Show notes
This episode of *Women Investing in Women* focuses on the intersection of healthcare, AI, gender bias, and racial disparities, particularly as they affect women.The hosts begin by honoring Ananda Lewis, a woman who passed away from breast cancer, and use her story to highlight the challenges women face with invasive and uncomfortable medical procedures. They discuss how AI, while inherently unbiased, often replicates societal and historical biases due to flawed and skewed data, particularly the underrepresentation of women—and especially women of color—in clinical trials.The episode addresses the longstanding systemic neglect and mistreatment of women’s health, exemplified by stories of medical neglect, racial disparities in maternal mortality rates, and the lack of appropriate pain management protocols for women. Marya Meyer from the Women’s Fund Miami, shares insights on the alarming racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality in Miami-Dade County and discusses the formation of the Alliance for Infant and Maternal Health (AIM). The alliance aims to improve health outcomes through collaboration, data transparency, public awareness, and grant funding. The discussion extends to the importance of culturally competent care, representation in medicine, and advocacy in healthcare. The hosts also reflect on historical trauma, ongoing stereotypes about women’s pain tolerance, and recent examples such as the COVID-19 vaccine’s overlooked effects on women’s menstrual cycles. Personal stories, including a tragic hospital experience and autoimmune disease challenges, underscore the need for holistic, human-centered healthcare. The episode concludes by emphasizing the importance of combining quantitative data with qualitative lived experiences to drive meaningful change in women’s healthcare and AI development.This episode provides a comprehensive examination of how gender and racial biases permeate healthcare and AI, leading to detrimental health outcomes for women, particularly women of color. It underscores the importance of diverse data, representation, and collaborative efforts like the Alliance for Infant and Maternal Health to drive change. Personal stories highlight the human cost of systemic neglect, while the discussion on AI and technology emphasizes the potential for innovation to reduce trauma and improve care if developed with an awareness of bias and inclusivity. Ultimately, the conversation champions a future where healthcare and AI are informed by both rigorous data and the lived experiences of women, ensuring equitable, compassionate, and effective care for all.Highlights: 💔 Honoring Ananda Lewis and the challenges women face with invasive cancer screenings. - ⚖️ AI reflects societal biases due to flawed data, especially neglecting women and minorities in clinical trials. 👩🏾⚕️ Black women face disproportionately high maternal mortality rates, worsened by systemic racism and medical neglect. 📊 The Alliance for Infant and Maternal Health in Miami-Dade fosters collaboration, transparency, and data-driven solutions. 💉 Women’s pain and health symptoms are often dismissed, leading to misdiagnosis and tragedy. 🩺 Historical and systemic gender biases continue to impact healthcare today, from hysterectomy consent to CPR training. 🌸 Combining data with lived experiences is critical to creating equitable, human-centered healthcare solutions. Key Insights:AI Bias Rooted in Historical Data:AI systems are not inherently biased but learn from historical medical data that overwhelmingly represents men and often excludes women, especially women of color. This perpetuates misdiagnosis, inappropriate dosing, and side effect ignorance in women's healthcare. The episode highlights the urgent need to diversify datasets to build AI tools that accurately represent all genders and races. Without this, AI will continue to replicate and reinforce existing inequities rather than help solve them.Racial Disparities in Maternal Health Are Stark and Persistent:Black women in Miami-Dade County are five times more likely to die from pregnancy-related issues compared to white women, reflecting a national crisis. This is not solely due to socioeconomic status but also systemic medical racism and cultural incompetency. The formation of coalitions like AIM shows promise by uniting diverse stakeholders to transparently share data and implement collaborative interventions, emphasizing that equitable care requires addressing systemic and social determinants.Medical Neglect and Dismissal of Women’s Pain Have Deadly Consequences:Personal stories from the hosts reveal how women, especially immigrants and minorities, are often dismissed as "dramatic" when expressing pain, leading to delayed or denied care with fatal outcomes, such as in cases of pulmonary embolism. This dismissiveness is compounded by outdated stereotypes about women’s pain tolerance and reinforces the urgency to change medical training, protocols, and attitudes toward female patients.Healthcare Protocols Often Lack Female-Specific Considerations:The episode points out that medical training tools like CPR dummies and crash test dummies are typically designed based on male bodies, leading to inadequate care for women in emergencies. Furthermore, procedures like IUD insertion often lack pain management options for women, whereas male contraceptive injections come with anesthesia by default. These disparities demonstrate how gender bias is embedded in clinical practice and patient care.The Power of Representation and Advocacy in Health and AI:Diverse teams including women and minorities are essential in healthcare and technology development to ask the right questions and design equitable solutions. This representation ensures that lived experiences inform data collection, AI training, and healthcare delivery. Advocacy, including doulas and community health workers, plays a critical role in supporting women’s health and improving outcomes.Historical Trauma Shapes Present-Day Health Inequities:The discussion includes how centuries of unethical medical experimentation on Black women, forced hysterectomies, and societal control over women’s bodies have led to deep mistrust and systemic neglect. These historical injustices are reflected in current biases in healthcare and AI, underscoring the need to reckon with history to achieve equitable healthcare reform.Holistic and Intersectional Approach to Women’s Health Is Crucial:The episode emphasizes that women’s health issues, such as autoimmune diseases and cancer, require not only physiological but also psychological and social context understanding. Current medical systems often treat symptoms in isolation rather than addressing broader health determinants, which leads to incomplete care. A holistic approach, informed by both data and personal narratives, is necessary to improve diagnosis, treatment, and patient well-being.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-invest-in-women--6695973/support.