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Dr. Mike Fraser, ASTHO CEO, and Dr. Brian Castrucci, de Beaumont Foundation president and CEO, tell us why their new book is beneficial for all public health professionals; Maggie Davis, ASTHO director for State Health Policy, says states are...
Dr. Mike Fraser, ASTHO CEO, and Dr. Brian Castrucci, de Beaumont Foundation president and CEO, tell us why their new book is beneficial for all public health professionals; Maggie Davis, ASTHO director for State Health Policy, says states are beginning to assess the use of AI in public health and beyond; ASTHO has a course to teach best practices for building and understanding data visualization through a health equity lens; and ASTHO launches a three-part video series to showcase how public health can build program sustainability into their Healthy Brain Initiative work.
ASTHO Blog Article: States Assessing and Mitigating Risks of Agencies Using Artificial Intelligence
ASTHO Webpage: Designing Data Dashboards Using a Health Equity Lens
ASTHO Webpage: Integrating Sustainability into Healthy Brain Initiative Implementation
JANSON SILVERS:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Monday, February 26, 2024. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
BRIAN CASTRUCCI:
These books are under kind of, like, like Daymond John's FUBU brand, "It's for Us, By Us," for public health practitioners, by public health practitioners. And I love a good academic. But, you know, I'd rather hear about, you know how to fight a military conflict by someone who's fought it and not just studied it.
SILVERS:
de Beaumont Foundation President and CEO, Dr. Brian Castrucci joined ASTHO CEO Mike Fraser for a discussion based on their new book, Building Strategic Skills for Better Health. Fraser says the idea for the book came about after the strategic skills for public health were recently updated.
MICHAEL FRASER:
What we heard from folks is some kind of easy read, and it is a pretty easy read on what the strategic skills are, how they're created, and what they mean for public health practice would be a very helpful tool to include in both the training centers' work as well as the work of our professional association and partners. So, the need was there in the sense that folks want an easy-to-find one-stop-shop for strategic skills and explanations of those.
SILVERS:
The nine strategic skills covered in the book range from effective communication to policy engagement to DEIJ. Fraser and Castrucci both say many public health professionals bring technical knowledge to the table, but may struggle when it comes to running an organization.
CASTRUCCI:
Like we're talking about sizes of grants that are bigger than some businesses, and most of us can graduate nursing school, medical school, public health school, never having a real course in budgeting. And yet, you then get to the health department or like, here's your first grant, you know, like, "Well, I know how to do the content, but how do I hire somebody? How do I write interview questions? How do I write the budget?"
SILVERS:
Their book will help fill those gaps, and Fraser thinks it will help public health professionals in their careers now and in the future.
FRASER:
For those folks who are interested in pursuing leadership and management opportunities in their agencies or, you know, furthering where they are right now. I think this knowledge of the strategic skills will help a lot in dealing with, again, some of the challenges that are more people-oriented or strategy-oriented than technical. And so certainly being able to say, you know, "You've done this work and acquired this knowledge," is going to position you well for future opportunities.
SILVERS:
A link to Fraser and Castrucci's book is in the show notes.
The use of artificial intelligence, or AI, is becoming commonplace in everyday life. ASTHO's Maggie Davis says it's also being used more and more in public health.
MAGGIE DAVIS:
Public health has also been using AI technology and machine learning to help process large datasets, such as one jurisdiction that uses AI technology to help scan death certificates to identify people that may have passed away from overdose.
SILVERS:
In an ASTHO blog article, Davis writes that the increased usage has states taking a closer look at how AI is being utilized.
DAVIS:
Right now, a lot of states and jurisdictions are starting to put together tasks for us to assess just, how are they using AI, what are the appropriate ways that they would like to use AI moving forward, and then what are the safeguards they're putting in place to make sure that when they're using this tool, this tool is being used in the way they intend for it to be?
SILVERS:
Recruitment of candidates is another area where AI is being used. And Davis says agencies are looking to ensure that AI is working appropriately in these situations.
DAVIS:
So really, what we're seeing are policies to assess what is the underlying data set informing these algorithms and machine learning models and AI technologies to make sure that they are not kind of perpetuating some biases within society instead of correcting for them.
SILVERS:
The link to the blog article is in the show notes.
Also today, if your organization wants to build its understanding of data visualization's role in public health, ASTHO's course called 'Designing Data Dashboards Using a Health Equity Lens' will teach best practices for data visualization and help your team take the next steps on their data visualization journey. The link is in the show notes.
Finally, this morning, ASTHO has a resource hub revolving around the Healthy Brain Initiative. A three-part video series located in the hub showcases how public health can build programs sustainability into their Healthy Brain Initiative work. You can go straight there by using the link in the show notes.
That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.
