<p>Dr. Mehmet Enes Arıcı is a resident physician in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Şişli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey. His clinical and academic interests center on the integration of artificial intelligence into otolaryngology — from preoperative decision support to surgical planning and patient-facing digital tools.</p> <p>He graduated from Koç University School of Medicine in 2022, having entered the program as the top-ranked student in Turkey's national university entrance examination among more than two million candidates. During medical school, he completed a minor in Economics, an interest he has carried into his thinking about health systems, resource allocation, and the cost-effectiveness of new technologies in clinical practice. He also pursued research electives in molecular biology abroad, including rotations at Harvard Medical School / Brigham and Women's Hospital and at Columbia University Medical Center, which gave him early exposure to translational research environments and shaped his interest in bridging laboratory science with clinical practice. His earlier academic background includes national and international recognition in biology and science project olympiads, including a gold medal at the National Biology Project Olympiad and bronze medals at international olympiads in Amsterdam and Istanbul.</p> <p>Following graduation, he worked as an emergency physician at Beykoz State Hospital from 2022 to 2024, where he managed a high volume of acute presentations and developed an interest in rapid clinical decision-making under uncertainty — a theme that continues to shape his current research. In 2024, he began his residency in otolaryngology, where he has focused on head and neck oncology and the role of emerging technologies in multidisciplinary care.</p> <p>His current research portfolio centers on the application of large language models in clinical decision-making, with an ongoing project comparing GPT-4o, Claude, and Gemini against multidisciplinary tumor board decisions in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Beyond academic work, he is an active developer and has published two otolaryngology-focused applications on the App Store: TinniCare, a notched sound therapy application for patients with chronic tinnitus, and ENTwise, a question bank designed for otolaryngology trainees preparing for board examinations. He sees software development not as separate from clinical work but as a natural extension of it — a way to turn observations from the clinic into tools that can scale.</p> <p>Outside the hospital, he is an avid recreational athlete with a long-standing interest in team sports, having played soccer, basketball, and volleyball, and more recently picked up badminton and pickleball. He maintains a regular gym routine and considers physical training central to managing the demands of residency. He also enjoys travel, reading on quantum physics and international relations, and writing.</p> <p>He is grateful for the opportunity to present his work at IFOS Istanbul 2026 and looks forward to engaging with the international ENT community.</p>