Healthcare is moving toward precision and personalized medicine to target individual needs, and population health studies are increasingly identifying social determinants of health and their impact on disease risk, access to healthcare, and treatment. Clinical assessments of individual patients across healthcare disciplines continue to rely on algorithms that use broad group categories as proxies for underlying health-related needs, which can produce unintended bias and inequity.

This invitation-only Summit brought together a multidisciplinary group of stakeholders with a goal of developing a pathway to identifying and assessing viable alternatives to broad proxies in health assessment.
 
Summit Focus and Deliverables
Participants collaborated on:

  1. Identifying promising alternatives to proxies (e.g., race, gender, and education level) for greater precision in brain and other health related assessments.
  2. Mapping a research agenda to increase equity through increased precision in health assessments.
  3. Identifying facilitators and barriers to implementation of research innovations in clinical practice.  

 

Below are links to the presentations that occurred at the Summit and helped inform the proceedings:

What Breathing Can Teach Us About Bias; Aaron Baugh, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine/Licensed Pulmonologist, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
Recording

Social Determinants and the Assessment of Cognitive Health and Functioning; Grant L. Iverson, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School
Recording

Transforming Public Health Data Systems for Equity and Transformation; Gail C. Christopher, D.N., Executive Director, National Collaborative for Health Equity
Recording

Racial Fairness in Clinical Algorithms; Shyam Visweswaran, MD, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Informatics University of Pittsburgh
Recording

Precision Health Assessment: Bridges to Breakthroughs; Julie Louise Gerberding, MD MPH President and CEO Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH)
Recording

Public-private partnerships at the FNIH to advance precision medicine; Joseph Menetski, Ph.D., Senior Vice President Science Partnerships, Chief Translational Science Officer Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH)
Recording


Leaders from the following organizations and associations participated: 

  • American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology - Anthony Y. Stringer, Ph.D.
  • American Academy of Neurology - José Posas, M.D.
  • American Heart Association - Nav Persaud, M.D., M.Sc.
  • American Psychological Association (APA) - Stephen R. Gillaspy, Ph.D.
  • Association of Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology - Monique Wilson, Ph.D.
  • Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh - Shyam Visweswaran, M.D., Ph.D.
  • Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services - Sean Michael, M.D., M.B.A.
  • Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School - Grant L. Iverson, Ph.D.
  • Doris Duke Foundation - Sindy Escobar Alvarez, Ph.D.
  • Endocrine Society - Giselle Blair, M.D., M.P.H. & Eduardo A. Lopez-Martinez, M.D.
  • Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) - Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H. & Joseph P Menetski, Ph.D.
  • Kennedy Krieger Institute - Ernest Carter, M.D., Ph.D. & Harolyn Belcher, M.D., M.H.S.
  • National Collaborative for Health Equity - Gail C. Christopher, D.N.
  • Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc - Maegan Sady, Ph.D.
  • UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine - Meeryo Choe, M.D.
  • University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine - Aaron Baugh, M.D.


National Academy of Neuropsychology Representatives:

  • William Perry, Ph.D. - Executive Director 
  • Beth Arredondo, Ph.D. - Past-President 
 


The organizing committee included the following organizations:

  • American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology
  • American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology
  • American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology
  • American Board of Professional Neuropsychology
  • Asian Neuropsychological Association
  • Association for Internship Training in Clinical Neuropsychology
  • Association for Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology
  • Borroughs Wellcome Fund
  • Canadian Psychological Association
  • Cultural Neuropsychology Council
  • Hispanic Neuropsychological Society
  • International Neuropsychological Society
  • Queer Neuropsychological Society
  • Society for Black Neuropsychology
  • Society for Clinical Neuropsychology
  • Sports Neuropsychological Society


 *Summit proceedings will be made available soon. Please check back here in the coming weeks.