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The Need for Use of Race Correction in Clinical Algorithms
Hidden in Plain Sight — Reconsidering the Use of Race Correction in Clinical Algorithms | NEJM
Medicine and Society from The New England Journal of Medicine — Hidden in Plain Sight — Reconsidering the Use of Race Correction in Clinical Algorithms
Physicians still lack consensus on the meaning of race within medical science; there is an ongoing debate as to whether racial and ethnic categories can reflect underlying population genetics, and be clinically useful. Despite ongoing debates, this belief has become embedded within medical practice. This research paper examines how the algorithms used by clinicians to individualise risk assessment take race into the account. The research shows how embedding race into the basic data and decisions of healthcare propagates race-based medicine, in ways that could direct more attention and resources to white patients than members of racial or ethnic minorities.