Two Senate Democrats are challenging Medicare’s top official to investigate how health care tools based on artificial intelligence may reflect the flaws and biases of the people who develop them — and perpetuate racial biases.
“As algorithms play an increasingly prevalent role in the U.S. health care system, we urge CMS to consider the risk for algorithmic bias and its potential impact on health disparities outcomes,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a presidential candidate, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote in a letter to Seema Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The letter was released Tuesday.
The senators cited a study recently published in the journal Science that revealed how an algorithm widely used by hospitals to determine who needs follow-up care misclassified black patients as being less sick than their equally ill white counterparts.
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