Recommendations to promote fairness and inclusion in biomedical AI research and clinical use

Objective: Understanding and quantifying biases when designing and implementing actionable approaches to increase fairness and inclusion is critical for artificial intelligence (AI) in biomedical applications.

Methods: In this Special Communication, we discuss how bias is introduced at different stages of the development and use of AI applications in biomedical sciences and health care. We describe various AI applications and their implications for fairness and inclusion in sections on 1) Bias in Data Source Landscapes, 2) Algorithmic Fairness, 3) Uncertainty in AI Predictions, 4) Explainable AI for Fairness and Equity, and 5) Sociological/Ethnographic Issues in Data and Results Representation.

Results: We provide recommendations to address biases when developing and using AI in clinical applications.

Conclusion: These recommendations can be applied to informatics research and practice to foster more equitable and inclusive health care systems and research discoveries.