Techquity and Cultural Humility in Digital Health with Dr. Harpreet Nagra - Episode 156

In today’s episode, I interview Dr. Harpreet Nagra, a behavioral scientist, clinical researcher, licensed psychologist, and equity expert. She serves as the VP of Behavior Science and Advanced Technologies at One Drop. One Drop is a digital health company harnessing the power of behavioral science, mobile computing, and data science to transform the lives of people with diabetes and other chronic conditions worldwide. In this interview, we speak about techquity. Techquity refers to digital health solutions being more equitable, accessible, and inclusive. I know many of you listeners know about the systemic biases in AI/ML algorithms used in healthcare that aren’t being addressed – in just one example, most of the data used to power AI are from studies done predominantly with male subjects. In another example, a 2019 study found that an algorithm assigned the same health risk scores to Black patients who were considerably sicker than white patients. As we continue to see digital health exploding, these companies are based their solutions on biased algorithms. Dr. Harpreet and I discussed how we must prioritize the creation and refinement of digital health tools to advance “techquity” and cultural humility. Enjoy the episode!