PHO Rounds: Artificial Intelligence and Public Health – The Future is Now

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of our daily lives, leaving a notable imprint in education, professional, and institutional settings, yielding both positive and negative outcomes. The use of AI in public health is rapidly gaining momentum, and during this session, presenters will provide an overview of its current applications. This presentation will also discuss key methodologies and explore potential recommendations for its integration into public health practices. AI shows significant potential in establishing a Learning Public Health system and fostering the convergence of health and technology, which will reshape the future landscape of public health practice.

Intended audience: Public health decision-makers, medical officers of health, associate medical officers of health, researchers, public health staff working in data and surveillance, and epidemiologists.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Recognize common terminology used in AI and application within public health practice and research
• Identify and critique the strengths and limitations of machine learning and its application in public health practice
• Discuss how both data and new technologies can contribute to a Learning Public Health system and its future impact on public health practice

About the presenters: Dr. Andrew Pinto and Sharon Birdi

Andrew Pinto, MD, CCFP, FRCPC, MSc, a Public Health and Preventive Medicine specialist, is the founder and director of Upstream Lab. He holds the CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in Upstream Prevention and is a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto. Additionally, he’s an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and serves as Director of the University of Toronto Practice-Based Research Network (UTOPIAN), leads clinical research for Ontario’s POPLAR network, and founded the Canadian Primary Care Trials Network.

Sharon Birdi, BMSc, is a Research Coordinator at the Upstream Lab, with interests in responsible AI and public health.