Coming Face to Face With Bias in Global Health Imagery

Esmita Charani

Societal biases appear just about everywhere, and once you notice them, it is impossible to ignore how they affect our decisions and they way we build our societies. You also realize how normalized they can be. Artificial intelligence trainers are thinking more about bias in data sets. Data scientists are thinking more about how bias creeps into the data used to analyze just about everything related to health, from research to resource allocation. A lot of it though is somewhat hidden, especially in data sets. You really have to know your way around the data you’re working with in order to see it. You must know how the data was collected and from whom, and how (and which) subsets were included or discarded. For most people, the concept of how bias weaves its way through a culture is unimportant egghead type of stuff. It’s hard to see. Then of course, there’s always a degree of denial that it even exists, which may have some impact on whether we even want to do anything about it.

But if we care at all about justice, fairness, respect, equity, and ensuring that you or an organization act ethically, we dig deeper, trying to find the source of the imbalances. While it may be hard to see if you’re not a data scientist, bias is much easier to see if we look at how we represent ourselves and each other through images.

My guest on this episode focuses on, among other things, anti-microbial resistance from a global health perspective. But when her conference presentation was “branded” by the organization sponsoring the event, Esmita Charani noticed that the images did not reflect much about the work she does. Intrigued, she and colleagues examined global health images for bias and unethical practices, resulting in a helpful framework to guide us to a more dignified and respectful use of images. The framework considers relevance, dignity and privacy, consent, representation, and more.

Esmita Charani is an Associate Professor at the University of Capetown, where she investigates intersectionality and anti-microbial resistance (AMR). In the UK, she is an honorary reader in infectious diseases, AMR, and global health at the University of Liverpool. Esmita is also a visiting researcher at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, and an Adjunct Professor at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kerala, India.

I welcome comments in the section below. Remember, when we respect ourselves, each other, and the planet, the health of everyone and everything, improves.

-Rod