Dr. Kaitlan Baston, ASTHO alum and the former New Jersey commissioner of health, reflects on her time in the role as she steps down; Dr. Hang Lu, assistant professor in the department of communication and media at the University of Michigan, discusses an...
Dr. Kaitlan Baston, ASTHO alum and the former New Jersey commissioner of health, reflects on her time in the role as she steps down; Dr. Hang Lu, assistant professor in the department of communication and media at the University of Michigan, discusses an article about the use of Generative AI for vaccine misbelief correction; state and territory leaders, ASTHO staff, and more are attending Prep Summit 2025 this week; and ASTHO would like to welcome Dr. Meena Seshamani, the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health, as its newest member.
ASTHO Web Page: Maryland | Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD
JANSON SILVERS:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday May 1, 2025. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
KAITLAN BASTON:
Being the Commissioner of Health has been the privilege of a lifetime. I can't stress more how incredible this experience has been.
SILVERS:
ASTHO alum, Dr. Kaitlan Baston reflects on her time as the commissioner of dealth for the New Jersey Department of Health. Baston recently announced that she would be leaving her role at the New Jersey DOH for another opportunity. Baston says right from the beginning of her healthcare career, she knew she was destined for a job where she could make a difference.
BASTON:
As a family doctor, I knew early on that I couldn't work 'in' this healthcare system without working 'on' this healthcare system. It is broken in so many ways, but so tangible, the ways that we can fix it, and the ways that we can work on people staying healthy and living their best lives.
SILVERS:
Baston says some of her proudest accomplishments as health commissioner have roots in her early work as an addiction medicine physician.
BASTON:
The work I was able to do in addiction, expanding from seven harm reduction centers to over 50; so incredible, really changing the scope of paramedics and allowing them to treat addiction in the field, and making medication for addiction treatment more available and with a focus in the neighborhoods and communities that were not getting enough access to that.
SILVERS:
Baston says her advice to her successor is to take care of people, including your own.
BASTON:
We have to take care of our own teams, especially right now, with the dramatic changes that we're seeing and the shifts that we're seeing at the federal level. There's a lot of uncertainty, and so it's about transparency and building trust and listening.
SILVERS:
A reminder that New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced that Jeff Brown will serve as acting commissioner of the Department, and he started this week. Read the full announcement in the show notes.
Dr. Hang Lu, with the department of communication [and] media at the University of Michigan, recently published an article in ScienceDirect about the use of generative AI for vaccine misbelief correction. Specifically, he wanted to tailor messages based on personality traits. One of those traits was extroversion.
HANG LU:
And what I found was really encouraging. So, the extrovert integrity message significantly reduced vaccine misbeliefs, and among people who scored higher on extroversion, it actually performed better than the original generic message. So, this suggests to me that using AI to personalize public health messaging could really be a promising path forward.
SILVERS:
Lu also looked at how those messages would affect people who he says, "believe in pseudoscience."
LU:
So, basically, ideas that may sound scientific but are not actually backed up by solid scientific evidence, these beliefs are a major driver of vaccine hesitancy. What I found was, again, that the messages tailored to extroverts were very effective, but the ones aimed at beliefs in pseudoscience actually backfired. So, for people who held those beliefs strongly, the messages actually ended up reinforcing their negative attitudes toward vaccination.
SILVERS:
Lu says this study revealed a lot, including how generative AI can produce results if we have the right guardrails.
LU:
But for it to be effective and responsible, we really need strong systems in place around it. That includes, I guess, training for communicators, clear ethical guidelines, and quality control processes to ensure the messages AI produces are accurate, are culturally appropriate, and are respectful.
SILVERS:
Learn more about how these personality traits responded to AI in the full article. It's in the show notes.
Now also this week, state and territory leaders, ASTHO staff, and more are attending Prep Summit 2025. Members of ASTHO's peer networks and staff will present at this year's recovery-themed summit on topics ranging from the evolving nature of public health preparedness, to large scale event planning, to lessons learned from recent responses and tabletop exercises. More information on the Summit is in the show notes.
Finally, ASTHO would like to welcome Dr. Meena Seshamani, the secretary of the Maryland Department of Health. Dr. Seshamani most recently served as deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. We wish her all the best in her new role as Maryland secretary of health. Learn more about Dr. Seshamani in her bio. It's 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.
