AI Health

Friday Roundup

The AI Health Friday Roundup highlights the week’s news and publications related to artificial intelligence, data science, public health, and clinical research.

September 4, 2026

In this week’s Duke AI Health Friday Roundup: concerns that agentic AI may be sidelining human input; informaticist Embi appointed Director of National Library of Medicine; deploying AI to counter burdens of peer review; AMA, other organizations offer vaccine guidance for upcoming season; California legislature approves measures to beef up state funding support for science; much more:

AI, STATISTICS & DATA SCIENCE

“…we connect work on automation and human-computer interaction to AI agent processes, outlining design-level affordances and organizational protocols that (1) support overseers in exercising critical judgement and (2) counteract the skill atrophy that arises from extended use of automation. We urge developers and deployers to adopt these or similar approaches. Without explicit support for the cognitive demands of effective human-agent interaction, AI agent systems will continue to passively incentivize the degradation of the very human skills they rely on.” In a preprint article available from arXiv, Mitchell, Ghosh, and Passi argue that the current pace and direction of development and adoption of agentic AI are sidelining human input and oversight.
“Educators worldwide are seeing suspicious signs of AI use — from hallucinated references to punctuation styles that are typical of AI tools — in take-home coursework and online examinations, fuelling worries that the technology is giving some students an unfair advantage over those who don’t use it…. These realizations are forcing many educators to rethink conventional assessment approaches, both to accommodate AI as a tool and detect its misuse.” In a career feature for Nature, Katarina Zimmer surveys how LLM ubiquity is affecting college teaching practices.
“Some researchers and publishers think AI will have to be part of the solution. Automating some of the peer-review process could help speed publication and save researchers’ time, advocates say. And, in fact, a growing number of reviewers are employing these tools… But others are skeptical that machines can give reliable feedback, especially for the most important, core aspects of peer review, including assessing novelty and significance, while avoiding risks such as bias and gaming.” A feature article in Science by Jeffrey Brainard highlights efforts (and attendant skepticism) aimed at taming the growing pressures of peer review by deploying AI tools.
“Although the tools engineers use on a daily basis are evolving, the core responsibilities of the job are more stable than they may seem, says Andy Hunt, a software developer who coauthored The Pragmatic Programmer…in 1999…. ‘The fundamental part of the job is problem solving and communication, and that’s always going to be there,’ he says.” IEEE Spectrum’s Gwendolyn Bak examines what it means to be an “adaptable engineer” in the age of AI.

BASIC SCIENCE, CLINICAL RESEARCH & PUBLIC HEALTH

“During a press briefing yesterday on the evidence reviews, four of the country’s major medical organizations—the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)— provided their vaccine recommendations for the 2026-27 respiratory illness season.” An article at the University of Minnesota CIDRAP website describes how major national professional medical organizations, including the AMA, are stepping forward to provide vaccination guidelines in the absence of clear guidance at the federal level.
“…smartphone technology can deliver antimicrobial prescribing guidelines in an LMIC like Laos. However, the trial did not demonstrate the pre-specified improvement in guidelines adherence with the smartphone app and AMS training compared with paper-based guidelines. While treatment guidelines underpin antimicrobial stewardship efforts, adherence depends on multiple factors beyond guideline availability.” A research article published in PLOS Medicine by Chansamouth and colleagues reports results from a cluster trial that evaluated whether smartphones could be used to facilitate access to antibiotic prescribing guidelines in Laos.
“As the NLM’s fifth director since it became the National Library of Medicine in 1956, Dr. Embí will oversee the world’s largest biomedical library and shepherd the investment of its approximately $495 million annual budget. He will lead a workforce of nearly 1,400 who support NLM as a global leader in biomedical informatics and computational health data science research.” The National Institutes of Health has announced that prominent informatics expert Peter Embi, previously at Vanderbilt, will take up the role of Director of the National Library of Medicine.

COMMUNICATIONS & Policy

“When authors use genAI tools to do part of their work, it’s not equivalent to bringing in a human contributor. A graduate student or research assistant can explain their contribution, respond to criticism, learn from correction and be held accountable for the integrity and accuracy of their work. GenAI is different: it cannot justify or take responsibility for what it produces.” In an essay for Nature, Robert Braun addresses a schema for thinking about authorial responsibility in the context of LLM-assisted writing and research tools.
“Yesterday, the California legislature passed a bill to invest $7.5 billion to create a state foundation for science and health research. The entity, if voters approve bonds dedicated to it, would make grants selected by peer review to California academic institutions across all fields, although biomedical research would likely be its top priority.” Science’s Jeffrey Mervis reports on the passage of measures in the California legislature that are designed to establish a sizeable state-level investment in support for research.
“…it starts with upskilling researchers in public engagement efforts. To that end, this paper outlines six actionable practices to help scientists effectively reach and engage broad audiences, with a focus on leveraging modern media and emerging dissemination channels. Notably, these practices bridge theory and practice: they are both theoretically backed and have been successfully implemented already by the authors.” An article published in Cell by Moses and colleagues presents concrete practices that can improve scientists’ ability to communicate effectively with wider audiences (H/T @boghuma.bsky.social).