ASU has named the first dean of its new School of Technology for Public Health.
In a news release, the university says the school “aims to create a new and rapidly evolving space for the integration of digital technology, data-driven decision-making and a significant focus on local impact within public health.”
Jyotishman Pathak will lead the new school; he comes to ASU from Cornell University and will officially start at the beginning of July.
Pathak joined The Show to discuss some of the public challenges Arizona is facing, including heat-related illnesses and deaths, substance abuse and how that’s impacted by the heat, as well as mental illness.
Full conversation
JYOTISHMAN PATHAK: Now you may ask the question, how is the new school of technology and public health really going to address these challenges? Well, first of all, this new school is part of ASU Health, which does include a new medical school as well. And our objective here is to think about a much more comprehensive, new and bold approach for improving health outcomes in Arizona and beyond.
Now when you think about public health, at its core, it's about prevention, right? So instead of treating diseases after they occur, public health focuses on reducing risk factors, promoting healthy behaviors, thinking about creating more supportive environments. And I think that's absolutely important, and I think our goal as part of the new school of technology for public health is to really bridge that divide, right? Divide between individual health and public health, and really make public health more personal.
So just to give, I think one concrete example, let's say when it comes to heat-related illnesses and deaths. How could, for instance, satellite imagery and geographical information systems help us identify heat hotspots or at-risk populations? How can you really use emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence to help our simulations that can inform city planners to think about better heat mitigation policies or designing more green infrastructure? How could likewise AI be used to facilitate mental health screening?
So our new school, we really want to understand and develop these technologies, and scale them. And then I think more importantly work with our public health colleagues in local and state Department of Health, to really deploy them across communities, especially in marginalized populations.
MARK BRODIE: So you mentioned AI and I wanted to ask you about that because as I'm sure you know, there's been a lot of consternation about the role that AI is playing and could potentially play down the road in health care delivery and other aspects of health care. You mentioned a few areas where you think it might be helpful. I'm curious like on balance, how do you see AI and what to you is the appropriate role of AI in health care?
PATHAK: Yeah, that's an excellent question, Mark. I mean, I think it's well understood and well assumed that technologies such as AI are going to be hugely important for the field of medicine and certainly by that extension, public health. We are already seeing how AI-related tools are being incorporated in many different domains. So whether it's again apps for mental health support, smoking cessation, nutrition, they're all being used, these types of digital tools and behavioral health interventions.
There has been quite a bit of progress again in geospatial mapping and how AI technologies could help us visualize health disparities and think about interventions. So I think we are, perhaps at an early stage of how these tools and methods are being developed.
And again, as part of the new school, we really want to train our students in AI, data science, cybersecurity to develop tech-driven solutions which could help inform future technology-based outcomes and help improve our public health outcomes. Now, I think at the same time, it's important to understand that technology alone cannot fix all of these challenges.
BRODIE: How do you see this school sort of fitting into the health care ecosystem in Phoenix and the valley? I mean, you obviously have the UA Medical School, you have TGen and some of the other biotech firms that are gonna be downtown as well. How does this operation sort of fit in with what's already here?
PATHAK: I think that's another fantastic question. I mean, I think this particular school again as part of a broader ASU health. Initiative incorporates an important component which is focused around public health. Right now, again, if you think about the field of public health, the parallel that I always think that public health is like the plumbing in your house, right? When it works, you barely notice, but when it breaks, everything falls apart.
And so overall, as part of the ASU health strategy, to really improve health outcomes, across the state and beyond, this particular school fits an important role. Now, in the entire state as a whole, there's, of course, the University of Arizona has a robust public health school, and we anticipate multiple collaborations, with, U of A and, and NAU and other regional health systems. But where I think we will be able to distinguish ourselves, as a new school will be along some of these dimensions.
So the first dimension. That really comes to my mind is around innovation. You know, we really want to think about how emerging technologies could be deployed in public health. Likewise, when it comes to the divide between public health and health care delivery system, as it turns out, data is often a huge barrier. And so we want to think about ways by which we can facilitate more tighter collaboration across these different sectors. Being at, in, in downtown Phoenix, I think we have a unique advantage, to really build on these relationships, some of which already exist, and really think about a broader public health, surveillance systems.
BRODIE: What is your sense of what the public perception is right now of public health? It just seems like maybe the, the, the field took a bit of a hit during COVID. I'm curious what your sense is of this.
PATHAK: Yeah, yeah, I think, I think certainly during the pandemic, I would say maybe the peak of the pandemic and, and beyond, there was a lot of energy behind public health. The public was aware of public health but again, going back to my plumbing analogy, public health by far, remains invisible, right? And then you don't always hear about how food inspections are being done. You don't, don't always hear about how wastewater surveillance is being done to identify certain viruses or bacteria in your systems.
And so public health by far I think still works in the background and remains invisible, and I think that is an important part that we really want to focus in our school is that Public health research must be sensitive to the community needs, right? So listen first and then act. And given the era we are with unprecedented misinformation, disinformation or perhaps to some degree even outright anti-science aggression, I think developing mechanisms about effective communication of public health and public health technology becomes very important.
