A member of the Wayne State University School of Medicine faculty has been awarded entrance into a national program to advance health equity through the use of Artificial Intelligence, or AI.
Ijeoma Nnodim Opara, M.D., assistant professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, has joined Equity in Population Health AI: Beyond the EHR Training Program, presented by the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity And Researcher Diversity, or AIM-AHEAD, and the Science Collaborative for Health Disparities and Artificial Intelligence Bias Reduction, or ScHARE.
No more than 25 participants across the nation have been selected for the program, which seeks to support institutions in building AI/ML infrastructure and to ensure compliance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act.
The purpose of the program, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is to support institutions in building AI/ML infrastructure and to enhance diversity in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning, with emphasis on reducing health disparities and promoting health equity. The selected participants started in January an eight-month program that will provide them with health equity research and skills to apply AI and machine learning to population health datasets, and training in community-engaged science methods.
The AIM-AHEAD ScHARE program seeks to expand AI/ML resources and build capacity for data-sharing in underrepresented institutions, fostering collaborations and infrastructure to support equitable health research for more inclusive health outcomes.
“I believe that AI/ML is the most transformative technology of our time and will affect every industry and aspect of our lives,” said Dr. Opara, who also co-leads the School of Medicine’s End Race-Based Medicine Taskforce. “It is imperative that we, clinicians, scientists, researchers and communities, understand this technology, learn how to utilize it ethically and meaningfully, and contribute to its ongoing development and mitigate AI bias.”
Dr. Opara hopes to work in interdisciplinary teams to build AI predictive models that enable clinicians, community leaders and policymakers to address barriers to health care and leverage community assets to ensure structurally-excluded communities receive tailored and equitable health interventions. She also intends to contribute to the creation of community-informed AI-driven decision support tools that prioritize the needs and assets of socially vulnerable communities.
Upon completing the program, she plans to integrate AI/ML into her population health research as it relates to the cardiovascular and maternal health of Black and African American communities. She also plans to serve as a program mentor and contribute to building a diverse cohort of population health researchers empowered to use AI/ML to eliminate health disparities and promote equity.