Many widely used health algorithms have been shown to encode and reinforce racial health inequities, prioritizing the needs of white patients over those of patients of color. Because automated systems are becoming so crucial to access to health, researchers in the field of artificial intelligence must become actively anti-racist. Here we list some concrete steps to enable anti-racist practices in medical research and practice.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Algorithms Don’t Have A Future: On the Relation of Judgement and Calculation
Philosophy & Technology Open Access 15 February 2024
-
Enabling Fairness in Healthcare Through Machine Learning
Ethics and Information Technology Open Access 31 August 2022
-
Algorithmic fairness in pandemic forecasting: lessons from COVID-19
npj Digital Medicine Open Access 10 May 2022
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Hardeman, R., Medina, E. & Boyd, R. N. Engl. J. Med. 383, 197–199 (2020).
Cooper, H. & Fullilove, M. J. Urban Health 93, 1–7 (2016).
Benjamin, R. Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (John Wiley & Sons, 2019).
Eubanks, V. Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor (St. Martin’s Press, 2018).
O’neil, C. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy (Broadway Books, 2016).
Vyas, D.A., Eisenstein, L.G. & Jones, D.S. N. Engl. J. Med. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMms2004740 (2020).
Noor, P. Br. Med. J. 368, m363 (2020).
Obermeyer, Z., Powers, B., Vogeli, C. & Mullainathan, S. Science 366, 447–453 (2019).
Benjamin, R. Science 366, 421–422 (2019).
Forscher, P. S., Lai, C. K. & Axt, J. R. et al. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 117, 522–559 (2019).
Noble, S. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press, 2018).
Boyd, D. & Crawford, K. Inf. Commun. Soc. 15, 662–679 (2012).
Benjamin, R. Sci. Technol. Human Values 41, 967–990 (2016).
Powers, M. & Faden, R. Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Policy (Oxford University Press, 2006).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Owens, K., Walker, A. Those designing healthcare algorithms must become actively anti-racist. Nat Med 26, 1327–1328 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1020-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1020-3
This article is cited by
-
Algorithms Don’t Have A Future: On the Relation of Judgement and Calculation
Philosophy & Technology (2024)
-
Access to What for Whom? How Care Delivery Innovations Impact Health Equity
Journal of General Internal Medicine (2023)
-
Patients’ Perspectives on Race and the Use of Race-Based Algorithms in Clinical Decision-Making: a Qualitative Study
Journal of General Internal Medicine (2023)
-
Algorithmic fairness in pandemic forecasting: lessons from COVID-19
npj Digital Medicine (2022)
-
Enabling Fairness in Healthcare Through Machine Learning
Ethics and Information Technology (2022)