Philadelphia-area health systems end use of four race-based algorithms to guide care

Philadelphia-area health systems end use of four race-based algorithms to guide care A coalition of 12 Philadelphia-area health systems have abandoned the use of race adjustments in four clinical tools Usha Lee McFarling STAT

A coalition of 12 Philadelphia-area health systems announced Monday that its members have abandoned the use of race adjustments in four clinical tools commonly used to guide care, a move that health leaders say will improve treatment and prevent delays in diagnosis for Black, Hispanic, and Asian patients. 

The decision marks one of the largest and broadest efforts to date to remove race from widely used clinical algorithms. The inclusion of race in dozens of these tools has sparked vigorous debates and roiled medicine since 2020, when many physicians began pointing out that the tools rely on faulty science that depicts race as biological, and that they can harm some already marginalized patients by making it seem they are healthier than they really are.