CHAI launches AI adoption support for public health agencies

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in the nation's healthcare infrastructure, local and state public health agencies risk being left behind.

The Coalition for Health AI, a collaborative that aims to advance AI in healthcare responsibly, is launching a national initiative to help state, tribal, local and territorial public health agencies implement AI. Called PULSE, or Public health Use case and Learning Scaling Engine, the initiative will bring 2,000 public health practitioners together to develop playbooks across five use cases.

CHAI's 17-member leadership council will select the participants and assign them to their preferred use-case committee. They will then work with Accenture's AI and public health experts to conduct AI pilots. Based on their learning, they will develop playbooks that provide best practices for adopting AI, particularly generative AI. OpenAI and Anthropic have donated 10 enterprise licenses to the initiative.

"PULSE is designed to help public health agencies build trust, practical experience, and a path to responsible implementation of this powerful technology," said Brian Anderson, MD, CEO of CHAI, in the press release. "We're proud to provide a vehicle for these organizations to share what they learn using leading AI tools in real-world settings, facilitating adoption and helping accelerate responsible innovation that strengthens public health nationwide."

CHAI's program comes as public health agencies fall behind in AI adoption, despite industry efforts.

At the federal level, HHS launched an effort in 2025 to integrate AI into internal operations, research and public health. However, adoption appears to be lagging at the state and local levels.

According to the National Association of County and City Health Officials, only 5% of local health departments reported using AI in 2024, and a majority (84%) did not have plans to use AI in the following year. Still, of the local health departments not using AI, nearly 40% were somewhat or very interested in supplementing their efforts with AI in the future.

For the initiative, CHAI will select participants from varied jurisdictions, including state and territorial health departments, local and county health departments, tribal authorities and Indian health organizations or large city health departments. The use cases for AI pilots will include:

• Biosurveillance: Drug wave prediction
• Social determinants of health: SDOH mapping
• Operations and efficiency: Community feedback analysis
• Public communications: Multilingual translation hub
• Automated clinical data retrieval: FHIR query engine

"Every major technological transformation succeeds or fails based on trust, governance and execution. Public institutions have the added responsibility of doing so while maintaining transparency and accountability," said David Lakey, M.D., former commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, in the press release. "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."

The AI pilots will begin in the fall, and the public launch of the playbooks is expected next year.

Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers healthcare IT and innovation, including artificial intelligence, digital healthcare, EHRs and interoperability.