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  • OUTLOOK

A fairer way forward for AI in health care

Without careful implementation, artificial intelligence could widen health-care inequality.
  1. Linda Nordling

    1. Linda Nordling is a science journalist in Cape Town, South Africa.

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When data scientists in Chicago, Illinois, set out to test whether a machine-learning algorithm could predict how long people would stay in hospital, they thought that they were doing everyone a favour. Keeping people in hospital is expensive, and if managers knew which patients were most likely to be eligible for discharge, they could move them to the top of doctors’ priority lists to avoid unnecessary delays. It would be a win–win situation: the hospital would save money and people could leave as soon as possible.

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Nature 573, S103-S105 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02872-2

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Digital health, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

References

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