The UK health secretary, Sajid Javid, has announced a review into systemic racism and gender bias in medical devices in response to concerns it could contribute to poorer outcomes for women and people of colour. Writing in the Sunday Times, Javid said: "It is easy to look at a machine and assume that everyone's getting the same experience. But technologies are created and developed by people, and so bias, however inadvertent, can be an issue here too." We take a look at some of the gadgets used in healthcare where concerns over racial bias have been raised. Oximeters estimate the amount of oxygen in a person's blood, and are a crucial tool in determining which Covid patients may need hospital care – not least because some can have dangerously low levels of oxygen without realising.

UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid has greenlit a series of AI-based projects that aim to tackle racial inequalities in the NHS. Racial inequality continues to be rampant in healthcare. Examining the fallout of COVID-19 serves as yet another example of the disparity between ethnicities. In England and Wales, males of Black African ethnic background had the highest rate of death involving COVID-19, 2.7 times higher than males of a White ethnic background. Females of Black Caribbean ethnic background had the highest rate, 2.0 times higher than females of White ethnic background.

Artificial intelligence is to be used to tackle racial inequalities in the NHS under government plans to "level up" healthcare. It is hoped that millions of black, Asian and minority ethnic Britons will benefit from revolutionary computer techniques designed to transform care and speed up diagnoses of potentially deadly conditions. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has given the green light to a series of hi-tech initiatives aimed at tackling health disparities in the UK. It comes amid mounting concern over the issue among senior ministers. New projects include drawing up fresh standards for health data inclusivity amid fears that the datasets at the moment fail to adequately represent people from ethnic minority backgrounds.