James J. Cimino, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, served as a keynote speaker at the 14th International Conference on Intelligent Biology and Medicine (ICIBM 2026). This marked his first time attending the conference.
ICIBM, organized by the International Association for Intelligent Biology and Medicine, brings together researchers, scholars, and practitioners working at the crossroads of biology, medicine, and computational methods. The conference offers a space for high-quality scientific exchange, showcasing current research and new ideas in intelligent biology and medicine, while giving attendees a chance to connect through formal sessions and informal networking.
Cimino's keynote presentation was titled "A Research Agenda for Clinical Informatics in the Post-AI, Post-EHR Vendor World." The talk looked at how the success of artificial intelligence and the growth of commercial electronic health record (EHR) systems have changed clinical informatics research. Problems that once drove the field are now often handled by AI tools or built directly into commercial EHR products, leaving researchers to ask where the next round of meaningful work will come from.
Cimino built his talk around a review of 240 publications selected by American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Working Group members for the annual Biomedical Informatics Year in Review. Rather than treating artificial intelligence, learning health systems, and health equity as separate topics, his review found that the most notable advances happen where these three areas meet. From this, he outlined a framework that connects the themes and points to research opportunities not yet addressed by today's AI tools or EHR platforms.
Using examples pulled from the Year in Review, Cimino argued that the future of clinical informatics is not about competing with AI or EHR vendors. Instead, he said, the field's path forward is building methods that help health systems learn continuously, deliver care fairly, and turn knowledge into real, measurable gains in health.
ICIBM 2026 took place August 2–5 at the University at Buffalo in New York.