NAACP Launches AI-Focused Healthcare Initiative To Address Equity Gaps In Medicine

The Ace Your Health initiative aims to provide a equity-first framework for AI to benefit healthcare services.

The NAACP has launched a new initiative utilizing AI to bridge equity gaps in healthcare.

The civil rights organization has announced the ACE Your Health Initiative in collaboration with Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical company. The initiative aims to provide an “equity-first, human-centered approach” to healthcare service strengthened by AI.

In a white paper, the NAACP detailed the initiative’s plan and methodology toward further implementing healthcare in AI. The association intends for the advanced technology to work beyond illness prevention. It can also advance treatment and diagnosis of diseases within underserved communities. The initiative even intends for AI to assist with data collection as the need for diverse clinical trials remains.

“As a physician, I’ve seen what happens when systems are built without the people they are meant to serve,” said Dr. Chris Pernell, director of the NAACP Center for Health Equity, in a press release. “AI can transform patient care, but only if it reflects the real lives and experiences of our communities. When Black, Brown, and underserved patients are missing from the data, they are missing from the solutions. Health AI must be built with dignity, transparency, and centered on the communities it’s meant to benefit.”

However, the association also emphasized the need for responsible usage of AI. Despite the technology offering abundant medical opportunities, rising concerns about an “AI divide” persist. This issue primarily stems from inequitable integration, particularly with biased datasets.

To combat this, Ace Your Health will implement a model to foster accountability and ethical responsibility as the technology becomes more deeply ingrained across various healthcare services. The initiative will later publish equity impact assessments, using fairness metrics and inclusive data practices to ensure these changes.

To engage the community, the initiative will also focus on AI literacy. This additional element will ensure patients and providers are aware of how the technology will serve in these capacities.

“Even as AI promises to deliver more personalized and predictive healthcare, the perils — both known and unknown — require attention to ethics, safety, and equity,” added S. Craig Watkins, Ph.D., ACE Your Health AI Taskforce chair. “The ACE Your Health initiative is poised to leverage the wide range of voices — clinical, community, and industry — necessary to build an AI governance framework that is actionable, impactful, and inspired from the ground up.”

With this framework in place, Ace Your Health will put Black and Brown communities at the forefront of healthcare advancement. Ahead of its release, the initiative will rely on guidance from industry leaders, healthcare systems, policymakers, and others as it holistically develops this plan.