About

Sara Gerke is an Associate Professor of Law and Richard W. & Marie L. Corman Scholar at the University of Illinois College of Law. She also holds a position as an Associate Professor at the European Union Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on the ethical and legal challenges of artificial intelligence and big data in healthcare and health law within the United States and Europe. She investigates comparative law and ethics related to medical developments such as stem cell research, biological products, reproductive medicine, and digital health. Professor Gerke has authored over 80 publications in health law and bioethics, with a particular emphasis on AI and digital health, and her work has been featured in leading law, medical, scientific, health policy, and bioethics journals. She has contributed to books published by major academic publishers and served as the first editor of a stakeholder book on the clinical application of human induced pluripotent stem cells. Her expertise has been recognized through media features and invitations to speak at prominent institutions worldwide. She leads significant interdisciplinary research projects on AI in healthcare, including studies on AI-assisted surgery and AI in colonoscopy, funded by the European Union and other international sources. Beyond her scholarship, she teaches courses in Torts, Health Law, and Food and Drug Law, and frequently lectures at prestigious universities. Her work has earned recognition from the scientific, ethical, medical, and legal communities, including being named a 2025 Emerging Leader of the National Academy of Medicine.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Public relations
• Sociology
• Business
• Law
• Artificial Intelligence
• Medicine
• Engineering ethics
• Operating system
• Geography
• Psychology
• Law and economics
• Software engineering
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Privacy Considerations of Artificial Intelligence Scribes

  NEJM AI · 2026-05-20

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Human deskilling in medical artificial intelligence: prohibited or permissible under the EU Artificial Intelligence Act?

  Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology · 2026-05-05

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Utah’s Prescription-Renewal Pilot Program — Autonomous AI Managing Patient Care

  New England Journal of Medicine · 2026-04-18

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Mo2234 PUBLIC PERSPECTIVES ON LIABILITY FOR ERRORS WITH AI-ENABLED GASTROINTESTINAL ENDOSCOPY

  Gastrointestinal Endoscopy · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Medicare advantage becoming a disadvantage with use of artificial intelligence in prior authorization review

  npj Digital Medicine · 2026-02-04 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Reported instances of AI-assisted, blanket denials of coverage have increased in recent years, particularly for Medicare Advantage plans, resulting in insurers facing criticism, class action lawsuits, investigations from Congress, and key providers leaving their networks. To ensure a fair healthcare system, action is needed to improve transparency in how AI tools approve or deny claims, and address provider burnout and patient burden due to navigating prior authorization requests and appeals.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Culture by Design : A Sociotechnical Framework for Culturally Grounded AI for Mental Health

  PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · 2026-05-22

  preprintOpen access

  AI systems for mental health are developed predominantly using data from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) populations, raising concerns about their validity, fairness, and generalizability across diverse cultural and geographic contexts. This limitation is especially consequential in mental health, where linguistic expression, symptom presentation, help-seeking behavior, and access to care vary substantially across populations. We argue that culture must be treated as a first-class design requirement throughout the AI development lifecycle, not an afterthought applied post-hoc, a principle we term culture by design. Drawing on evidence from NLP, clinical psychology, HCI, and global mental health, we present ten practical recommendations spanning data collection, modeling, evaluation, deployment, and governance, providing researchers and practitioners with a concrete roadmap for building culturally grounded, equitable, and contextually appropriate mental health AI systems.

  Publisher

• Culture by Design : A Sociotechnical Framework for Culturally Grounded AI for Mental Health

  2026-05-22

  articleOpen access

  AI systems for mental health are developed predominantly using data from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) populations, raising concerns about their validity, fairness, and generalizability across diverse cultural and geographic contexts. This limitation is especially consequential in mental health, where linguistic expression, symptom presentation, help-seeking behavior, and access to care vary substantially across populations. We argue that culture must be treated as a first-class design requirement throughout the AI development lifecycle, not an afterthought applied post-hoc, a principle we term culture by design. Drawing on evidence from NLP, clinical psychology, HCI, and global mental health, we present ten practical recommendations spanning data collection, modeling, evaluation, deployment, and governance, providing researchers and practitioners with a concrete roadmap for building culturally grounded, equitable, and contextually appropriate mental health AI systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Mo2234 PUBLIC PERSPECTIVES ON LIABILITY FOR ERRORS WITH AI-ENABLED GASTROINTESTINAL ENDOSCOPY

  Gastroenterology · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• New case law and liability risks for manufacturers of medical AI

  Science · 2025-06-12 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Recent case law can shape how innovation unfolds.

  PublisherDOI

• The AI-enhanced surgeon – integrating black-box artificial intelligence in the operating room

  International Journal of Surgery · 2025-02-24 · 13 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  New artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) technology offers great potential to assist surgeons with real-time intra-operative decision-making. While, AI/ML-driven analysis tools for surgeons currently focus primarily on technical assistance and postoperative insights, AI/ML cognitive support in surgery can improve their usefulness. However, AI/ML models usually conceal their underlying algorithmic reasoning process. As a result, such "black box" AI/ML models have important clinical and legal implications for patient safety and surgeon liability. This article provides an overview of surgeons' current practice and the potential for AI enhancement in surgical decision-making. It suggests a path toward a safe and effective integration of black-box AI/ML models into the operating room. We posit that future surgeons who rely on AI for cognitive assistance do not necessarily need to fully understand, interpret, and explain the algorithmic basis of an AI's real-time recommendation in the midst of surgery, but rather, they need to know that these tools work as promised. Assuming new black-box AI/ML models demonstrate clear benefits for surgical patients, their use will likely be incorporated into the legal standard of care and affect the liability landscape for surgeons.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• I. Glenn Cohen

  Harvard University

  53 shared

• Carmel Shachar

  48 shared

• Timo Minssen

  University of Copenhagen

  29 shared

• Mindy Duffourc

  Maastricht University

  22 shared

• Theodoros Evgeniou

  INSEAD

  14 shared

• W. Nicholson Price

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  14 shared

• Boris Babic

  University of Toronto

  13 shared

• Vince I. Madai

  Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin

  10 shared

Labs

• Sara Gerke LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Law

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2012

• Other, Law

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2007

• B.A., Political Science

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2004

Awards & honors

• 2025 Emerging Leader of the National Academy of Medicine
• Invited to attend the 2025 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal NAM E…