The Lancet Digital Health

The Lancet Digital Health
Title	The Lancet Digital Health
Discipline	Digital health; medicine; healthcare
Publisher	Elsevier
Country	United Kingdom
Frequency	Monthly
History	2019–present
Issn	2589-7500

The Lancet Digital Health is a peer-reviewed medical journal established in 2019 focusing on the intersection of clinical medicine, informatics, public health, and technology. The journal publishes original research, reviews, commentaries, and correspondence addressing applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning, mobile health, and telemedicine in patient care. Editorial decisions and published works have engaged institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Oxford, Johns Hopkins University, and Mayo Clinic.

History

The journal was launched in 2019 by Elsevier imprint The Lancet family amid contemporaneous initiatives like Nature Medicine expansions and the founding of NPJ Digital Medicine. Its inception followed growing investments by entities such as Google Health, IBM Watson Health, Apple Inc., and Amazon Web Services in digital medicine, and paralleled policy developments by World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health, European Commission, and National Health Service reforms. Early editorial announcements referenced collaborations with academic centres including Imperial College London, University College London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Cambridge.

Scope and aims

The journal aims to bridge research communities across biomedical engineering, clinical trials, epidemiology, radiology, pathology, and genomics by publishing studies on algorithm development, validation, deployment, and ethics. Its scope covers topics relevant to stakeholders such as Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, Health Technology Assessment, and health systems like Kaiser Permanente and Veterans Health Administration. Contributions often intersect with initiatives by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, National Science Foundation, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Editorial leadership and peer review

Editorial leadership has included editors drawn from institutions including University of Edinburgh, King's College London, Yale University, and Columbia University. Peer review processes align with standards promoted by organisations such as Committee on Publication Ethics, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, Open Researcher and Contributor ID, and CrossRef. The journal uses editorial management platforms comparable to Editorial Manager and adheres to reporting guidelines like CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, and TRIPOD for predictive model studies, often requiring data sharing consistent with policies from Wellcome Trust and NIH Data Sharing Policy.

Notable publications and impact

The journal has published high-profile studies on applications of deep learning for radiography and histopathology, algorithmic triage systems evaluated in settings comparable to work from Stanford Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, and Cleveland Clinic. Commentaries and analyses have engaged debates involving Regulatory Science at FDA meetings, algorithmic bias highlighted by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and MIT Media Lab, and public-health modeling related to COVID-19 pandemic responses involving Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Public Health England. Papers have been cited in policy documents by World Health Organization, guideline updates by Royal College of Physicians, and technology assessments by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Indexing and abstracting

The journal is indexed in major databases and services akin to PubMed Central, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase, and is discoverable through platforms used by libraries at Harvard Medical School, Yale School of Medicine, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, and University of Melbourne. Citation metrics and impact indicators are tracked by providers such as Clarivate Analytics, Altmetric, and Google Scholar.

Access, licensing, and publication model

Published by Elsevier under The Lancet brand, the journal operates a hybrid model offering open access options in line with funder mandates from agencies like Wellcome Trust, NIH, and European Research Council. Licensing choices include Creative Commons variants frequently required by funders similar to Plan S signatories. Article processing charges and subscription arrangements reflect broader industry practices influenced by negotiations involving consortia such as SCOAP3-like agreements and institutional deals with university libraries including Oxford University Library Service and Cambridge University Library.

Criticism and controversies

Critiques of the journal mirror broader controversies in digital health including reproducibility concerns raised in discourse involving Retraction Watch, debates over algorithmic transparency prompted by researchers at Oxford Internet Institute and AI Now Institute, and data governance issues discussed by Electronic Frontier Foundation and Human Rights Watch. High-profile reanalyses and correspondence have invoked entities such as Lancet Commission-style investigations, responses from technology companies like Google DeepMind, and scrutiny by regulators including European Data Protection Board and Information Commissioner's Office. Allegations concerning conflicts of interest, publication bias, and peer-review shortcomings echo critiques leveled at other journals including Nature, Science, and The BMJ.

Category:Medical journals Category:Digital health