Eva Maria Hille

‘Algorithmic bias’ in health care? A socio-ethical problem

Biases shape our daily decisions. They cause us to attribute certain characteristics to people and therefore to treat them differently. These attributions can have a disadvantageous effect in the healthcare sector. With the use of artificial intelligence, these disadvantages can intensify, e.g. diseases of BIPOC patients* are systematically diagnosed worse than those of patients of white skin color. These biases, summarized as ‘algorithmic bias’, are therefore not only problems on a technical level, but also on a social one. They can cause or reinforce experiences of discrimination and marginalization. In my research, I examine this connection from a socio-ethical perspective.