, Haufe WM, Schlein AN, Middleton MS, Sirlin CB. Agreement between region-of-interest- and parametric map-based hepatic proton density fat fraction estimation in adults with chronic liver disease. Abdom Radiol (NY). 2017 03; 42(3):833-841.
Manning P, Murphy P, Wang K, Hooker J, Wolfson T, Middleton MS, Newton KP, Behling C, Awai HI, Durelle J, Paiz MN, Angeles JE, De La Pena D, McCutchan JA, Schwimmer JB, Sirlin CB. Liver histology and diffusion-weighted MRI in children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A MAGNET study. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2017 10; 46(4):1149-1158.
Wang K, Smith ZM, Buxton RB, Swenson ER, Dubowitz DJ. Acetazolamide during acute hypoxia improves tissue oxygenation in the human brain. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2015 Dec 15; 119(12):1494-500.
Wang K, Fu CY, Khayat R, Doerschuk PC, Johnson JE. In vivo virus structures: simultaneous classification, resolution enhancement, and noise reduction in whole-cell electron tomography. J Struct Biol. 2011 Jun; 174(3):425-33.
Fu CY, Wang K, Gan L, Lanman J, Khayat R, Young MJ, Jensen GJ, Doerschuk PC, Johnson JE. In vivo assembly of an archaeal virus studied with whole-cell electron cryotomography. Structure. 2010 Dec 08; 18(12):1579-86.
Maltz J, C Ng T, Li D, Wang J, Wang K, Bergeron W, Martin R, Budinger T. The Trauma Patient Tracking System: implementing a wireless monitoring infrastructure for emergency response. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2005; 2005:2441-6.