AI in Healthcare: Mitigating Disparities, Biases & Misinformation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and social media are finding useful applications in health care, yet, their use may perpetuate or even accentuate inequities, disparities, and the critical role of social determinants of health, or even facilitate the spread of health-related misinformation. The symposium will convene AI experts, medical researchers and practitioners, and computer and social scientists. The objective is to seek consensus and synthesize ideas coming from different vantage points on how to (1) approach algorithmic or data biases and develop methods to mitigate them, (2) develop a framework to leverage AI as part of a learning, continually improving health systems, and (3) grapple with the increasing influence of social media in the public perception of health issues, especially their role in spreading misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a virtual symposium hosted by the Hariri Institute’s Leveraging AI to Examine Disparities and Bias in Health Care Focused Research Program and co-sponsored by the BU Center for Information & Systems Engineering and the BU School of Public Health.