Algorithmic Discrimination and Health Equity (Algorithms in Public Policy)
Friday, February 3, 2023 · 12 - 1pm CST
Jessica L. Roberts, Director of the Health Law & Policy Institute, will be presenting on algorithmic discrimination in health care.
About the event
American health care is notoriously expensive, difficult to access, and discriminatory. Integrating AI into health care has the potential to reduce costs and improve accessibility. However, AI—both in health care and beyond—also has the potential to discriminate. Unfortunately, in the United States, existing health care antidiscrimination laws will do little to combat algorithmic discrimination. This Chapter explores the potential health impacts of discriminatory AI, with a focus on health disparities populations. Part I describes the possible sources of algorithmic bias and demonstrates how those technologies could create or exacerbate health disparities. Part II turns to our novel policy solutions for addressing algorithmic discrimination in health care.
Jessica L. Roberts is the Director of the Health Law & Policy Institute and the Leonard H. Childs Chair in Law. Professor Roberts' research operates at the intersection of health law, ethics, and social justice. Her scholarship has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, Northwestern Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Science, JAMA Health Forum, and Nature Biotechnology, among others. Cambridge University Press published her book on "healthism," co-authored with Elizabeth Weeks, in 2018. Professor Roberts has received funding from the Greenwall Foundation and the National Institutes of Health for her work on the legal implications of genetic technology. She teaches, or has taught, Genetics & the Law, Disabilities & the Law, Contracts, and Health Law.
Bio
Jessica L. Roberts is the Director of the Health Law & Policy Institute and the Leonard Childs Professor in Law, who specializes in genetics and the law, health law, and disability law. Prior to UH, Professor Roberts was an Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School and an Adjunct Professor of Disability Studies at the City University of New York. Immediately after law school, she clerked for the Honorable Dale Wainwright of the Texas Supreme Court and the Honorable Roger L. Gregory of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Professor Roberts' research operates at the intersection of health law, ethics, and social justice. Her scholarship has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, Northwestern Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review (twice), University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, the American Journal of Bioethics, Nature Biotechnology (twice), and JAMA Internal Medicine, among others. Cambridge University Press published her book on "healthism," co-authored with Elizabeth Weeks Leonard, in 2018.
Her recent scholarship focuses on people’s legal interests in their genetic data. Professor Roberts has received funding from the Greenwall Foundation and the National Institutes of Health for her work on the legal implications of genetic technology.
A noted expert on diverse issues of health law, Professor Roberts has been interviewed by several leading media outlets, including U.S. News, the New York Times (twice), the Washington Post, the Houston Chronicle, National Public Radio, and BBC World Service.
Professor Roberts has received the university-wide Teaching Excellence Award and the Provost's Certificate of Excellence. She was named a 2018 Greenwall Faculty Scholar in Bioethics and is a Health Policy Scholar with Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Medical Ethics & Health Policy.
Professor Roberts teaches, or has taught, Genetics & the Law, Disabilities & the Law, Contracts, and Health Law.