New Recommendations to Increase Transparency and Tackle Potential Bias in Medical AI Technologies

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The University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, educators and more than 40,000 students from over 150 countries.

• England’s first civic university, the University of Birmingham is proud to be rooted in of one of the most dynamic and diverse cities in the country. A member of the Russell Group and a founding member of the Universitas 21 global network of research universities, the University of Birmingham has been changing the way the world works for more than a century.
• The University of Birmingham is a founding member of Birmingham Health Partners (BHP), a strategic alliance which transcends organisational boundaries to rapidly translate healthcare research findings into new diagnostics, drugs and devices for patients. Birmingham Health Partners is a strategic alliance between seven organisations who collaborate to bring healthcare innovations through to clinical application:
• University of Birmingham
• University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
• Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Aston University
• The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
• West Midlands Academic Health Science Network
• Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

STANDING Together

STANDING Together (building STANdards for data Diversity, INclusivity, & Generalisability) was established in 2021 as part of the NHS AI Lab’s AI Ethics initiative.

• It is a partnership between over 30 academic, regulatory, policy, industry, and charitable organisations worldwide.
• STANDING Together was funded jointly by the NHS AI Lab at the NHS Transformation Directorate, and by The Health Foundation, and is managed by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
• It is led by medical researchers based at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, and The University of Birmingham (both based in Birmingham, United Kingdom).
• The STANDING Together recommendations have been included in guidance published by the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
• The recommendations were also cited in both the Equity in Medical Devices Independent Review chaired by Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead, and in the Government’s official response.

Alongside their recommendations, the STANDING Together initiative has published a series of related scientific papers (in reverse chronological order):

Exploring patient and public participation in the STANDING Together initiative for healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03200-6

Revealing transparency gaps in publicly available COVID-19 datasets used for medical artificial intelligence development—a systematic review. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(24)00146-8/fulltext

A Global Health Data Divide. https://ai.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/AIe2400388

The value of standards for health datasets in artificial intelligence-based applications. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02608-w

Tackling bias in AI health datasets through the STANDING Together initiative. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01987-w

The Health Foundation

The Health Foundation is an independent charitable organisation working to build a healthier UK. www.health.org.uk

About the National Institute for Health and Care Research

The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. We do this by:

• Funding high quality, timely research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care;
• Investing in world-class expertise, facilities and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services;
• Partnering with patients, service users, carers and communities, improving the relevance, quality and impact of our research;
• Attracting, training and supporting the best researchers to tackle complex health and social care challenges;
• Collaborating with other public funders, charities and industry to help shape a cohesive and globally competitive research system;
• Funding applied global health research and training to meet the needs of the poorest people in low and middle income countries.

NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK Aid from the UK government.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) runs Heartlands, Good Hope, Solihull and the Queen Elizabeth hospitals; UHB also hosts the Institute of Translational Medicine (ITM).

• The Trust has over 2,700 beds, over 80 theatres and a 100-bedded critical care unit - the largest in Europe, and cares for over 2.2 million patients each year, employing over 24,000 staff.
• QEHB is a Major Trauma Centre treating the most severely injured casualties from across the region.
• Our hospitals are regional centres of excellence for trauma, burns, plastics, neurosciences and cancer and in 2014 became a lead genomics centre as part of the NHS 100,000 genomes project.
• UHB is proud to host the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM). The RCDM provides dedicated training for defence personnel and is a focus for medical research.