How AI Can Improve Health Care Equity for Women

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Women face significant obstacles in accessing healthcare in the United States, often bearing higher out-of-pocket expenses and experiencing dismissal or misdiagnosis of their medical conditions.

Dorothy Kilroy, Kate Ryder, and Kulleni Gebreyes convened at the TIME Women’s Leadership Forum in New York City on Sept. 10 to discuss the challenges and opportunities in women’s healthcare, moderated by TIME senior health correspondent Alice Park.

Kulleni Gebreyes, managing principal of life sciences and healthcare at Deloitte, highlighted the “pink tax” women confront in healthcare. They frequently pay more out-of-pocket costs and delay care due to factors like childcare shortages. “It really creates not just an unequal system, but an inequitable system,” she stated. “The system doesn’t acknowledge [that] physiologically, biologically, and socially there are differences between the sexes, and the genders.”

Kate Ryder, CEO and founder of Maven Clinic, emphasized that expanding resources for women and their families is crucial for achieving healthcare equity. Marginalized communities often exhibit greater distrust towards the healthcare system, Ryder noted. In the U.S., where almost half of births are linked to poverty levels, rebuilding that trust is essential for progress. “Sometimes it really is just giving them a provider that’s accessible, that they can trust to help them.”

Gathering more data on women’s health, an area that has historically been underrepresented, is also vital. “It wasn’t until the early ’90s, that there was a mandate to include women in clinical trials,” Gebreyes pointed out.

AI, if utilized strategically, could present a solution to these issues and empower women. “It isn’t easy for many people to get to a doctor’s office, or it isn’t easy for them to interpret that data,” remarked Dorothy Kilroy, chief commercial officer of ŌURA, a sponsor of the Women’s Leadership Forum. “[AI] is giving us access to all these really exciting tools that could eventually allow people not just to get more data, but to actually understand it and interpret it.”

The TIME100 Women’s Leadership Forum was presented by Barbie, Deloitte, and ŌURA.