The NHS AI Lab and @HealthFdn have awarded £1.4 million to 4 projects to address racial and ethnic health inequalities using artificial
Announcement here https://www.nhsx.nhs.uk/news/new-artificial-intelligence-projects-funded-to-tackle-health-inequalities/
A Drug Addiction Risk Algorithm and Its Grim Toll on Chronic Pain Sufferers
A sweeping AI has become central to how the US handles the opioid crisis. It may only be making the crisis worse.
With the creeping privatisation of our National Health Services, could the U.K. see similar opaque algorithms creating barriers here?
Digital vaccine passports are novel technologies, built on uncertain and evolving science. By creating infrastructure for segregation and risk scoring at an individual level, and enabling third-parties to access health information, they bring profound risks to individual rights and concepts of equity in society.
There is a growing body of evidence, however, that
pulse oximetry is less accurate in darker skinned
patients. Given the increased mortality amongst
ethnic minority patients during the Covid-19
pandemic, it is possible that the differential accuracy
of pulse oximetry is a contributing factor to this
health inequality
Black African migrants: the barriers with accessing and utilizing health promotion services in the UK
The inequalities for different ethnicities and social classes in accessing health services is well documented, but although a number of recent policy developments have aimed to tackle health inequalities, very little is known about the experiences of Black African migrant communities in accessing health promotion information and services. The aim of the study were to examine the experiences of Black African migrant families in accessing health promotion services.
Covid Vaccine: Employees Who Get Shots Enjoy More Office Benefits Than Holdouts - Bloomberg
In the U.K., a recent poll suggested that while Britons were strongly supportive of vaccine passports in principle, agreement broke down when asked whether they should be compulsory for pub visits. For marginalised groups, this feels like nudge theory to overcome a reluctance (based on real trauma) to trust public health services: “some employees who don’t want to get the vaccine feel harassed and ostracized.”
Inside the ‘Covid Triangle’: a catastrophe years in the making | Free to read
High levels of deprivation and job insecurity, vast income inequality, housing discrimination and medical disparities have long had a severe impact on the tangle of communities and ethnic minority populations that live in these boroughs. But when combined with the necessity to go to work, to take public transport and to share space in densely packed housing, they also provided the perfect breeding ground for a deadly virus. The domino effect would prove catastrophic.
Poverty, inequality and COVID-19: the forgotten vulnerable
For people of low socio-economic status (SES), a number of factors increase their exposure to COVID-19. Possible causal mechanisms include an increased exposure to the virus, the stress and comorbidities associated with poverty and reduced access to health care. UK policymakers rapidly identified people with multiple comorbidities as particularly vulnerable. However, they must expand their definition of vulnerability to include social factors as risks for COVID-19.