Peter L. Elkin, MD, has been named editor-in-chief of the Journal of Biomedical Health Informatics and will work to expand the journal's scope and focus on clinical outcomes.
Elkin Appointed Editor of Leading Informatics Journal
By Keith Gillogly
Published February 27, 2026
Peter L. Elkin, MD, UB Distinguished Professor and chair of biomedical informatics at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has been recently named editor-in-chief of the IEEE Journal of Biomedical Health Informatics (J-BHI), a leading journal publishing research advances in biomedical and health informatics.
The IEEE, or Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is the world’s largest technical professional organization focused on technology advancement. As a journal of the IEEE, J-BHI has grown to become the highest impact journal in the field of informatics, Elkin says. It covers topics ranging from biomedical engineering and biomedical informatics to AI, sensors, and brain-computer interface technologies for treatment of disease.
Elkin to Broaden Journal’s Scope, Continue Momentum
As editor, Elkin is building out the journal’s editorial board. He will also oversee selection of guest editors and publication of the journal’s special issues. He wrote a recent editorial outlining the journal's future and research topics in focus. The journal will focus more on articles that show clear clinical outcomes, he says.
Among his goals, Elkin hopes to expand the journal’s scope while continuing to grow its impact and reach. “My goal is to make the journal more clinical in nature,” Elkin says. “I’m broadening the scope of the journal so that it includes more focus on clinical informatics, public health informatics, and learning health systems.”
As AI integrates into health care, Elkin notes greater need for strong evidence and trials to support and examine safe and effective use of these technologies. The medical literature, therefore, plays a significant role sharing this evidence, he says.
“With artificial intelligence being more and more impactful in health care, it will be very important for the journal to be a leader in terms of thought leadership in this space,” Elkin says.
Among several metrics of journal impact and influence, J-BHI is a Q1 journal with an impact factor of 6.8, a citation rate of 13.5, and an h-index of 168, Elkin says. He hopes to grow its impact factor to over 10.
While all submissions will undergo peer review and unbiased consideration, Elkin says he’s hoping to see investigators from the Jacobs School and UB submit manuscripts to the journal to showcase their best work and the university’s research excellence. He further notes that his role as editor-in-chief will help spotlight UB, especially in front of the IEEE’s audience of some half a million people worldwide, he says.
Elkin, who has long studied health big data, informatics, machine learning, and predictive analytics, is serving a renewable three-year term as J-BHI editor and has previously been a reviewer and author for the journal. Elkin has also held editorships with and served on the editorial boards of other leading journals, including the International Journal of Medical Informatics, the Journal of Biomedical Informatics, Applied Clinical Informatics, and the Journal of Translational Research.
