Doctors measure health in many ways, from routine blood tests for cholesterol or kidney function to using devices like spirometers to test lung function or pulse oximeters for blood oxygen levels. But the results of these routine tests can be misleading because some tests and devices are skewed by algorithms that produce different results depending on a person’s race or ethnicity. Some devices don’t work as well for people with darker skin tones.
These biases can lead to delayed diagnoses and care for Black, Hispanic, Asian, and other communities of color. Now, clinicians, regulators and researchers are working to address inequities caused by the misuse of race.
This free webinar will cover the fast-moving, complex space of racial disparities in algorithms and devices. Join Doris Duke Racial Equity in Clinical Equations Civic Science Fellow Jyoti Madhusoodanan and AHCJ Health IT Beat Leader Karen Blum to learn how these algorithms and devices work, how bias creeps in, the toll it takes, and efforts to solve this problem.
Panelists for this discussion are University of Michigan pulmonologist Michael Sjoding, who presented evidence to an FDA advisory committee on how racial bias in pulse oximeters endangers Black patients; and University of Pennsylvania gastroenterologist Shazia Siddique, who recently led an AHRQ-funded systematic review on clinical algorithms and racial disparities.