HealthTALK

Beyond the Algorithm,  AI, Health Equity & the Future for BAME Women

There are moments in history where everything changes, not through a viral headline, but through quiet shifts in access, behaviour and power. COVID-19 was one of those moments. But what followed may be even more defining,  the silent rise of AI and digital acceleration in healthcare.

While algorithms replaced admin and remote care replaced waiting rooms, an uncomfortable truth emerged, BAME women remain underrepresented and underserved. Not just in treatment, but in the design of the very systems meant to improve our wellbeing.

Let’s break it down.

1. AI in Healthcare and Who Gets Seen

What Happens When Silence Is the Inheritance?

Around 1 in 10 women will experience a mental health problem during pregnancy or in the year after giving birth. But for many Black, Asian and ethnically diverse women, the silence around this experience is even louder.

There’s a quiet myth embedded in our communities, that strength is the absence of struggle. That resilience means carrying the weight without flinching. But data and lived experience tell a different story. One where stigma, cultural pressure and systemic neglect collide to create an invisible epidemic.

This week is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week and it’s time to look closer. Not just at the numbers, but at the narratives.

The term perinatal covers the full arc, from conception through the postpartum period. It’s not just about “baby blues.” It’s about recognising that serious mental health conditions like perinatal depression, anxiety and postpartum psychosis can and do affect anyone,…

The Great Health Reset: How the System Fails Women of Colour

Health is not just about biology — it is deeply tied to economics, anthropology and systemic structures that dictate who thrives and who struggles. The current health crisis in the U.S. is not simply an issue of personal choice; it is a result of a rigged system where profit trumps well-being and marginalised communities — particularly women of colour   — bear the brunt of this reality.

The Legacy of Inequity

From an anthropological perspective, health disparities among women of colour are deeply rooted in historical and cultural oppression. The medical system has long treated Black, Indigenous and Latina women as experimental subjects, from the exploitation of Black women in gynaecology by J. Marion Sims to…