AI Advances Could Improve Public Health, Medicine

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become almost unavoidable in recent years. From ChatGPT to Google searches, this technology has started to spread into every aspect of our lives—whether we want it to or not.

But beyond checking the grammar of your essay or generating a picture of your cat wearing a cowboy hat, AI has the potential to improve our health and health care system in a big way.

Bolstering Our Outbreak Response

Surveillance is a foundational piece of public health. We use it during disease outbreaks to keep track of who is sick and where. That helps public health practitioners stop an outbreak from spreading.

According to Ramesh Manyam, PhD, assistant research professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health, AI could be instrumental in tracking future outbreaks more efficiently. Manyam is a data scientist with decades of experience who now researches AI, machine learning, and their applications for better health.

“Traditionally, public health surveillance relies on manual data collection which can be error-prone and time-consuming,” he says. “AI can transform this process by automating data analysis, quickly identifying potential outbreaks, and issuing early warnings.”

He adds, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is already using AI to track the spread of diseases by combining data from multiple sources, such as electronic health records, social media, travel agencies, and news outlets. This proven approach can be applied to future outbreaks.”

Manyam hopes that as AI technology continues to advance, it can also be used to monitor risk factors and trends in chronic diseases like diabetes or cancer. This could include integration of AI tools into wearable health technology like smartwatches that collect health data in real time.

Personalizing Medicine

The health care field is already embracing AI to help improve diagnostics. Doctors use the technology to help them analyze CT scans and MRI images and as a tool to predict the risk of serious health events like strokes.

Manyam sees an opportunity to harness the power of AI to bring high-quality, personal medicine to patients.

“AI can integrate electronic health record data (like patients’ vital signs, laboratory results, and medications) and doctors’ notes to better understand the health status of a patient in real time. That can help doctors make more informed decisions, recommend personalized treatments, and deliver optimized care,” says Manyam.

Using AI Ethically

While Manyam is excited about the progress we are making in AI and the ways it could improve our health, he also understands its challenges. 

“One of the most important challenges is ensuring that AI is used equitably,” he says. “AI models are often prone to bias, particularly if they are trained on non-representative datasets. This bias can exacerbate existing health disparities, particularly affecting marginalized and disadvantaged communities.”

To address that challenge and the ethical dilemma it poses, Manyam says that “AI systems must be developed with an equity lens that ensures diverse populations are adequately represented in training algorithms.”

Building ethical, equitable AI systems starts with professionals working in AI receiving the right training. Manyam looks forward to contributing to that training through the DrPH in Applied AI and Data Translation at Rollins, which will enroll its first cohort of students next fall.