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Applying anti-racist approaches to informatics: a new lens on traditional frames.

Jodyn E PlattPaige NongBeza MeridMinakshi RajElizabeth CopeSharon KardiaMelissa Creary
Published in: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA (2023)
Health organizations and systems rely on increasingly sophisticated informatics infrastructure. Without anti-racist expertise, the field risks reifying and entrenching racism in information systems. We consider ways the informatics field can recognize institutional, systemic, and structural racism and propose the use of the Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP) to mitigate and dismantle racism in digital forms. We enumerate guiding questions for stakeholders along with a PHCRP-Informatics framework. By focusing on (1) critical self-reflection, (2) following the expertise of well-established scholars of racism, (3) centering the voices of affected individuals and communities, and (4) critically evaluating practice resulting from informatics systems, stakeholders can work to minimize the impacts of racism. Informatics, informed and guided by this proposed framework, will help realize the vision of health systems that are more fair, just, and equitable.
Keyphrases
  • public health
  • big data
  • electronic health record
  • healthcare
  • primary care
  • mental health
  • health information
  • human health
  • climate change
  • social media
  • health promotion