New £1.4m AI funding aims to reduce racial health inequalities

Four projects have received a share of £1.4million to use artificial intelligence to address racial and ethical health inequalities. The funding, a joint programme with the NHSX AI Lab and the Health Foundation, aims to ensure healthcare solutions don't "exacerbate existing health inequalities". The four projects range from using artificial intelligence (AI) to investigate disparities in maternal health outcomes, to developing standards and guidance to ensure that datasets for training and testing AI systems are inclusive and generalisable. Dr Indra Joshi, director of the AI Lab at NHSX, said: "As we strive to ensure NHS patients are amongst the first in the world to benefit from leading AI, we also have a responsibility to ensure those technologies don't exacerbate existing health inequalities. "These projects will ensure the NHS can deploy safe and ethical artificial intelligence tools that meet the needs of minority communities and help our workforce deliver patient-centred and inclusive care to all." Speaking exclusively to The Guardian today (October 20) health secretary Sajid Javid said he was committed to "removing barriers" in the NHS. "As the first health and social care secretary from an ethnic minority background, I care deeply about tackling the disparities which exist within the healthcare system.