Babbage: The colour of health

<p>The pandemic has <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/11/21/a-lack-of-data-on-race-hampers-efforts-to-tackle-inequalities?utm_campaign=babbage&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_source=third-party-host&amp;utm_content=show-notes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">exposed</a> and <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2021/06/05/hispanic-americans-are-most-vulnerable-to-covid-19?utm_campaign=babbage&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_source=third-party-host&amp;utm_content=show-notes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">exacerbated</a> how the colour of a person’s skin can fix the odds on their physical health. Host Alok Jha and Tamara Gilkes Borr, US public policy correspondent, investigate <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2020/11/21/covid-19-has-shone-a-light-on-racial-disparities-in-health?utm_campaign=babbage&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_source=third-party-host&amp;utm_content=show-notes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">what drives these disparities</a> around the world. As health services embrace artificial intelligence, is <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/04/10/design-bias-is-harmful-and-in-some-cases-may-be-lethal?utm_campaign=babbage&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_source=third-party-host&amp;utm_content=show-notes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">medical AI</a> compounding human bias—or could it hold the cure?</p><p><br></p><p>With Dr Lisa Angeline Cooper, healthcare professor at Johns Hopkins University; Dr Jenna Lester, director of the Skin of Colour clinic at the University of California, San Francisco; Dr Mary Janevic of the University of Michigan School of Public Health; and Dr Ziad Obermeyer, head of the Systems Medicine machine-learning lab.</p><p><br></p><p>For full access to The Economist’s print, digital and audio editions subscribe at <a href="http://www.economist.com/podcastoffer?utm_campaign=babbage&amp;utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_source=third-party-host&amp;utm_content=show-notes" rel="noopener noreferrer" targe