When Computers Make Biased Health Decisions

Many people think that computer programs can't favor one person or race over another which has been proven to only be half true. The computer itself isn't really favoring one race over the other in this case whites over blacks. The people that designed the algorithm for a health program made the algorithm to favor white people over blacks according to recent studies. This means that the people are to blame rather than the computers. What is happening with the programs is the same as racist things said verbally the only difference is that there are codes instead of words.

The programs are used to prevent people from getting sicker and while using the program white people are getting healthier and black people are getting sicker. In some cases similar to this one people have to go searching for information for their studies. In this case the hospital handed the information out.

This article relates to what we are doing in class because it is talking about algorithms just like we are.

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I think that racism is something that shouldn't happen and I think that it is crazy that people in the healthcare system would compromise their oaths as healthcare providers to favor one race over another. I also don't know if the program is really doing this or if there maybe isn't enough data to show that really there is just a coincidence that the people are from different races.

At Truckee Meadows Community College there is a competition called DICE.

Dice stands for Design is Innovation Creativity and Energy conference. The theme of the competition this year was to make an aluminum folding chair. Ryan Player made "The Lazy Toddler" which took first place in the competition and Alexander Brossard took second. Hillary Clark is a teacher at TMCC and a past winner of DICE and she says that the problem-solving process of design is another form of critical expression. Alexander Brossard wanted to keep the cardboard how it was so he came up with a design that had no cuts and was one whole piece of cardboard. As the final part of the project the competitors have to sit in the chairs they make for an entire class. The competition is used to help students put their designs into physical objects.

This article does go along with our class because it talks about the problem solving process. The competitors first have to identify the problem by getting the theme of the competition, then they prepare by making a design. The competitor would then try by making their design into a physical object. The reflecting part of the problem solving process would be when the students have to sit in their chair for the class because that is when they test it out and when they find new problems with the chair. I think that this is an interesting competition but not one that I would want to participate in.