Global Courant 2023-05-13 10:50:45
The California reparations task force, as part of its series of proposals to make amends for slavery and anti-black racism, is recommending that state lawmakers address what they call “racially biased” artificial intelligence used in healthcare.
The task force, created by state legislation signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020, formally approved its final recommendations last weekend to the California legislature, which will decide whether to pass the measures and send them to the governor’s office to become law. signed.
The recommendations include several healthcare-related proposals, including some related to medical artificial intelligence (AI), which the task force describes as “racially biased” and contributing to perceived systemic racism against black Californians.
Specifically, the task force is calling on lawmakers to fund state universities or government agencies to study the “potential for harmful bias” in medical AI.
Female doctor reassuring a patient (iStock)
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The task force recommends that the legislature provide state funding to the California Department of Public Health, a University of California school, a California State University school or other appropriate entity to address the potential for harmful biases in commercial algorithms and on AI. based medical devices,” the committee said writes in the final report outlines its proposals, adding that the study should also recommend how best to regulate medical AI tools in California.
The report additionally suggests that the study should “examine evidence-based research on the use of devices and tools that recommend modifying patients’ treatment or medication based on broad racial categories in the absence of information on genetics or sociocultural risk factors. “
The task force quotes from a recent Paper from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). that it quotes several times. The paper provides examples of perceived racial biases in medical AI, such as a tool intended to help decide how best to allocate the limited resources of additional care among new mothers at risk for postpartum depression that, according to the ACLU, could make the care away from black mothers and favoring white mothers.
In California, meanwhile, the recovery commission recommends that the legislature require the state’s Department of Health to issue guidelines to hospitals and other medical systems to ensure that AI-assisted medical devices “are not used for clinical applications without approval or approval.” of the FDA are not used in patient populations for which they were not intended, and that approved tools are not used outside of their intended use cases.” That recommendation is also in the ACLU paper.
The task force additionally wants the California Department of Public Health to “create and maintain a public list of software as a medical device (SaMD) and provide demographic information on the subjects in which the devices have been calibrated or trained.”
Digital image of the brain on the palm using artificial intelligence technology. (iStock)
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A fourth proposal is to allocate positions and funding to the California Department of Justice to bring claims against manufacturers of AI medical devices if their products have a “disparate impact” when providers use them according to the manufacturer’s instructions or if the products “misleadingly promise fairness.”
Despite the task force’s claims, new AI tools have helped medical professionals treat patients in a variety of ways.
One such tool, called RestoreU, helps doctors create personalized care plans for patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Another tool known as DAX Express streamlines the note-taking process, a benefit that has reportedly helped doctors improve patient outcomes, work more efficiently, and reduce costs.
In addition to AI, the California Reparations Task Force is pushing several controversial health-related proposals, such as mandating “anti-bias training” and an assessment based on that training as requirements for medical school graduates.
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The task force is also pushing for a universal, single-payer health care system as a way to achieve health “equality” for black residents of California.
Aaron Kliegman is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.
