In defense of empathic informatics.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Informatics
• Health Equity Research
• AI Ethics

Background:

• Recent U.S. federal executive orders have introduced restrictions impacting discussions on diversity and gender.
• These restrictions pose potential challenges to the field of biomedical informatics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the implications of recent governmental restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) discussions within biomedical informatics.
• To assess the potential impact on research related to fairness and bias in AI and machine learning.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of U.S. federal executive orders concerning diversity and gender issues.
• Discussion of the implications for biomedical informatics research and practice.

Main Results:

• Restrictions on terminology can impede research on critical issues like bias and fairness in clinical AI and machine learning algorithms.
• Limitations may reduce the scope of informatics research and hinder efforts to increase diverse perspectives in the field.

Conclusions:

• A unified community response is necessary to address threats to DEI research in biomedical informatics.
• Organizations like the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) can facilitate a collective stance in support of DEI.
• The informatics community must unequivocally support diversity, equity, and inclusion for underrepresented perspectives.