Can artificial intelligence help medical professionals treat California’s unhoused population? Or will the technology open a can of worms that critics say may do more harm than good?
As CalMatters’ Marisa Kendall explains, Los Angeles-based Akido Labs plans to use an AI model it developed on unhoused patients next month in the Bay Area. Akido, a health care technology company, developed Scope AI, a tool that aims to increase health care access for homeless people.
Scope assists non-medically trained outreach workers in beginning the intake and diagnosis process with homeless patients. The tool generates questions that workers ask patients, and it listens to, records and transcribes the interview. Afterwards, Scope suggests diagnoses, medical tests and medication.
The information is then sent to a human doctor, who reviews the interaction and can sign off on Scope’s medication suggestions or make changes. For more complex cases, doctors can arrange to see the patient themselves.
As early as 2023, Akido’s outreach workers have been using Scope in homeless encampments in L.A. County, where it has since seen more than 5,000 patients. Scope lands on the correct diagnoses within its top three suggestions 99% of the time, according to Akido, and street medicine doctors in L.A. and Kern counties have increased their case load from roughly 200 homeless patients at a time to 350 after implementing Scope.
But critics have concerns about the AI’s reliability, how it could put patient’s data at risk and how it could reinforce biases. AI is more likely, for example, to misdiagnose breast cancer in Black women than in white women, according to a 2024 study.
Because of their increased vulnerability and unique circumstances, homeless patients also may not be treated as precisely by AI compared to a human health care provider. A patient with scabies, for example, would typically be prescribed special shampoo or body wash, said Brett Feldman, founder of USC Street Medicine. But for an unhoused person who does not have regular access to a bathroom, an oral medication may be needed. Would AI know to flag that detail?
- Feldman: “I would say, in general, that this would not work for this population.”
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Other Stories You Should Know
Bills seek more physical contact on detention visits
From CalMatters politics reporter Maya C. Miller:
A forthcoming set of legislative proposals would create physical contact guidelines for inmates in adult and juvenile detention facilities that want to embrace loved ones during scheduled visitation time.
The pair of bills from Democratic Assemblymembers Isaac Bryan of Culver City and Mark Gonzalez of Los Angeles, set to be introduced today, would codify acceptable forms of physical affection that currently vary from prison to prison.
Gonzalez said he was inspired to author the bill after visiting the California Institution for Women in Chino, where several inmates said they hadn’t been able to hold their children in years.
- Gonzalez: “When a child is born, the first thing you do is you have that physical touch with your mother, or in some cases, the father. Having that physical touch makes a huge difference.”
According to Bryan’s office, at some juvenile detention facilities, staff can immediately terminate a visit over any contact between the youth and a visitor, even their family members.
The authors do not anticipate any opposition to the bills.
Anti-pollution draft rules aren’t tough enough, critics say
Ten years ago, California passed a law that aims to shore up the permitting process for hazardous waste facilities. The law enables the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control to consider the cumulative impact of pollution in its permitting process. But the rules the law requires are seven years late, and critics say they still don’t do enough to protect vulnerable communities, writes CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde.
According to DTSC’s draft rules, waste facilities that want new permits will be required to profile the demographics and environmental risks of communities within a one-mile radius. If a surrounding community ranks in the top 25% in CalEnviroScreen — a state tool that screens communities for environmental harm — the facility must write a more detailed report.
But critics of the proposal say the only way a permit could be denied is based on the pollution from the waste facility itself, not the cumulative pollution impacts in the area. Advocates also argue that the rule’s reliance on air quality status and CalEnviroScreen rankings is problematic. Much of the CalEnviroScreen data, for example, is self-reported from polluters.
And lastly: Fire survivors slam SoCal Edison’s compensation program
More than 1,800 Southern California Edison customers have applied to a voluntary compensation program tied to the Eaton Fire, which killed at least 19 people. CalMatters’ Malena Carollo and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on why some survivors say the program is inadequate, as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.
SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: The Legislature’s frustration over the state budget was evident during last week’s budget hearings, where lawmakers could only speculate how to manage the deficit in the absence of specifics from Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Increasing or removing weight limits for semi-trucks would put California communities at risk, generate serious safety concerns and raise infrastructure costs, writes Jorgel Chavez, Bell Gardens City Councilmember.
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