Racial, Sex-Linked Bias ID'd in Chest Radiography Foundation Models
Medically reviewed by Drugs.com.
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Oct. 2, 2023 -- A chest radiography foundation model demonstrates racial and sex-related bias, which may lead to disparate performance across patient groups, according to a study published online Sept. 27 in Radiology: Artificial Intelligence.
Ben Glocker, Ph.D., from Imperial College London, and colleagues conducted a retrospective study using 127,118 chest radiographs from 42,884 patients from the CheXpert dataset obtained between October 2002 and July 2017. The presence of bias in features generated by a chest radiography foundation model and baseline deep learning model was determined. A disease detection analysis was performed to associate any biases with specific disparities in classification performance across subgroups of patients.
The researchers found that in the studied foundation model, 10 of 12 pairwise comparisons across biologic sex and race showed significant differences compared with four significant tests in the baseline model. In the feature projections that primarily capture disease, significant differences were found between male and female patients and Asian and Black patients. Classification performance on the "no finding" label decreased between 6.8 and 7.8 percent for female patients when comparing the average model performance across all subgroups, and performance in detecting pleural effusion decreased between 10.7 and 11.6 percent for Black patients.
"Our bias analysis showed that the foundation model consistently underperformed compared to the reference model," Glocker said in a statement. "We observed a decline in disease classification performance and specific disparities in protected subgroups."
Several authors disclosed ties to industry.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted October 2023
Read this next
AI-Assisted Contours Superior to Cognitively Defined Prostate Cancer Contours
WEDNESDAY, July 3, 2024 -- Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted definition of prostate cancer contours reduces underestimation of the extent of prostate cancer, according to a...
Mean Cost of Bringing New Drug to U.S. Market Is $879.3 Million
TUESDAY, July 2, 2024 -- The mean cost of developing a new drug for the U.S. market is estimated to be $879.3 million when both drug development failure and capital costs are...
Patient–Primary Care Provider Language Concordance Tied to Better Outcomes
TUESDAY, July 2, 2024 -- Patient-family physician language concordance is associated with a lower risk for adverse outcomes, according to a study published online June 3...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.