The impact of clinical algorithms on racial and ethnic disparities - findings from a systematic review, and critical discussion of policy options and value tradeoffs

This interdisciplinary panel combines perspectives from scholars in clinical medicine, epidemiology, health policy, and bioethics. The moderator will begin by describing the background to a systematic review commissioned by a major federal agency in response to a Congressional request for a comprehensive report on race-based algorithms. The first speaker is an Associate Professor of Medicine and health services researcher with expertise in health equity improvement. She will define core terms and present current standards, challenges, and opportunities for approaching race and ethnicity in healthcare. The second speaker, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of a University-based Center for Evidence-based Practice. She will discuss, in general terms, the systematic review findings to identify and characterize the extent to which clinical algorithms impact healthcare disparities across racial and ethnic groups. The third speaker is an Associate Director of an entity specializing in systematic reviews. She will focus on select cases of identified bias and also focus on ways of mitigating its impact. The fourth speaker is an Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy focused on improving equity in resource allocation. He will outline and contextualize the tradeoffs between 3 different options in response to identified biases (viz. accepting that they exacerbate disparities, seeking to ensure that they do worsen them, or seeking to mitigate them), and bridge to engaging the audience to discuss in which cases which of the 3 strategies should be ethically justified.