A replacement for race: Medical experts explore how to eliminate bias in clinical algorithms
WASHINGTON — Most of the medical community has acknowledged that racism is baked into many of its clinical tools: pulse oximeters and kidney function calculators are prime examples. But as presentations at a conference Tuesday showed, physicians remain divided on when to remove race from calculators and algorithms — and crucially, what characteristics should replace it.
“Many say that we should expunge race out of everything,” said Neil Powe, chief of medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, at one session. “That would be great. But what is the replacement, and does the replacement do more harm than good?”
