Image source: Highland Marketing
Technology suppliers to the health sector need to become more inclusive in order to benefit patients, communities, but also their businesses, says Professor Bola Owolabi, an expert on health inequality.
Professor Owolabi is concerned that technology companies are not addressing bias in data due to not engaging with marginalised communities or embracing diversity. With the rise of artificial intelligence in healthcare and all sectors, she is especially concerned and told Highland Marketing: “The reference data upon which AI algorithms are being trained, and genomics interventions are being designed, is up to 96% European ancestry. That is a challenge, and the industry needs to be very clear-eyed about and understand the inherent bias in many of the technological products we are designing, constructing, and deploying on the basis of that reference data.”
These problems arise, she says, because only articulate users are engaged with. “There are large swathes of the community that might have poverty of devices, poverty of data and connectivity, or poverty of the built environment,” she says.
In the interview, Professor Owolabi points out that NHS England has a duty to deal with health inequalities, but she believes that responsibility goes beyond the NHS and to the health technology companies. “Technology is an enabler and accelerator for narrowing the gap on health inequalities – handled well,” she says. Adding that health technology providers need to work with under-represented communities to design systems that meet everyone’s needs.
Professor Owolabi was instrumental in the development of the Core20PLUS5 inclusivity approach, and advised the government during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure vaccines reached ethnic communities and created programs to help young mothers quit smoking. She continues to work as a GP in Derbyshire where her career began.
You can read the full interview here
