How to understand the technology being used in your health care
Plus: What’s “bioinformatics”? + Steps to prevent drowning
Welcome to Doing Well. Today:
An interview on how technology is changing public health
Word of the week: bioinformatics
Headed to the pool or the beach? Recommendations to stay water-safe
Let’s get started.
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We Asked: How is technology changing the way we detect and prevent disease?
Technology affects nearly every aspect of our health. It helps us communicate with health care providers, monitor how our body’s doing, and access the best treatments. It allows experts to identify health risks in our communities and determine the most effective way to address them.
The technology involved in our health care is also changing rapidly. There are, for example, more than 350,000 health care-related apps on the market, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized more than 1,200 medical devices that use artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, public health experts are analyzing waste water from around 151 million people around the U.S. to detect and monitor infectious diseases. The list goes on—and it can be hard to keep up.
To start to wrap our heads around all the complex ways technology is changing our health—individually and within our communities—we spoke to Dr. Jyoti Pathak, dean of Arizona State University’s School of Technology for Public Health. He walked us through the creative ways technology can be used to address public health problems and the questions we can ask our providers to better understand the tools being used in our care. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Short on time? Here’s what to know:
The field of public health technology uses emerging technologies to identify and address threats to public health—from new viruses to extreme heat.
When you go to a doctor or get a test done, your information is likely stored in what’s called an electronic medical record system. This system helps organize data about your health.
Artificial intelligence tools can use this data to help predict health conditions you may be at risk for and guide treatment. For example, research has used AI to predict when a pregnant woman may be at risk for postpartum depression and to connect her with resources.
All technologies have risks and limitations, and it can be useful to understand how technology is being used in your care. Some questions to consider asking include:
Is AI being used in my care? How?
Have the tools being used been tested for accuracy and fairness?
How is this health system protecting my privacy, and what rights and access do I have to my data?
Mia Armstrong-López: What is public health technology? Can you give us specific examples of public health technology in practice?
Jyoti Pathak: Broadly, public health is all about prevention—preventing a disease, preventing an outbreak. Public health is: What are the best practices, behavioral changes, [and] community-level interventions that we could implement [to] prevent these conditions from happening?
The field of public health technology is this intersection of emerging technologies—whether it's artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital health, wearable devices, remote sensing—that allow us to first identify emerging public health threats and then use these technologies to [prevent] them from becoming an epidemic or a pandemic down the line.
I'll give a couple examples. In Arizona, we are in the midst of hot weather, and heat-related illnesses and deaths are a major public health concern. In 2024, Maricopa County had over 600 heat-related deaths. One area where public health-based technologies could potentially play a role is: How can we use, for example, satellite imaging to identify heat spots or at-risk populations, so that local public health agencies [could] warn communities about extreme weather events and heat waves? Artificial intelligence-based simulations could help city planners design better heat mitigation strategies, such as green space and tree-planting initiatives, green roofs, or cold pavements.
In the substance-use field, work has shown drugs like naloxone could be used for reversing [opioid overdose]. Virtual reality technology [could be used] for training the general public in naloxone administration. Likewise, drone technology has been [studied] for the delivery of naloxone kits [to] a location where a 911 call for overdose [was made].
MAL: You mentioned artificial intelligence. What is artificial intelligence, and what are some of the ways that it’s already being used in health care?
JP: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broader discipline, where you are essentially thinking about ways by which—at a high level—computers could mimic human behavior and human thought processing. This is done by developing algorithms that can train on prior data to learn human actions.
I'll give an example: If I'm a physician who treats heart disease, I may see a patient, diagnose this individual, and then offer certain kinds of treatment. There's another cardiologist who may see the exact same patient, but offer different kinds of treatments. An AI-based algorithm could learn from physician 1 and physician 2, and hundreds of thousands of [other] physicians and their behaviors, and over a period of time develop some kind of rule, so to speak, that can facilitate better guidance for treatments. It can make treatment recommendations that are not just based on an individual experience, but could be informed by hundreds and thousands of other doctors.
MAL: What tools does the health care system use to collect patient data? How might AI improve those tools?
JP: Any time you visit a doctor, at least in the United States, most hospitals, physician offices, and clinics have a system called an electronic medical record system. It used to be paper-based; it has predominantly become electronic. As a result, when you are presenting to the doctor with certain symptoms, all this information is being documented and recorded in that system. Any diagnosis [and] any treatment is being recorded in the system. The electronic medical record system becomes a huge treasure trove of information not just [about] you as an individual patient, but hundreds and thousands of patients. That becomes the input to a lot of these AI algorithms, because they need to be trained. The more data you give to these algorithms, the better the performance would be.
In my previous work at Cornell University, we had a series of projects on women's mental health and postpartum depression and anxiety. In the Western world, roughly 1 in 7 women suffer from postpartum depression. If you look at Africa and Asia, it's close to 1 in 4. But only half of them, both here and globally, are diagnosed with this condition, so many women are suffering silently—they are never receiving the right diagnosis and the right treatment, and that can lead to poor outcomes both for the mom [and] infant.
Our work was to see: Can we identify at-risk women as early as their first trimester during pregnancy so that we could think of preventative interventions? Could we identify women at risk, so that we could provide recommendations as part of their routine prenatal visits? Preventative interventions are easier, but prevention only works when you do it early, as opposed to doing it later.
We looked at data around five different hospital systems in New York City; we were able to create an AI-based model that would predict with roughly 85% accuracy someone [at risk] for postpartum depression. Work is underway to implement these tools across different health systems in New York.
MAL: A lot of this happens behind the scenes. As a patient, if we want to understand how AI and other technologies are being used in our care, how can we do so?
JP: There is a very healthy debate about the need for AI ethics and regulation, not just in the U.S., but globally as well. There is a desire for the government to think about rules and regulations.
As [individuals], we need to be cognizant before we download an app and quickly skim through the legal thing and say, “yes, I agree.” It's important to see how the privacy of your health data is protected by a particular company or a particular app. So I think one [part] is just more self regulation.
The second part is that increasingly, hospitals and health systems are implementing these solutions for routine clinical care. As patients, we should ask the right questions: [Are] AI solutions making decisions on behalf of a physician? Is it introducing any bias into the outputs? Are these models truly fair?
MAL: Could that look like just asking my doctor: Is AI being used in my care? How?
JP: Truth be told, many physicians are also trying to learn and figure these things out. But it is absolutely appropriate to ask these questions.
I often ask my physicians: How is [their] institution protecting my data? Is the data being given out to a third-party vendor? What are my privacy protections, and my rights as an individual patient?
The patient owns the data, not the health system. So, what rights and access do I have to my own data? These are the right questions to ask.
Well-Informed: Related stories from the ASU Media Enterprise archives
A wearable device that monitors your heart as you go about your day may not sound like something revolutionary now—but it was in 1949, when cardiologist and researcher Norman Holter invented a device about the size of a deck of cards that could record the heart’s electrical activity. Holter was inspired to create technology that “could access the inner workings of the human body, translate those functions into electronic form, and then broadcast them outside the body,” Jeremy Greene wrote in an article for Issues in Science and Technology on the history of wearable health tech.
Well-Versed: Learning resources to go deeper
Do you need a toolkit for your digital well-being? In this course from ASU Learning Enterprise, you’ll build one. Nicholas Proferes, an assistant professor at ASU’s School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, will walk through how to use technology to build healthy habits. Start today!
Well-Read: News we’ve found useful this week
“This Test Tells You More About Your Heart Attack Risk,” by Paul Span, July 26, 2025, The New York Times
“Why So Many Seniors Can't Afford Long-Term Care,” by Alana Semuels, July 23, 2025, TIME
“The Truth About Mold and When It Sneaks Into Your Home,” by Daryl Austin, July 24, 2025, USA Today
Well-Defined: Word of the week
If you’ve had children, you may recall the newborn screening tests that are performed shortly after birth. They include measuring height and weight, a hearing test, and a heel prick to collect a blood sample, which is screened for genetic, blood, metabolic, and other disorders. This blood sample is where bioinformatics can come in—acting like a team of technological detectives, bioinformaticians can analyze the blood sample using advanced software. By comparing genetic markers, bioinformatics can help identify conditions early, allowing for timely medical intervention and giving newborns the best possible start in life. Currently, bioinformatic analysis is used in some but not all screenings, and many scientists advocate for expanding its use.
-Kitana Ford, health communication assistant and ASU student
Expert review provided by Valentin Dinu, associate professor and director of the Translational Bioinformatics Lab at ASU’s College of Health Solutions
Well-Engaged: We can all play a part in preventing drownings
Humor me for a second and take a look at your phone notifications. Scroll through them—maybe click on one—and then put your phone back down. That took about 20 seconds, right? That’s the amount of time it can take for a child to drown—which is the top cause of death for children ages 1 to 4.
Drowning doesn’t just affect children—it affects adults as well, especially older adults. And it can happen anywhere: in places we often think of such as pools, lakes, rivers, and beaches, and those we don’t often consider, such as bath tubs or buckets and shallow pools of water.
The good news is that drowning is often preventable, and there are steps you can take to ensure that you and your loved ones stay safe while in the water. Here are some recommendations from the American Red Cross:
If a child is missing, check the water!
If you notice that someone is struggling to swim or is not moving in the water, pull them out if you are able, or find someone who can. Call 911 and begin rescue breathing or CPR.
If you or someone you know does not know how to swim confidently, or if you will be swimming in unpredictable waters such as rivers, lakes, and oceans, wear a life jacket.
Swim in a lifeguarded area if you can. Know your limits and keep eyes on children in the water at all times.
Put a fence around pools and hot tubs on your property so children can’t accidentally fall in.
Check the weather. If storms are predicted, it’s best to stay out of the water.
Do not drink alcohol or consume drugs before swimming.
Do you want to be well-equipped with all the tools you need to swim safely? Check out the Red Cross website for water safety courses (available for free online in English and Spanish), swim classes near you, and resources to make learning how to swim fun for children of all ages!
Do you have a question or topic you’d like us to tackle? Would you like to share your experience? Reach out at any time—we’d love to hear from you.