Artificial intelligence and the quality and safety of healthcare
Call for Papers
Advancing knowledge about how to improve the quality and safety of healthcare is a priority of BMJ Quality and Safety, and it is clear that artificial intelligence will play many roles in this respect. In a recent issue of our journal, Michael Howell noted that, “While we are early in the journey, we are in the midst of a fundamental shift in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. It is clear these capabilities have direct applicability to healthcare and to improving quality and patient safety, even as they introduce new complexities.”1
Collection Editors
Bryony Dean Franklin, BPharm BA MSc PhD FFRPS FRPharmS
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust & UCL School of Pharmacy
London, UK
Eric J. Thomas, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
McGovern Medical School at UTHealth
Texas, USA
BMJ Quality and Safety would like to publish a series of papers on the topic of “Artificial intelligence and the quality and safety of healthcare.” We therefore invite submissions of original research, quality improvement reports, viewpoint, review, and methodology papers related to this topic. We welcome submissions from researchers, quality improvement professionals, computer scientists, informaticists, and those in related fields – our Information for Authors pages is here.
Submissions must convey information that will help a wide range of international readers — including clinicians, researchers, patients, improvement professionals, administrators and policy makers — to gain knowledge about improving patient care. Submissions that focus only on the technical or computing facets of AI will not be considered to be in scope.
Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to: the role of AI in measuring quality and safety; how AI can help reduce documentation and administrative burdens while maintaining the quality of care; how AI can help patients understand their health information and health care needs; the use of AI for decision making and diagnostic reasoning; and adverse consequences of AI.
This themed call will include submissions in the following categories:
- Original Research and Quality Improvement Reports: these will report research using AI to address problems with the quality and safety of health care. Manuscripts can be submitted under the ‘Original Research’, ‘Quality Improvement Report’ or ‘Short Report’ article categories. These would present high quality evidence describing how AI can be used to measure or improve healthcare quality and safety, or the adverse consequences of its use.
- Viewpoints: these will be essays presenting a perspective or viewpoint on AI. These should add a new argument to a debate or present a new perspective, as well as appropriately drawing on the existing international literature.
- Reviews: these will be any literature review relating to this topic that brings together quantitative or qualitative evidence and adds something that is more than the ‘sum of the parts’ of the included studies.
- Research and Reporting Methodologies: articles that aim to advance research methodology or reporting standards related to AI, as long as the methodologic issues relate to the measurement or improvement of clinical quality and safety. For specific formatting requirements, please refer to our author guidelines.
Submission deadline: 30 August 2025
Manuscripts will be subject to our usual process of editorial and peer review. Please follow the online submission link https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bmjqs to submit your manuscript(s). Upon submission, please select the theme name from the dropdown menu and mention the themed call in your cover letter. BMJ Quality and Safety is a hybrid journal and authors can choose to pay an Article Processing fee for open access publication. For further information, please visit the ‘authors’ page of our website.
Please see here for additional information on previous themed calls for papers on ‘Striving for equity in the quality and safety of patient care’ and 'Implementation science for healthcare quality and safety'.