Education

While learning how I can use my evolving computing and tech skills to help identify health disparities so that they can be addressed and in turn, improve overall public health. In the U.S. many health disparities have raised significant amounts in the past couple of years, but through my research I have learned that through the work of engineering mixed with our fundamental science can help us understand these health disparities 

Health disparities are challenges people face in their health care based on their, background, gender, etc. A two-part study which was conducted at grove school of engineering at the city college of New York to educate kids in health disparities and also, show them a pathway into STEM. The students were given many surveys and assignments to complete to educate them on the rising cost of US health care along with a rise in STEM majors which I found very interesting because of my background in STEM. In the second part of the project the students used health disparity data to understand which is an important skill in STEM while also educating them on health disparities. And lastly the students at the start of the course were asked “Why are true challenges in US health disparities important” 45 percent of the students responded with “I don’t know,” 33 percent responded with different types of health insurance plans, and 12 percent claimed they felt it was not important, and the remaining said that health disparities were only in diseases.  At the end of the course there was real change as 31 percent said they are important because they are caused by, or were symptoms of, inequality and unfairness in health services, health research, or health care, 28 percent they are import because they disproportionately affect my community, 29 percent said they were a great national expense and 12% said they were important because they were in need of engineering tools. 

Students’ understanding and grasp of these complex community-based concerns improves when engineering undergraduates are exposed to health disparities in many situations and may even help them present solutions. When people are exposed to health disparities as an engineering problem when they are younger, they will help in research of health disparities in the STEM fields, as well as the incorporation of health disparities into engineering

References:

Vazquez M. Engaging Biomedical Engineering in Health Disparities Challenges. J Community Med Health Educ. 2018;8(2):595. doi:10.4172/2161-0711.1000595

One of the biggest messages spread around almost every school is an anti-bullying campaign. A lot of students don’t pay attention to these because it seems normal to be picked on by your peers, or made fun of because of how you dress or your income status. Stopbullying.gov lists out some of the most common risk factors for kids who have been bullied, including being perceived as different from others,  and weaker or seemingly easier to prey on. The impacts of bullying are lightly addressed, but to what extent do they affect people?

Stopbullying.gov states that children who experienced bullying have “Decreased academic achievement—GPA and standardized test scores—and school participation. They are more likely to miss, skip, or drop out of school.” The CDC elaborates how about 160,000 high schoolers missed school because of bullying or violence at school. In 2019, about 20% of high schoolers reported having experienced bullying, 16% of which was online. Not to mention how “Overall, individuals with less education are more likely to experience a number of health risks, such as obesity, substance abuse, and intentional and unintentional injury, compared with individuals with more education.4 Higher levels of education are associated with a longer life and an increased likelihood of obtaining or understanding basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.”

In the end, bullying obviously has no good results, and a mere constant of insults can greatly impact many people for the rest of their lives. A youth disparity index by the CDC confirms, “These trends are consistent with previous studies that show LGBTQ students are at a disproportionately higher risk for negative health outcomes related to sexual behaviors, experiences of violence, substance use, and mental health, including suicide, and poor academic performance”. Being targeted at school can affect a student’s mental and physical health, along with stunting their academic growth.

Works cited: 

Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA). “Effects of Bullying.” StopBullying.gov, 21 May 2021, https://www.stopbullying.gov/bullying/effects.

“Health Disparities.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 24 Nov. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/disparities/index.htm#:~:text=Health%20disparities%20are%20preventable%20differences,experienced%20by%20socially%20disadvantaged%20populations.

“YRBSS Data & Documentation.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 May 2022, https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/data.htm.

By researching health disparities, I am learning that there are disparities in access to health insurance and healthcare, quality of care received based on geographic regions, and real biological differences. For example, University of Michigan Medicine researchers have been studying racial disparities in the healthcare system to gain a better understanding of how complex factors create differing health outcomes for Black and white Americans. With this research I am learning how the use of artificial intelligence (AI ) in healthcare helps combat some of these disparities.

Researchers note that Black patients tend to report suffering more intense pain than white patients but are less likely to undergo knee replacement surgery. Interestingly, U-Michigan researchers are training a new algorithm to read knee X-rays for patients with arthritis found that their AI program performed more efficiently in diagnosing Black patients’ reported pain than human radiologists. 

Yet, my research revealed that some AI tools have increased disparities rather than combating them. For example, an algorithm previously used by a health insurance company to predict future healthcare costs and recommend patients for care actually reduced care provided for Black patients from 50% to 20%. As AI and ML algorithms scale, they take more repetitive tasks, so inequities included in these algorithms can increase as well. As these algorithms used cost as an endpoint, the algorithm was faulty, even though it was intended to be theoretically race-blind.  In contrast, the algorithm researchers trained on knee X-rays was “trained on patient reports of pain” so as Black patients reported higher levels of pain with clinically equivalent images, AI-assisted Xray readings were improved and resulted in more accurate diagnosis of disease patterns and in turn, led to better care for Black patients.

References:

Adnan Asar “AI Could Reduce Racial Disparities In Healthcare” Forbes Technology Council 1 Oct 2021 online.

Jordyn Imhoff “Health Inequality Actually Is a “Black and White Issue” University of Michigan Health 3 June 2020 online.

Wired “New Algorithms Could Reduce Racial Disparities in Health Care: Machine learning programs trained with patients’ own reports find problems that doctors miss—especially in Black people” 25 Jan 2021 online.