Public Health Agencies in the U.S. Embrace Generative AI through PULSE Program
In a transformative move set to redefine the landscape of public health, agencies across the United States are gearing up to test generative AI tools as part of a pioneering initiative. This effort, named the Public Health Use Case and Learning Scaling Engine (PULSE), is spearheaded by the Coalition for Health AI, in collaboration with tech giants OpenAI, Anthropic, and consulting firm Accenture.
Initiating a New Era in Public Health
The PULSE program is designed to support studies across ten diverse jurisdictions, including state, local, tribal, and territorial entities. The objective is to formulate actionable implementation guidance for public health agencies contemplating similar AI deployments. OpenAI and Anthropic have generously contributed 10 enterprise licenses, accommodating up to 2,000 public health physicians, while Accenture will manage participant onboarding and the development of comprehensive playbooks based on pilot outcomes.
The initiative provides public health professionals access to cutting-edge AI technologies from OpenAI and Anthropic. However, the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) has not yet disclosed specific products, model versions, or configurations, nor clarified the allocation of vendors in these pilot tests.
Harnessing AI for Five Key Public Health Use Cases
The Coalition for Health AI Leadership Council will play a pivotal role in selecting participating jurisdictions and assigning practitioner communities to focus on five critical use cases. These encompass biomonitoring and drug wave prediction, social determinants of health (SDoH) mapping, operational efficiency, community feedback analysis, public communications, and a multilingual translation center, alongside automated clinical data retrieval using an FHIR query engine.
While the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework advocates for a comprehensive evaluation of AI systems, CHAI has not yet articulated separate evaluation, privacy, security, or human review protocols for the PULSE use cases.
Governance and Evaluation: The Path Forward
The pilot tests for PULSE are scheduled to commence in autumn 2026, with the expectation that the resulting playbooks will be published in 2027, offering valuable reference material for other public health agencies. However, CHAI has yet to define the metrics for evaluating these pilots or clarify whether each use case will be assessed against distinct technical, operational, privacy, and security criteria.
Dr. David Lakey, a former Texas health commissioner, emphasized the importance of trust, governance, and execution in technological transformations, underscoring PULSE’s role in supporting agencies through practical implementation.
The NIST guidelines recommend identifying AI functions that necessitate human oversight and training users to grasp system performance and limitations. Generative AI guidance also encompasses testing, validation, monitoring, documentation, data protection, and management oversight.
Ensuring Privacy and Security
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandates HIPAA-compliant organizations to safeguard certain electronic health information. However, HIPAA does not universally apply to all PULSE participants, with its application contingent on authority, data concerned, and the performed function.
OpenAI and Anthropic have stated that inputs and outputs from their business services are not used for model training by default. Nevertheless, the announcement does not specify retention periods, access controls, audit arrangements, data retention requirements, or rules governing the transmission of protected health information.
Felipe Millon, head of Go-to-Market at OpenAI, expressed their commitment to ensuring AI is useful, safe, and accessible, aiding public health organizations in evaluating tools through a structured process.
PULSE: A Step Towards AI-Driven Public Health Transformation
As the global health landscape becomes increasingly complex, public health teams are under pressure to do more with fewer resources. Elizabeth Kelly, director of useful operations at Anthropic, highlighted that AI, when used judiciously and with proper guardrails, can significantly aid these efforts.
PULSE aims to convert findings from ten jurisdictions into guidance for broader use. However, the announcement does not delineate how the playbooks will address variances in agency size, technical systems, legal responsibilities, staffing, or procurement arrangements.
The Coalition for Health AI is actively working on governance standards for AI in healthcare, with plans to develop guidance across eight governance areas through workshops and working groups involving over 150 healthcare AI representatives.
Dr. Brian Anderson, chief executive of the Coalition for Health AI, remarked on the limited technological investment in public health prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, stressing the importance of the PULSE program in providing agencies hands-on AI experience.
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