Computer algorithm used by thousands of US hospitals has an unintended bias against blacks

While the algorithm doesn’t see race, it works by analyzing past patient health care costs, which differ widely between races. “If you looked at two people, one black, one white, with the exact same risk score, the black patient was much more likely to go on to have worse health problems over the coming year than the white patient,” Obermeyer told AFP. “That’s the problem, because black patients, on average, generate fewer costs than white patients with the same level of health,” said Obermeyer. “But that’s not what these data sets are, these data sets come from financial transactions between the hospital and insurance, they come from doctors writing things down or not writing things down.” The company that markets the software has accepted a suggestion by researchers that is hoped to reduce the racial imbalance by more than 80 percent.