Responsible AI for Public Health Agencies
Public health agencies are working to modernize data systems and improve decision-making, but they often do so with legacy infrastructure and limited staff. Altarum's Health Data & AI Center of Excellence (COE) helps agencies adopt these tools responsibly. We start with governance and infrastructure questions so that the AI tools align with their mission needs and support real-world operations.
What We Do
Every CoE engagement starts with governance, not tools. We assess each agency's data infrastructure, workforce capacity, and compliance requirements before recommending a path forward. Our partners end up with solutions they can manage going forward.
Our work covers four areas:
- Early warning and decision intelligence: AI-powered anomaly detection, predictive modeling, and integrated surveillance dashboards move agencies from fragmented data to real-time situational awareness.
- Operational efficiency and data quality: AI-assisted coding, automated reporting, and workflow standardization reduce manual burden and improve data consistency.
- AI-augmented workforce support: Copilots, research assistance tools, and case triage support are embedded into existing workflows to support public health professionals, not replace them.
- Community navigation and outreach: AI-powered conversational tools and benefits navigation that help agencies reach more people without expanding administrative staff.
How We Deliver
We offer three engagement models designed to fit where an agency is, not where we'd like it to be:
- Advisory: AI readiness assessment, governance review, and a prioritized roadmap for responsible adoption.
- Accelerator: A focused 4-6 week pilot on one high-value use case, proving measurable value before a full-scale commitment.
- Full delivery: End-to-end solution design, build, test, and deployment with ongoing support.
Across all three, every engagement is designed so that the capability stays with the agency when we're done: reusable data pipelines, documented governance, and trained staff.
Across Our Focus Areas
The CoE's applied AI work connects to the Public Health IT focus area and to our broader data interoperability and technology capabilities. Across all of it, we advance health missions by helping agencies build the data and AI infrastructure they need — and the internal capacity to keep it running.
AI, deployed with discipline and purpose, expands what’s possible for public health—reaching communities sooner, supporting staff better, and improving outcomes at scale.