Algorithmic Bias in Health Care: A Path Forward

Health Affairs November 1, 2019

Our recent paper in Science showed that an algorithm widely used for population health management has significant racial bias. The scale of impact is large, affecting health care decisions for at least tens of millions of patients every year. The magnitude of bias is also large: removing bias from the algorithm would more than double the number of Black patients eligible for a program that gives extra medical help to the neediest patients.

Media coverage of our findings (in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, Wired, and other outlets) has focused on the scale and impact of bias we uncovered. This doesn’t apply to just one algorithm or one manufacturer, but the general approach to predicting risk used...

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