QUESTION
Council Member Schulman and Dr. Morse Discuss Race and Health Calculators
0:49:55
·
138 sec
Council Member Lynn Schulman questions Dr. Michelle Morse about the exclusion of race and ethnicity in health risk calculators, specifically concerning heart age. Dr. Morse elaborates on the nuanced debate surrounding the inclusion of race and ethnicity in clinical diagnostics, emphasizing the need to balance its use to prevent the normalization of racial inequities while targeting resources effectively to reduce health disparities.
Speaker 2
0:49:55
So the heart age calculated tool is great for providing an estimate of your heart age based on risk factors, but does not include an option for race or ethnicity.
0:50:03
Based on the known disparities and risk factors for black and brown women, why is Rae's not accounted for in the calculator?
Speaker 4
0:50:09
Thank you for the question.
0:50:10
This is a a very hotly debated topic right now in clinical care and in medicine is when should race and ethnicity be used in calculators and in algorithms to help providers to diagnose and treat illness.
0:50:30
It's happily debated because on the one hand, race can be a marker for risk of having worse outcome.
0:50:39
On the other hand, race is not a biological category at all.
0:50:44
And so because race is a social categorization, not a biological one, it can be blurry to side, when to include race and when not to.
0:50:56
Sometimes if you include race in a calculator, it can mean that it kind of normalizes a racial inequity in a particular disease instead of really highlighting that the only reason that that disease is more common in say black women is actually because of social factors, including racism, not because of black race itself.
0:51:19
And so we have to play this very difficult balance between when to include race and when not to.
0:51:26
In general, our guidance and our belief is that rates should be included only when it's going to help us reduce racial inequities.
0:51:35
If race is included in a calculator or an algorithm in a way that normalizes or even worsens racial inequities, then it's not useful.
0:51:44
If it's included in a way that is going to allow us to target resources to communities that have unfair outcomes, then it is a helpful tool to include.
0:51:54
So for the heart age calculator, I would say we have more conversation to be had.
0:52:00
About whether or not it's a useful tool in reducing racial inequities in heart disease.
Speaker 2
0:52:05
So and the the last thing I wanna raise for right now is So there are and it's just something to think about in terms of healthy NYSE.