Machine learning and health need better values

Health care is a human process that generates data from human lives, as well as the care they receive. Machine learning has worked in health to bring new technology into this sociotechnical environment, using data to support a vision of healthier living for everyone. Interdisciplinary fields of research like machine learning for health bring different values and judgements together, requiring that those value choices be deliberate and measured. More than just abstract ideas, our values are the basis upon which we choose our research topics, set up research collaborations, execute our research methodologies, make assessments of scientific and technical correctness, proceed to product development, and finally operationalize deployments and describe policy. For machine learning to achieve its aims of supporting healthier living while minimizing harm, we believe that a deeper introspection of our field’s values and contentions is overdue. In this perspective, we highlight notable areas in need of attention within the field. We believe deliberate and informed introspection will lead our community to renewed opportunities for understanding disease, new partnerships with clinicians and patients, and allow us to better support people and communities to live healthier, dignified lives.