PROFESSOR GERKE SPEAKS AT THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE’S LEADERSHIP CONSORTIUM
August 2021 — The National Academy of Medicine’s Leadership Consortium Digital Health Action Collaborative and Culture Inclusion & Equity Action Collaborative held an event on August 18 to discuss how to realize the potential of AI in achieving equitable health for all populations. As one of the reactors at this meeting, Professor Sara Gerke provided feedback to all presentations and highlighted key takeaways on how to realize equitable AI that benefits all of us.
This meeting aimed to start to answer questions, such as: How can we release the full potential of AI in achieving equitable health for all populations? What aspects contribute to the disparities in the development, deployment, and use of AI-based products? What are scenarios that pose a risk of creating a biased model? What can AI stakeholders do to support equity?
Professor Gerke highlighted, among other things, that we could do a better job in developing AI-based products that are ethical and trustworthy. We still have a long way to go to live in a world in which technology reduces existing disparities in health rather than augment them. For example, new datasets are needed that are ethical, trustworthy, and accessible.
Based on this meeting, the National Academy of Medicine will seek to identify action tasks to promote best practices guiding the development of AI-based products to enhance resiliency, health system outcomes, and equity.
Professor Sara Gerke is an Assistant Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law. Her research focuses on the ethical and legal challenges of artificial intelligence and big data for health care and health law in the United States and Europe. Before joining Penn State Dickinson Law, Professor Gerke served as a Research Fellow in Medicine, Artificial Intelligence, and Law at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School for the Project on Precision Medicine, Artificial Intelligence, and the Law (PMAIL).