Posts Tagged ‘systemic bias’

We live in an age of algorithms and machine learning, says Professor Barbara Fister. But we should be aware that a bigot can find its way into the machine. She explains: “A provider of healthcare decision-making software that helps to manage care for some 200 million people each year wanted to create an algorithm to […]

Opening ObesityWeek with a quick succession of pithy talks to set the agenda for the week seems to be a good way of getting getting the attention of the diverse audience focused on obesity. Last night, it worked. A series of talks served to focus the group on the theme for OW2022 that President Dan […]

Obesity is a slow burn. It erodes a person’s health over time, causing other diseases and an earlier death. In contrast, the harm of weight bias and stigma is immediate. First, there is the everyday onslaught of dehumanizing treatment one receives. A constant barrage of insults and slights creates stress that chips away at both […]

Two ideas are hard to miss at the annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association. One is that it’s getting harder to treat and prevent diabetes adequately without treating obesity. Second is that health systems can’t handle this reality. They are systematically preventing adequate obesity and diabetes care. Distinct but Overlapping Diseases Let’s get […]

One of the most interesting obesity conferences of the year is getting started this week. ECO2022 brings together a nice mix of science and policy with a balance that’s refreshing. So it’s fitting that the opening story is all about the burden of neglecting clinical care for obesity. In this case, the headline research from […]

Perhaps this is a familiar pattern – a mixture of good news and bad news. The bad news is likely not really news. Many people are comparing our difficult circumstances of this past year to the so-called dark ages. But the good news is that it isn’t hard to see signs we are set to […]

Jessica Nordell describes something like a quest in her new book, The End of Bias. “When I began this book, I thought I was writing a work of science. My plan was to read, study, synthesize the best evidence, and share what I found. The journey would be straightforward; it would be scientific and outward-facing […]

Weight bias envelopes us. But especially in healthcare systems it is jarring at times. Pervasively, weight bias is coded into health systems. Sometimes it’s subtle. Other times it smacks a patient right in the face. Change is slow because systems evolve slowly. Electronic medical records systems, for example, take years to design and implement. So […]

For most people, it’s invisible. But looking at the world through the eyes of a well-informed person living with obesity, it’s easy to see. Healthcare is not for us. Obesity care is mostly out of reach. Bariatric surgery is for the privileged. In fact, new research from the University of Georgia tells us that people […]