Letter

Spillover Effects in Randomized Evaluations of Translational AI

Sean Mann, Carl T. Berdahl

ResearchPosted on rand.org Mar 11, 2026Published in: NEJM AI, Volume 3, No. 3 (March 2026). DOI: 10.1056/AIp2501326

The Perspective “Evaluating Translational AI: A Two-Way Moving Target Problem” aptly describes two fundamental challenges that occur when health systems evaluate predictive AI models that inform clinical decision-making. Leuchter et al. highlight how traditional evaluation approaches are rendered inadequate due to a two-way moving target problem caused by (1) concurrent-intervention confounding prior to implementation and (2) action-induced outcome bias that occurs after implementation. To address these challenges, they recommend short-term randomized controlled evaluations to assess model effectiveness prior to complete adoption. Although such randomized evaluations are warranted, they face a third challenge that could lead to misestimation of AI model effectiveness: spillover due to constraints on care delivery.

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Document Details

  • Publisher: Massachusetts Medical Society (NEJM Group)
  • Availability: Non-RAND
  • Year: 2026
  • Pages: 2
  • Document Number: EP-71183

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