Artificial Intelligence is transforming health care. The promise of this technology is enormous and is already being realized to increase the accuracy of diagnoses, promote patient engagement, increase efficiency in health care and lower costs.

It’s even being used to identify patients at risk of disease and predict patients who might be good candidates for medical procedures. 

Done well, AI tools can help ensure patients with the greatest need for orthopedic surgery are prioritized for care, and help reduce health care disparities, says Luke Farrow, an orthopedic and trauma surgeon and clinical researcher at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. 

But without proper considerations, “you can ultimately end up with AI systems that worsen those health disparities, which is obviously the last thing we want. And there is definitely evidence out there to suggest that does happen if we're not careful.”

Health Disparities podcast host Dr. Mary O’Connor spoke with Farrow about AI and health equity, and about his ongoing research on the use of AI to help general practitioners in the UK know when it is appropriate to refer patients to orthopedic surgeons for consideration of hip and knee replacement surgeries. 

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