Seeking to curb racial bias in medicine, Doris Duke Fund awards $10 million to health groups

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is awarding more than $10 million to five health organizations to reconsider the use of race in medical algorithms, which research shows can lead to potentially dangerous results for patients of color.

Physicians have used medical assessment tools and algorithms since the 1970s to help make decisions about patient care. These tools look at multiple factors including, unbeknownst to most patients, race. Recent studies have found that some algorithms that consider race lead to biased assessments and the denial of treatment options.

For example, one study found that a kidney-function calculator adjusted measurements for Black patients in a way that made them more likely to be ineligible to get on a kidney transplant list. Another calculator used to determine whether it was healthy for pregnant women to deliver vaginally if they had ever had a C-section underestimated the odds for Black and Hispanic women.

The Doris Duke Foundation’s grants come amid a reckoning within the medical profession about racial bias in clinical algorithms and a broader push in philanthropy to promote equity in medical research.