Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37463884›Full record

ArticleNature communications2023

Detecting shortcut learning for fair medical AI using shortcut testing.

Alexander Brown, Nenad Tomasev, Jan Freyberg, Yuan Liu, Alan Karthikesalingam, Jessica Schrouff

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
49citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

49 citing papers in PubMed.

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  13. CNN-Based Classification ofBiosensors · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Alexander BrownUCL Institute of Child Health, London, England.
Nenad TomasevGoogle DeepMind, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-1624-0220
Jan FreybergGoogle Research, London, UK.
Yuan LiuGoogle Research, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Alan KarthikesalingamGoogle Research, London, UK.
Jessica SchrouffGoogle DeepMind, London, UK. schrouff@google.com.ORCID 0000-0003-4992-3183

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Machine learning (ML) holds great promise for improving healthcare, but it is critical to ensure that its use will not propagate or amplify health disparities. An important step is to characterize the (un)fairness of ML models-their tendency to perform differently across subgroups of the population-and to understand its underlying mechanisms. One potential driver of algorithmic unfairness, shortcut learning, arises when ML models base predictions on improper correlations in the training data. Diagnosing this phenomenon is difficult as sensitive attributes may be causally linked with disease. Using multitask learning, we propose a method to directly test for the presence of shortcut learning in clinical ML systems and demonstrate its application to clinical tasks in radiology and dermatology. Finally, our approach reveals instances when shortcutting is not responsible for unfairness, highlighting the need for a holistic approach to fairness mitigation in medical AI.

Indexed as

Health FacilitiesMachine Learning

Identifiers

PMID37463884
PMCPMC10354021

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.