Special Issue on The Health Economics of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

Introduction:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the organisation and delivery of healthcare, from diagnostic support and personalised treatment to clinical decision-making and patient self-management. However, the value of AI-assisted healthcare cannot be assessed solely through technical performance. It must also be evaluated in terms of health outcomes, costs, equity, resource allocation, professional practice and the conditions required for effective implementation.

This special issue presents research across three interconnected areas: (1) the evaluation of AI-assisted interventions, including effects on individual and population health, healthcare costs and broader economic value, as well as AI-enabled allocation of scarce healthcare resources; (2) human-AI collaboration in diagnosis, treatment and disease management, including human oversight, shared decision-making, professional responsibility, trust and explainability; and (3) the behavioural consequences of AI-assisted healthcare, including whether large language models improve patients’ health literacy and self-management and help clinicians make more accurate and timely decisions, while also considering over-reliance, misinformation and automation bias. The special issue welcomes theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions on the economic, behavioural, organisational and policy implications of AI in healthcare.

Topics covered:

• Health-economic evaluation of AI-assisted interventions
• Population health impacts and distributional consequences of AI
• Cost-effectiveness and value assessment of healthcare AI
• AI-enabled healthcare resource allocation
• Implementation and adoption of AI-assisted interventions
• Human–AI collaboration in diagnosis and treatment
• Clinician decision-making and professional responsibility
• Patient behaviour, self-management and health literacy
• Large language models in clinical and patient-facing care
• Equity, safety, trust and governance of healthcare AI

Important deadlines:

Submission deadline: 30 June 2027

Publication date: 31 March 2028

Submission instructions:

Please read the Guide for Authors before submitting. All articles should be submitted online through the journal submission page; please select The Health Economics of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine on submission.

Guest editors:

• Prof. Lei Zhang, School of Translational Medicine, Monash University, Australia. Email: Lei.Zhang1@monash.edu
• Prof. Jing Wu, School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin University, China. Email: jingwu@tju.edu.cn
• Prof. Mingwang Shen, School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, China. Email: mingwangshen521@xjtu.edu.cn