Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42009269›Full record

ReviewJournal of biomedical informatics2026

A comprehensive survey of AI agents in healthcare.

Gelei Xu, Xueyang Li, Yixiong Chen, Yuying Duan, Shuqing Wu, Haoxinran Yu, Ching-Hao Chiu, Juntong Ni, Ningzhi Tang, Toby Jia-Jun Li and 3 more

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of biomedical informatics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Gelei XuUniversity of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. Electronic address: gxu4@nd.edu.
Xueyang LiUniversity of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Yixiong ChenJohns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
Yuying DuanUniversity of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Shuqing WuUniversity of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Haoxinran YuUniversity of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Ching-Hao ChiuUniversity of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Juntong NiEmory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Ningzhi TangUniversity of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Toby Jia-Jun LiUniversity of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Alan YuilleJohns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
Wei JinEmory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Yiyu ShiUniversity of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.

Funding

SCH: Towards Foundation Epidemic Models for Respiratory Infections: A Novel Spatiotemporal Machine Learning FrameworkR01AI197111 · NIAID · EMORY UNIVERSITY · PI Wei Jin, Siu Yin (Max) Lau · 2025 to 2026
$599k
NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI197111nsf 2437345
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveThis survey aims to systematically map the rapidly evolving landscape of AI agents in healthcare. It addresses the critical need to adapt general-purpose agentic frameworks characterized by autonomy, planning, and tool use to the high-stakes, safety-critical constraints of medical decision-making and patient care.

methodsWe conducted a comprehensive review of over 200 recent studies, synthesizing literature from major academic databases. We developed a holistic taxonomy that traces the full lifecycle of healthcare agents, analyzing perception modalities, core technical architectures, and evaluation protocols specific to autonomous systems.

resultsThe review presents a quantitative landscape analysis showing exponential growth in the field. We structure the domain into three pillars: (1) Perception of multi-modal clinical data (e.g., EHR, imaging, genomics); (2) Agent Capabilities, including tool use, reasoning, memory, and multi-agent collaboration; and (3) an Application Ecosystem organized by stakeholder roles (clinicians, patients, researchers, and administrators). Additionally, we categorize evaluation frameworks, and discuss the deployment readiness of current systems across technical, evidentiary, and governance dimensions. Finally, we identify challenges for advancing healthcare agents from controlled evaluation toward real-world clinical integration. A continuously updated repository of related papers is available at https://github.com/AgenticHealthAI/Awesome-AI-Agents-for-Healthcare.

conclusionAI agents offer significant potential to enhance healthcare through autonomous reasoning and workflow integration. However, current research remains largely concentrated in benchmark and controlled evaluation settings, and the translation into clinical practice will require advances in reliability, privacy protection, governance, and operational integration.

Indexed as

Artificial IntelligenceDelivery of Health CareMedical InformaticsDigital HealthElectronic Health RecordsHumansIntelligent SystemsSurveys and QuestionnairesAgentic AIClinical decision supportMedical reasoningMulti-agent systems

Identifiers

PMID42009269
PMCPMC13435129

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.