Left Out: How Structural Norms Render Half the Population Invisible

Presenter: Yarah Kalae

Faculty Sponsor: Kathleen A. Brown-Perez

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Public Health and Epidemiology

Session: Poster Session 5, 3:15 PM - 4:00 PM, Auditorium, A65

ABSTRACT

Before 1993, women were excluded from clinical research, until the NIH Revitalization Act was passed. A policy requiring that women and minorities be included in NIH funded research. Thus, clinical trials are designed to allow for sex-based analysis (U.S. Congress, 1993). Before this act, most approved medicines and treatments were developed primarily using male-based data which continue to inform medical practices today. This calls into question the assumption that medical standards derived from male dominant datasets can be reliably generalized to women. These data gaps originate from historical foundations and continue to contribute to the misdiagnosis and thus mistreatment of women. Consequently, as artificial intelligence becomes more widely used to aid in diagnosis, these same issues become amplified. This literature-based analysis synthesizes interdisciplinary evidence from medicine, public health, gender studies, and data science to examine how historical exclusions continue to shape healthcare practices. Together, these patterns reinforce and amplify inequities within technology-driven healthcare environments that are widely used in influencing physicians decisions regarding patient care. Thus, to make women visible within healthcare systems that have historically rendered them invisible, it is essential to understand the roots of biomedical bias. Without change in research design, data collection, and medical practice, these disparities will continue to be amplified. Therefore, this work contributes to ongoing efforts to advance more equitable, accurate, and inclusive scientific and medical standards.

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