Maintaining Health Equity in Precision Surgery

Area of Science:

• Surgical innovation
• Health equity
• Medical ethics

Background:

• Precision medicine and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming surgical care.
• Existing healthcare disparities risk being amplified by new technologies.
• Ensuring fairness in surgical decision-making is paramount.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the impact of AI and precision medicine on health equity in surgery.
• To identify how biases in algorithms and technology access create disparities.
• To propose actionable strategies for mitigating inequities in thoracic surgery.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of biases in clinical algorithms and race-based corrections.
• Evaluation of unequal access to advanced technologies like next-generation sequencing.
• Review of current practices in pulmonary function testing and risk modeling.

Main Results:

• Biased algorithms and unequal technology access perpetuate disparities in thoracic surgery.
• Race-based corrections in clinical practice can exacerbate inequities.
• Current risk models may not adequately account for diverse patient populations.

Conclusions:

• Mitigating inequities requires adopting race-neutral pulmonary function testing.
• Refining risk models to be equitable is essential for fair surgical decision-making.
• Implementing policies promoting fairness is critical for equitable patient care in precision surgery.