Artificial Intelligence in Public Health, Healthcare Services, and Management

Dear Colleagues,

Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands as the third major revolution of the 21st century, after personal computers and the Internet. It is rapidly reshaping the global landscape of public health and healthcare systems. While health is one of the most active frontiers in this revolution, important questions remain: What tangible progress has been made? How effective and efficient is AI in real-world applications? What barriers do health leaders and managers face in adopting, integrating, and scaling AI technologies? And critically, what roles can AI play that we have not yet fully explored?

To harness the full potential of this revolution, we must understand the current landscape—who is leading innovation, where are breakthroughs happening, and what challenges or gaps are hindering progress? We must also explore new, context-specific solutions to accelerate responsible and equitable AI adoption in healthcare.

This Special Issue aims to illuminate the diverse and evolving roles of AI across public health surveillance, clinical decision-making, service delivery, leadership and management, policy implementation, and workforce transformation. We seek to feature interdisciplinary research and applied case studies (basic, operational, and translational) that deepen our understanding of how AI can improve outcomes, boost efficiency, and reduce disparities in healthcare systems worldwide.

We invite original research, reviews, and case reports that provide theoretical insights, practical solutions, ethical reflections, and policy recommendations. Contributions highlighting innovations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), underserved communities, and global health systems are especially welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• AI in public health practice, decision-making, and leadership;
• Disease surveillance and outbreak prediction;
• Predictive modeling and risk stratification;
• GenAI in diagnostics, imaging, and EHRs;
• AI-driven patient engagement and behavior change;
• Workflow automation and service optimization;
• Ethics, bias, and equity in AI;
• Policy frameworks and system-level integration;
• Case studies, especially from LMICs and resource-constrained settings.

Join us in exploring what is next for AI in health. We look forward to hearing from you.

Dr. Obinna O. Oleribe
Guest Editor

Dr. Florida Uzoaru
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.