Synthetic data and health equity: accounting for racism and sexism in health care delivery.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Synthetic data are a promising new tool for answering health service research questions, including those relevant to health equity. However, it is unclear whether synthetic data can accurately capture inequities in health care, which may perpetuate racial and ethnic health inequities when applied to the real world.

Methods

In this study, we determine to what extent Synthea, a popular open-source synthetic electronic health record data generator captures racial, ethnic, and sex disparities in clinical practice and evaluate whether the data can be augmented by other publicly available data sources. We examine rates of intervention for 3 common medical conditions-myocardial infarction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and type II diabetes mellitus.

Results

SUBMITTER: Teeple S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12449041 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature