Download PDF
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Yearb Med Inform 2022; 31(01): 100-104
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1742536
Special Section: Inclusive Digital Health
Synopsis

Special Section on Inclusive Digital Health: Notable Papers on Addressing Bias, Equity, and Literacy to Strengthen Health Systems

Brian E. Dixon
1   Department of Epidemiology, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, USA
2   Center for Biomedical Informatics, Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, IN, USA
,
John H. Holmes
3   Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
4   Institute for Biomedical Informatics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
› Author Affiliations
› Further Information
   Permissions and Reprints

Summary

Objective: To summarize significant research contributions on addressing bias, equity, and literacy in health delivery systems published in 2021.

Methods: An extensive search using PubMed and Scopus was conducted to identify peer-reviewed articles published in 2021 that examined ways that informatics methods, approaches, and tools could address bias, equity, and literacy in health systems and care delivery processes. The selection process comprised three steps: (1) 15 candidate best papers were first selected by the two section editors; (2) external reviewers from internationally renowned research teams reviewed each candidate best paper; and (3) the final selection of three best papers was conducted by the editorial committee of the Yearbook.

Results: Selected best papers represent studies that characterized significant challenges facing biomedical informatics with respect to equity and practices that support equity and literacy in the design of health information systems. Selected papers represent the full spectrum of this year’s yearbook theme. In general, papers identified in the search fell into one of the following categories: (1) descriptive accounts of algorithmic bias in medical software or machine learning approaches; (2) enabling health information systems to appropriately encode for gender identity and sex; (3) approaches to support health literacy among individuals who interact with information systems and mobile applications; and (4) approaches to engage diverse populations in the use of health information systems and the biomedical informatics workforce

Conclusions: Although the selected papers are notable, our collective efforts as a biomedical informatics community to address equity, literacy, and bias remain nascent. More work is needed to ensure health information systems are just in their use of advanced computing approaches and all persons have equal access to health care and informatics tools.

Keywords

Medical informatics - public health informatics - health equity - gender equity - health literacy

Section Editors for the IMIA Yearbook Section on Inclusive Digital Health




Publication History

Article published online:
04 December 2022

© 2022. IMIA and Thieme. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 

  • References

  • 1 Gross CP, Essien UR, Pasha S, Gross JR, Wang SY, Nunez-Smith M. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Population-Level Covid-19 Mortality. J Gen Intern Med 2020 Oct;35(10):3097-9.
    PubMed
  • 2 Alcendor DJ. Racial Disparities-Associated COVID-19 Mortality among Minority Populations in the US. J Clin Med 2020 Jul 30;9(8):2442.
    PubMed
  • 3 Dixon BE, Grannis SJ, Lembcke LR, Valvi N, Roberts AR, Embi PJ. The synchronicity of COVID-19 disparities: Statewide epidemiologic trends in SARS-CoV-2 morbidity, hospitalization, and mortality among racial minorities and in rural America. PLoS One 2021 Jul 23;16(7):e0255063.
    PubMed
  • 4 Hansotte E, Bowman E, Gibson PJ, Dixon BE, Madden VR, Caine VA. Supporting Health Equity Through Data-Driven Decision-Making: A Local Health Department Response to COVID-19. Am J Public Health 2021 Oct;111(S3):S197-S200.
    PubMed
  • 5 Romano SD, Blackstock AJ, Taylor EV, El Burai Felix S, Adjei S, Singleton CM, Fuld J, et al. Trends in Racial and Ethnic Disparities in COVID-19 Hospitalizations, by Region - United States, March-December 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021 Apr 16;70(15):560-5.
    PubMed
  • 6 Mishra S, Ma H, Moloney G, Yiu KCY, Darvin D, Landsman D, et al; COVID-19 Heterogeneity Research Group. Increasing concentration of COVID-19 by socioeconomic determinants and geography in Toronto, Canada: an observational study. Ann Epidemiol 2022 Jan;65:84-92.
    PubMed
  • 7 Luxenburg O, Singer C, Myers V, Wilf-Miron R, Saban M. Sociodemographic disparities in COVID-19 burden: changing patterns over four pandemic waves in Israel. J Epidemiol Community Health 2022 Apr 26:jech-2021-217993.
    PubMed
  • 8 Panch T, Mattie H, Atun R. Artificial intelligence and algorithmic bias: implications for health systems. J Glob Health 2019 Dec;9(2):010318.
    PubMed
  • 9 Braun L, Wentz A, Baker R, Richardson E, Tsai J. Racialized algorithms for kidney function: Erasing social experience. Soc Sci Med 2021 Jan;268:113548.
    PubMed
  • 10 de Souza IM, Hughes GD, van Wyk BE, Mathews V, de Araújo EM. Comparative Analysis of the Constitution and Implementation of Race/Skin Color Field in Health Information Systems: Brazil and South Africa. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 2021 Apr;8(2):350-62.
    PubMed
  • 11 Kordzadeh N, Ghasemaghaei M. Algorithmic bias: review, synthesis, and future research directions. Eur J Inf Syst 2022;31:388-409.
    PubMed
  • 12 Antonio M, Lau F, Davison K, Devor A, Queen R, Courtney K. Toward an inclusive digital health system for sexual and gender minorities in Canada. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2022 Jan 12;29(2):379-84.
    PubMed
  • 13 Pho AT, Bakken S, Lunn MR, Lubensky ME, Flentje A, Dastur Z, et al. Online health information seeking, health literacy, and human papillomavirus vaccination among transgender and gender-diverse people. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2022 Jan 12;29(2):285-95.
    PubMed
  • 14 Thompson HM, Kronk CA, Feasley K, Pachwicewicz P, Karnik NS. Implementation of Gender Identity and Assigned Sex at Birth Data Collection in Electronic Health Records: Where Are We Now? Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021 Jun 19;18(12):6599.
    PubMed
  • 15 Bright TJ, Williams KS, Rajamani S, Tiase VL, Senathirajah Y, Hebert C, et al. Making the case for workforce diversity in biomedical informatics to help achieve equity-centered care: a look at the AMIA First Look Program. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2021 Dec 28;29(1):171-5.
    PubMed
  • 16 Geana MV, Anderson S, Lipnicky A, Wickliffe JL, Ramaswamy M. Managing Technology, Content, and User Experience: An mHealth Intervention to Improve Women's Health Literacy after Incarceration. J Health Care Poor Underserved 2021;32:106-27.
    PubMed
  • 17 Kostagiolas P, Koumbouli M, Theodorou P, Stamou S. Investigation of the Information-Seeking Behavior of Hospitalized Patients at the General Hospital of Corfu. J Hosp Librariansh 2021;21(1):36-60.
    PubMed
  • 18 Reuland CJ, Godage SK, Wu L, Valenzuela-Araujo D, Cortez JD, Polk S, et al. Information and Communication Technology Access and Use Among Low-Income Latino Immigrant Parents. Matern Child Health J 2021 Dec;25(12):1807-13.
    PubMed
  • 19 Wang C, Paasche-Orlow MK, Bowen DJ, Cabral H, Winter MR, Norkunas Cunningham T, et al. Utility of a virtual counselor (VICKY) to collect family health histories among vulnerable patient populations: A randomized controlled trial. Patient Educ Couns 2021 May;104(5):979-88.
    PubMed
  • 20 Chunara R, Zhao Y, Chen J, Lawrence K, Testa PA, Nov O, et al. Telemedicine and healthcare disparities: a cohort study in a large healthcare system in New York City during COVID-19. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2021 Jan 15;28(1):33-41.
    PubMed
  • 21 Samuel CA, Smith AB, Elkins W, Richmond J, Mahbooba Z, Basch E, et al. Racial differences in user experiences and perceived value of electronic symptom monitoring in a cohort of black and white bladder and prostate cancer patients. Qual Life Res 2021 Nov;30(11):3213-27.
    PubMed
  • 2 Siegal R, Cooper H, Capers T, Kilmer RP, Cook JR, Garo L. Using geographic information systems to inform the public health response to COVID-19 and structural racism: The role of place-based initiatives. J Community Psychol 2022 Aug;50(6):2611-29.
    PubMed
  • 23 Vigil-Hayes M, Collier AF, Hagemann S, Castillo G, Mikkelson K, Dingman J, et al. Integrating Cultural Relevance into a Behavioral mHealth Intervention for Native American Youth. Proc ACM Hum Comput Interact 2021 Apr;5(CSCW1):165.
    PubMed