Artificial intelligence tools in healthcare, as with any other software, are not immune to bias – especially if they have been trained on data sets that do not accurately reflect the global population.

Last year, VisualDx, which provides diagnostic support software, launched Project IMPACT, a global effort to reduce disparities in medicine and highlight ways to bridge gaps of knowledge and improve healthcare outcomes for patients of color.  

VisualDx Director of Clinical Impact Dr. Nada Elbuluk joined Healthcare IT News Senior Editor Kat Jercich to discuss the project and the roles individuals and clinicians can play in working toward health equity.   

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Talking points:

• Why it's so important to have a broad range of images across different skin types
• Achieving health equity is a complicated problem
• How individuals can contribute to reducing health inequity
• The effect of providers' knowledge gaps on patient care
• How technology can address some of those gaps
• The role AI and ML tools can play in reducing bias – or worsening it
• What's missing from the wider conversation about health outcomes
• Real action is needed to promote health equity  

More about this episode:  

VisualDx to unveil vastly expanded clinical decision support system at HIMSS16  

Even innocuous-seeming data can reproduce bias in AI

FDA highlights the need to address bias in AI  

How an AI-powered tool could help diagnose skin cancer in veterans  

How augmented intelligence can promote health equity