NEJM Announces New AI Journal

Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained recent public prominence with the release of deep-learning models that can generate anything from art to term papers with minimal human intervention. This development has reinvigorated discussion of the existing and potential roles of AI in all aspects of life and medicine stands out as one in which there is tremendous potential along with equally substantial challenges. 

Given the enormous interest to consider some aspect of AI applied to medicine, a new journal, NEJM AI will be launched in 2024, aiming to provide a forum for high-quality evidence and resource sharing for medical AI along with informed discussions of its potential and limitations. As a medical journal, two new publishing challenges for NEJM AI is faced. The first is the breadth of potential AI applications. Second, expertise in the field of AI and machine learning is closely linked to commercial applications. 

Medicine is much different from other areas where AI is being applied. AI enables new discoveries and improved processes in the entire health care continuum; ethical, governance, and regulatory considerations are critical. Because of concerns about both utility and safety, a level of rigor in testing similar to that used in other areas of medicine will be required. However, this can also present challenges, such as the “dataset shift” that can result when there is a mismatch between the data set with which an AI system was developed and the data on which it is being deployed. This summer, NEJM AI will begin evaluating studies that bring careful methodology to understanding how to use AI and machine learning approaches in medicine...Read more

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