Racial and Social Justice

The faculty of the Department of Biomedical Informatics in Emory University's School of Medicine believe that Black lives matter and women’s rights matter. We believe that racial, social, and other forms of justice are not only inherently important but essential for the goals of our department.

While medicine has benefited the many, the long history of medicine is also one of unequal progress and ethical failings. In too many cases, marginalized groups have received fewer benefits of medical progress or were subjected to grievous harm for the sake of progress. Laws have restricted access to medicine in conflict with established scientific research and medical practice, or supported by spurious research and practices, often disproportionately affecting underserved groups. Even now, after decades of efforts to recognize and remedy these shortcomings, unequal and inequitable treatment and outcomes remain common in medicine.

These issues are even more concerning with the advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning in medicine. Despite the opportunity of algorithmic approaches to democratize medicine, algorithms can also serve to amplify our biases – intentionally or unintentionally – while applying a veneer of objectivity. The indiscriminate or malicious use of AI and ML in medicine are antithetical to the missions of racial and social justice.

The faculty of the Department of Biomedical Informatics pledge to promote racial and social justice in our research, teaching, mentoring, and hiring:

• Much of our research already addresses unequal and inequitable access to healthcare. We are committed to the pursuit of projects that advance justice in medicine.
• In the future, all of our courses will include societal impacts as a learning objective. We will develop a standalone course in ethical computing, and we will integrate practical ethics into our current and future course offerings.
• BMI has also committed to hiring faculty and researchers in this domain, and specifically to hire a tenure-track faculty member whose research focuses on bias in machine learning in the context of healthcare data. We strongly encourage applicants whose race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability and/or socioeconomic status have historically been disadvantages for advancement in academia.
• BMI is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse, inclusive, and safe environment, which is essential for the success of our research, teaching, mentoring, and hiring efforts.