Algorithmovigilance refers to scientific methods and activities relating to the evaluation, monitoring, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of algorithms in health care. It is a term coined by physician Peter Embi, president and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute and associate dean for informatics and health services research at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Artificial intelligence has the potential to help transform medical decision-making and treatment, but its algorithms must be thoroughly tested and continuously monitored to avoid unintended consequences or harms to patients, Embi wrote in a recent commentary in JAMA Network Open.
Algorithmic performance changes as it is deployed with different data, settings, and times, Embi wrote. How algorithms are used also involves human-computer interactions that add another level of variation and complexity that can change an algorithm’s performance or how its outputs are interpreted by different users, he said.