Heath informatics — the intersection of health care data and machine learning — is a rapidly growing force throughout many hospitals. Researchers at DePaul University and Sinai Urban Health Institute argue the technology has been underutilized to examine issues of inequality. In a new study using predictive AI models, DePaul computer scientist Roselyne Tchoua finds a human element could prevent at-risk patients from falling through the cracks. In a study of more than 1,300 patients at Chicago’s Sinai hospital system, Tchoua and her coauthors compared data from patients who had interacted with community health workers and those who had not. The research was presented at the Transdisciplinary AI conference in late 2023 and is now available online. Tchoua was named an Equity Research Fellow with the Sinai Urban Health Institute in 2022. She conducted the research with Kelly MacCabe, associate director of community health innovations at Sinai Urban Health Institute, and DePaul alumna Kate Karam, who worked on the study as a graduate student. Read more.