Wayne State summit co-chair warns AI can amplify medical bias ahead of October 29 event

Ahead of Wayne State University’s October 29, 2026, virtual summit, scheduled for 3–5 p.m. and labeled EST by organizers, co-chair Ijeoma Nnodim Opara is warning that AI can amplify bias embedded in medical decisions. In an October 20 WDET interview, she urged strategies to prevent harm. Wayne State’s official notice directs attendees to register but lists no public watch URL.

The two-hour event, “Held to the Light: Race, Code & Consequence in the Age of AI,” is hosted by the School of Medicine’s Collaborative to End Race-Based Medicine-Detroit and Wayne State’s Office of Inclusive Excellence. Confirm the timezone with organizers before attending; the notice does not give a separate keynote start time.

From clinical assumptions to AI code

Opara told WDET that race-based assumptions persist through medical teaching, clinical practice, research and policy. Her concern is that AI can magnify those assumptions rather than remove them. The collaborative wants community members’ voices included as it works to change teaching and research.

The summit will connect that history with contemporary health care and public health AI. Organizers say the program will explore ways to identify bias and prevent harm, while asking who shapes the code, who bears the consequences and who leads change.

Sweeping claims that AI knows more than physicians cannot substitute for evidence of safety, clinical benefit or equitable outcomes.

Ijeoma Nnodim Opara, in Wayne State’s summit announcement

Medicine, data and community knowledge

Jameila Meme Styles will deliver the keynote. She founded and leads MEASURE, a nonprofit providing free data support to minority-led organizations. Opara, an associate professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at Wayne State, will moderate the conversation.

• Seun Ross, executive director of Health Equity at Independence Blue Cross, brings work on racial health disparities and race-based medicine.
• Judy Wawira Gichoya, an Emory radiologist and informatician, uses data science to study health equity.
• Lori Perine, a University of Maryland doctoral candidate, researches AI bias, privacy and trustworthy AI.
• LLana James, an AI, Medicine and Data Justice postdoctoral fellow at Queen’s University, studies inequities in clinical practices and data-driven systems.

The lineup also includes Wayne State scholars Donyale Padgett, RAS Mikey Courtney and Billicia Charnelle Hines, whose work spans communication, dance and theatre. Community engagement strategist Gwendolyn Winston, co-founder of the Wisdom Institute, brings experience guiding dialogue and action planning across health, government and community organizations.