Technology in Healthcare

Technology is on the rise and has infiltrated every part of our daily lives. The use of tracking apps and healthcare apps has increased sharply. When dealing with healthcare technology, we must be educated on possible racial blind spots.

One common area where bias can arise is in algorithmic decision-making. If the algorithms powering healthcare apps are trained on biased or incomplete data, they can perpetuate and amplify existing racial or ethnic disparities in healthcare. For example, if a diagnostic algorithm is trained primarily on data from one racial or ethnic group, it may very well lead to misdiagnoses or inequitable treatment for individuals from groups that were not included in a dataset.

Another aspect is the lack of diversity among the teams developing healthcare apps. When there is a lack of representation from diverse backgrounds, it becomes more likely that blind spots and biases may be overlooked during the design and development process. It's crucial to have diverse teams that can recognize and address potential issues related to race and ethnicity. To mitigate racism and discrimination in healthcare apps, it's important for developers to prioritize fairness, inclusivity, and transparency. This can be achieved in 3 key ways

First, promoting diverse and inclusive teams and ensuring that development teams include individuals from various racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.

Second, relying on user feedback and involvement, particularly from marginalized communities, to identify and address any instances of racism or discrimination within the app.

Third, having transparent algorithms. Professionals must ensure that the algorithms and decision-making processes of healthcare apps are transparent and explainable, allowing users to understand how decisions are made and providing recourse in case of biased outcomes.

Overall, It's essential for developers, healthcare providers, and regulators to be vigilant in identifying and addressing any instances of racism or discrimination in healthcare apps in order to create a more equitable environment.

By: Alan Lu