Research Speaking Writing & Press CITADEL Contact
Health AI Researcher
Maxim Topaz

Maxim Topaz

Building AI that helps nurses and doctors make better decisions. And auditing the scientific record in the age of AI.

PhD · RN · MA · FAAN · FIAHSI · FACMI  ·  Columbia University  ·  Past MEDINFO President
238+
Peer-reviewed publications
$25M+
Research funding · 30+ grants
Top 2%
Stanford world scientists
10,000+
LinkedIn followers
01 / Research

Research

$25M+ in funding. 238+ publications on AI in healthcare, clinical decision support, and nursing informatics.

02 / Speaking

Speaking

TEDx and AMIA keynote speaker. Global keynotes on AI in healthcare, from Tokyo to Denver to São Paulo.

03 / Writing

Writing & Press

LinkedIn writing on AI in healthcare, plus coverage from Nature Medicine, Health Affairs, and other outlets.

Featured investigation · The Lancet, 2026

References to nowhere.

An automated audit of citation integrity across 2.5 million biomedical papers uncovers a rising signature of references that cite studies which do not exist. More than twelve times the rate of three years ago.

Read the investigation
4,046
Confirmed fabricated citations · PubMed Central · 2023 → early 2026
About

From Army medic to Columbia.

My journey began in the field as an Army medic and Registered Nurse, experiences that taught me what patients truly need. Today, I channel that frontline wisdom into building AI tools that help nurses and doctors make better decisions, faster.

As a Fulbright Fellow at UPenn and one of the first nurse scientists to complete a postdoc at Harvard Medical School, I've bridged the gap between clinical practice and cutting-edge technology.

Now at Columbia University and VNS Health, I lead a team developing AI that predicts which patients need help before a crisis happens, especially in home healthcare, where early intervention saves lives.

Most recently, that work has widened to scientific integrity in the age of AI: our CITADEL audit of 2.5 million biomedical papers, published in The Lancet, uncovered thousands of fabricated citations entering the literature. That work is now shaping how journals, publishers, and funders verify the scientific record.

TEDx Talk

Radical System Transformation

TEDxNightingale College · Salt Lake City · 2026

Recent activity

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Columbia
Associate Professor
VNS Health
Sr. Research Scientist
MEDINFO
Past President
NIH
AI Review Co-Chair
Available for speaking

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TEDx speaker. Keynotes and workshops on AI in healthcare, delivered to audiences worldwide.