A biased algorithm is delaying healthcare for black people in the US

Black people in the US may be missing out on healthcare because a widely used algorithm is racially biased. The proportion of black people referred for extra care would more than double if the bias were removed, according to new research. Algorithms are fast becoming a key part of healthcare. Such technologies are used to screen somewhere between 100 and 200 million people in the US, says Ziad Obermeyer at the University of California, Berkeley. One example is an algorithm that is used to predict the future health of individuals based on their past health records.