Evaluating and Improvi g the Performance and Racial Fairness of Algori ims for GFR Estimation

Linying Zhang, Tevin Kim, Lauren R. Richter, George Hripcsak

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Data-driven clinical prediction algorithms are used widely by clinicians. Understanding what factors can impact the performance and fairness of data-driven algorithms is an important step towards achieving equitable healthcare. To investigate the impact of modeling choices on the algorithmic performance and fairness, we make use of a case study to build a prediction algorithm for estimating glomerular filtration rate (GFR) based on the patient's electronic health record (EHR). We compare three distinct approaches for estimating GFR: CKD-EPI equations, epidemiological models, and EHR-based models. For epidemiological models and EHR-based models, four machine learning models of varying computational complexity (i.e., linear regression, support vector machine, random forest regression, and neural network) were compared. Performance metrics included root mean squared error (RMSE), median difference, and the proportion of GFR estimates within 30% of the measured GFR value (P30). Differential performance between non-African American and African American group was used to assess algorithmic fairness with respect to race. Our study showed that the variable race had a negligible effect on error, accuracy, and differential performance. Furthermore, including more relevant clinical features (e.g., common comorbidities of chronic kidney disease) and using more complex machine learning models, namely random forest regression, significantly lowered the estimation error of GFR. However, the difference in performance between African American and non-African American patients did not decrease, where the estimation error for African American patients remained consistently higher than non-African American patients, indicating that more objective patient characteristics should be discovered and included to improve algorithm performance.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2024 IEEE 1st International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Medicine, Health and Care, AIMHC 2024
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages251-257
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9798350371987
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024
Event1st IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Medicine, Health and Care, AIMHC 2024 - Hybrid, Laguna Hills, United States
Duration: Feb 5 2024Feb 7 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2024 IEEE 1st International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Medicine, Health and Care, AIMHC 2024

Conference

Conference1st IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Medicine, Health and Care, AIMHC 2024
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHybrid, Laguna Hills
Period02/5/2402/7/24

Keywords

  • algorithmic fairness
  • electronic health record
  • glomerular filtration rate
  • machine learning
  • predictive modeling

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