CHAI seeks to support public health agency uptake of genAI

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Testing and implementing generative artificial intelligence tools responsibly in local health departments nationwide requires dedicated communities of practice and peer networks, the Coalition for Health AI said on Thursday.

The non-profit organization's new Public Health Use Case and Learning Scaling Engine, or PULSE, could help state, tribal, local and territorial public health agencies responsibly evaluate, implement and scale generative AI with support from OpenAI, Anthropic and Accenture.

CHAI's leadership council of cross-sector collaborators will select the participating entities and assign individuals to their preferred use-case communities of practice, the organization said.

"Every major technological transformation succeeds or fails based on trust, governance and execution," said Dr. David Lakey, former Texas health commissioner, in CHAI's announcement.

"PULSE will support agencies in this endeavor, and is specifically designed for practical implementation – working hand in hand with the professionals that are actively using the generative AI tools."

OpenAI and Anthropic have donated 10 enterprise licenses, with up to 2,000 seats available for public health practitioners, and Accenture AI and public health experts will manage onboarding and development of playbooks.

"We believe AI should be useful, safe and accessible to the people tackling society's most important challenges," said Felipe Millon, OpenAI's head of government go-to-market, in a statement.

"By participating in this initiative through our licenses, we're helping public health organizations evaluate these tools in a structured, responsible way – with the hope that these pilots can guide broader adoption."

PULSE's overall goal is to accelerate the adoption of generative AI in public health by piloting the most impactful use cases in 10 select jurisdictions and then translate learnings into playbooks across five key use cases.

Those playbooks will serve as best practices for other jurisdictions and help standardize the use of genAI in public health nationally.

"Public institutions have the added responsibility of doing so while maintaining transparency and accountability," Lakey noted.

According to NACCHO, nearly 40% of local health departments are not using AI, but they want to transform their workflows and improve efficiencies.

"Public health teams are being asked to do more with less, and AI can help – as long as it's brought in with care and the right guardrails," said Elizabeth Kelly, Anthropic's head of beneficial deployments, in the announcement.

"That's why PULSE matters: it lets practitioners test these tools in their own environments, with privacy, governance and responsible use built in from the start."

Pilots are expected to begin this fall, while the playbooks could be released next year, CHAI said.

The initiative targets the following use cases:

Jurisdictions of all sizes are eligible and could include a state or territorial health department, a local or county health department, a tribal authority or Indian health organization, or a large city health department, CHAI said.

Applications are due by Aug. 7.

The new initiative builds on CHAI's mission to develop consensus-driven frameworks, governance tools and best practices that enable trustworthy AI adoption across healthcare, the organization said.

In May, CHAI announced it would create new guidance across eight domains and a step-by-step roadmap for transparent, trusted AI governance to be developed in community workshops and workgroups that include more than 150 health AI leaders.

As the Joint Commission rolled out its Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare voluntary AI safety certification last month, CHAI began releasing in-depth AI governance playbooks across three of the domains – Organizational AI Policy, Organizational Structure and Organizational Resources – with more to come.

The Joint Commission certification and CHAI's governance playbooks are tightly aligned, according to Dr. Brian Anderson, CEO of CHAI. "We believe this alignment will greatly reduce confusion and help to accelerate rapid and responsible adoption of AI in healthcare," he said in a statement about the commission's certification.

"The COVID-19 pandemic showed just how critical our public health infrastructure is – years of underinvestment in technology left many agencies without the tools or experience they needed to respond as effectively as they could, and we're seeing the same thing with AI today," said Anderson in a statement about PULSE.

"We know AI is going to reshape how we deliver public health – the question is whether we do it thoughtfully or not," added Dr. Ashish Jha, former White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator. "PULSE is our best shot at getting this right: testing what actually works, learning fast and making sure the benefits reach the communities that need them most."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.Email: [email protected]Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.