Race, Data Algorithms, and Health

This course studies the interplay between race, data and algorithms in healthcare. The particular viewpoint we want to take is to understand the role of data, data analysis and algorithms in supporting equitable delivery of health care to members of all races. Topics as "representative data", "machine bias", "algorithmic fairness" are going to be central to the discussion. However, we want to stress the uniqueness of the "medicine/health care" viewpoint. For example, while in contexts as loan applications, it is normative that race information (or its proxies) not to be included among the variables used for decision, in healthcare, information on race is routinely collected in the attempt to provide "best" care. One of the goals of the class will be to understand what are the differences between biological populations and social environments that a doctor needs to be aware of as opposed to overly emphasized or imaginary ones. This will provide a context to understand the challenges that data collection and analysis faces to support equitable care.