AIM-AHEAD Community Building Convention – February 16-18, 2022
AIM-AHEAD is creating an open dialogue through listening sessions to build community capacity and advance health equity and diversity in artificial intelligence and machine learning
The AIM-AHEAD (https://aim-ahead.net) Coordinating Center was established to enhance diversity in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), with an emphasis on reducing health disparities and promoting health equity. We hope to achieve this by engaging in a fair, equitable, and transparent process of building a consortium of AI/ML to promote health equity and an inclusive and diverse workforce. Many communities have untapped potential to contribute new expertise, data, recruitment strategies, and cutting-edge science to the AI/ML field. The AIM-AHEAD Coordinating Center seeks to increase participation and engagement through mutually beneficial partnerships, stakeholder engagement, and outreach to advance health equity.
To foster community engagement, the AIM-AHEAD Coordinating Center is hosting a series of listening sessions in the AIM-AHEAD Community Building Convention. We invite anyone who is interested in promoting health equity, those from minority serving institutions, community organizations, industry, government agencies, and more to share their experiences and insights regarding health equity and AI/ML needs to participate. This convention will host multiple moderated virtual, interactive listening sessions and will serve as a launching pad for building the AIM-AHEAD Consortium. In these listening sessions, we aim to foster an environment where everyone feels free, safe, and comfortable sharing their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. Your voices, shared experiences, and insights will help us to prioritize the needs and resources in the AI/ML field. All levels of knowledge regarding AI/ML and healthy equity are welcome to join.
The AIM-AHEAD Community Building Convention will host six listening sessions across the three-day period:
• Wednesday, February 16, 2022, from 11a-12:30p CST: Academic Institutions
• Wednesday, February 16, 2022, from 2-3:30p CST: Consortiums on AI/ML & Data Science
• Thursday, February 17, 2022, from 11a-12:30p CST: Industry
• Thursday, February 17, 2022, from 2-3:30p CST: Healthcare
• Friday, February 18, 2022, from 11a-12:30p CST: Community-Based
• Friday, February 18, 2022, from 2-3:30p CST: General Listening Session
Registration and attendance for the convention is completely free. To learn more about the AIM-AHEAD Community Building Convention and to register for one or more of the sessions, visit https://aim-ahead.net/convention/p/cbc.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a $50 million award to the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (HSC) to lead the coordinating center for the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity, or AIM-AHEAD, program. HSC leads the multi-institutional coordinating center, which brings together experts in community engagement, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), health equity research, data science training, and data infrastructure.
AIM-AHEAD was created to close the gaps in the AI/ML field, which currently lacks diversity in its researchers and in data, including electronic health records (EHRs). These gaps pose a risk of creating and continuing harmful biases in how AI/ML is used, how algorithms are developed and trained, and how findings are interpreted. Critically, these gaps can lead to continued health disparities and inequities for underrepresented communities.