From Pilot to Practice: Applying AI in Public Health

Session 1: Introduction to AI in Public Health
Date: September 23, 2026
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. (ET) 

• Presentation slides: Session 1 - Introduction to Ai in public health.pdf
• Transcript: Session 1 - Transcript.pdf

 

           

Key links from presentation: 

• Chief Public Health Officer of Canada. A Vision to Transform Canada's Public Health System: Chief Public Health Officer's Report on the State of Public Health in Canada 2021. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/corporate/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/state-public-health-canada-2021/report.html
• Stanford HAI. AI Index Report 2026. https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2026-ai-index-report
• World Health Organization. Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health (2021). https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240029200
• Sidey-Gibbons JAM, Sidey-Gibbons CJ. Machine Learning in Medicine: A Practical Introduction. BMC Medical Research Methodology. 2019. https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12874-019-0681-4
• LeCun Y, Bengio Y, Hinton G. Deep Learning. Nature. 2015;521(7553):436-444. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14539
• Moor M, Banerjee O, Abad ZSH, et al. Foundation Models for Generalist Medical Artificial Intelligence. Nature. 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05881-4
• Hernán, M. A., Hsu, J., & Healy, B. (2019). A Second Chance to Get Causal Inference Right: A Classification of Data Science Tasks. CHANCE, 32(1), 42–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/09332480.2019.1579578
• Khan MA et al. Text Classification for Foodborne Illness Outbreak Investigations Using Deep Learning. EIS Conference. 2023.
• CDC. A Timelier Understanding of Death. 2023. https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/133554
• Gutierrez JM, Volkovs M, Poutanen T, Watson T, Rosella LC. Risk Stratification for COVID-19 Hospitalization: A Multivariable Model Based on Gradient-Boosting Decision Trees. CMAJ Open. 2021. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8695533/
• Wong KK et al. Automated Cooling Tower Detection Through Deep Learning for Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak Investigations: A Model Development and Validation Study. The Lancet Digital Health. 2024. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(24)00094-3/fulltext
• Espinosa L et al. Use of Large Language Models as a Scalable Approach to Understanding Public Health Discourse. https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0000631
• Chan IY, Shah RU, Blythe J, et al. Ethical Machine Learning in Healthcare. Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science. 2021;4:123-144. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-biodatasci-092820-114757
• International Energy Agency (IEA). Energy and AI. 2025. https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai
• Fisher S, Rosella LC. Priorities for Successful Use of Artificial Intelligence by Public Health Organizations: A Literature Review. BMC Public Health. 2022;22:2146. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-022-14422-z
• Hattab G et al. The Way Forward to Embrace Artificial Intelligence in Public Health. American Journal of Public Health. 2025;115(2):123-128. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307888
• World Health Organization. Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health. 2021. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240029200 Abejirinde IO et al. Meaningful Community Engagement for Artificial Intelligence in Health. Journal of Participatory Medicine. 2025;17. https://jopm.jmir.org/2025/1/e69497
• Rosella LC et al. Deploying Artificial Intelligence for Diabetes Risk Prediction: Lessons for Public Health Practice. DIGITAL HEALTH. 2025;11. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40656860/
• Institute for Better Health. AI4DPP Meeting. http://www.instituteforbetterhealth.com/ai4dpp-meeting/
• CIFAR. AI for Diabetes Prediction and Prevention Network. https://cifar.ca/fr/evenements/reunion-du-reseau-de-solutions-lia-au-service-de-la-prediction-et-de-la-prevention-du-diabete/
• Rosella LC. Will AI Improve Public Health? Setting the Standards for Meaningful Impact. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 2025;116:815-818. https://link.springer.com/article/10.17269/s41997-025-01146-x