embedded bias
The struggle over removing race from clinical algorithms
For many patients, it comes as a shock to learn that calculators used to guide their care give different answers depending on their race. This series explores how these race-based clinical algorithms came to pervade medicine, the harm they may cause — and why it’s proving so difficult to remove race from the equation.
Discover the Embedded Bias series
part 1
part 1
Doctors use problematic race-based algorithms to guide care every day. Why are they so hard to change?
read the story
part 4
part 4
part 3
part 3
Coming 9/ Inside the bruising battle to purge race from a kidney disease calculator
part 2
part 2
Coming 9/ How race became ubiquitous in medical
decision-making tools
dive deeper
Dive deeper
Why clinicians are reconsidering race-based algorithms
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Explore the clinical tools that use race to steer patient care
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Has your medical care been impacted by the use of race in medical decision-making tools?
STAT reporters Katie Palmer and Usha Lee McFarling spent the last year investigating the use of race in the often-invisible decision-making tools widely used by physicians, how they may harm patients, and why race is proving so difficult to remove from hundreds of these algorithms. They spoke with more than 100 clinicians, researchers, and health leaders to understand their concerns about perpetuating bias, and why some fear removing race without enough research could increase health disparities.
Behind the investigation
Credits
Writing and reporting Katie Palmer and Usha Lee McFarling
Editing Gideon Gil
Video Hyacinth Empinado
Database J. Emory Parker and Katie Palmer
Art and photo direction Alissa Ambrose
Additional photo editing Crystal Milner
Copy editing Karen Pennar
Additional editing Rick Berke, Lison Joseph
Design and Development Jennifer Keefe, Julia Bujalski, Ben Lokshin
Coming 9/ Upending a longstanding paradigm, cardiologists embrace zip codes, not race, to predict heart risk
part 5
part 5
Coming 9/. She was told she might have cancer: How medicine pathologizes Black patients' normal test results
part 6
part 6
Coming 9/1. A race-free algorithm is merely the start for a safety net hospital confronting an onslaught of kidney disease
Coming 9/11AI threatens to cement racial bias in clinical algorithms. Could it also chart a path forward?
part 7
part 7
read the story
Explore the clinical tools that use race to steer patient care
search the database →
embedded bias
embedded bias
embedded bias
part 2
part 2
How race became ubiquitous in medical decision-making tools
read the story
part 3
part 3
Inside the bruising battle to purge race from a kidney disease calculator
read the story
part 4
Upending a longstanding paradigm, cardiologists embrace zip codes, not race, to predict heart risk
part 4
read the story
part 5
part 5
She was told she might have cancer: How medicine pathologizes Black patients' 'normal' test results
read the story
A race-free algorithm is merely the start for a safety net hospital confronting an onslaught of kidney disease
part 6
part 6
read the story
AI threatens to cement racial bias in clinical algorithms. Could it also chart a path forward?
part 7
part 7
read the story
read the story
part 2
part 2
How race became ubiquitous in medical decision-making tools
part 3
part 3
Inside the bruising battle to purge race from a kidney disease calculator
read the story
part 4
Upending a longstanding paradigm, cardiologists embrace zip codes, not race, to predict heart risk
part 4
read the story
part 5
part 5
She was told she might have cancer: How medicine pathologizes Black patients' 'normal' test results
read the story
A race-free algorithm is merely the start for a safety net hospital confronting an onslaught of kidney disease
part 6
part 6
read the story
AI threatens to cement racial bias in clinical algorithms. Could it also chart a path forward?
part 7
part 7
read the story
part 2
part 2
How race became ubiquitous in medical decision-making tools
read the story
part 3
part 3
Inside the bruising battle to purge race from a kidney disease calculator
read the story
part 4
Upending a longstanding paradigm, cardiologists embrace zip codes, not race, to predict heart risk
part 4
read the story
part 5
part 5
She was told she might have cancer: How medicine pathologizes Black patients' 'normal' test results
read the story
A race-free algorithm is merely the start for a safety net hospital confronting an onslaught of kidney disease
part 6
part 6
read the story
AI threatens to cement racial bias in clinical algorithms. Could it also chart a path forward?
part 7
part 7
read the story
Coming 9/4
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Coming 9/9
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Coming 9/5
Coming 9/6
Coming 9/9
Coming 9/10
Coming 9/11
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Coming 9/11