Algorithm Failures in Ethics and Equity at Stanford

Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. Today we consider how badly Stanford University Health Systems botched it decision on whom in the organization would receive its allotted Covid-19 vaccinations. Stanford used a faulty algorithm which mandated that only seven of the Health Systems 1300 medical residents would receive the vaccine. As you might guess these front-line health workers were up in arms over Stanford’s incompetence on this issue.

Some of the issues we consider are:

• The plan had been for the algorithm to assign vaccination slots for the first 5,000 employees, who would begin receiving the Covid vaccine on Dec. 18.
• What were the parameters of the algorithm?
• Why was there so little ethics in the process?
• Why was there so little equity in the result?
• What are the implications for the compliance professional of the use of the algorithm to make such a critical decision?
• What does the EEOC decision allowing companies to mandate vaccines for employees mean for compliance?

Resources

For more information see Matt’s blog post in Radical Compliance:

Lessons on Algorithms, Ethics and Equity

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