# How AI can be used to promote public and population health

## TL;DR

This paper explores how Microsoft's AI for Good Lab uses artificial intelligence to improve public and population health, focusing on maternal, fetal, infant, and rural health.

## Contribution

The paper presents practical applications of AI in public health and highlights lessons learned from cross-sector collaborations.

## Key findings

- AI can improve maternal, fetal, and infant health outcomes.
- Collaboration across sectors enhances AI's impact on population health.
- Focusing on health metrics, not just model accuracy, is crucial for real-world impact.

## Abstract

Here, we summarize the work that Microsoft's philanthropic Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Good Lab has completed in the realm of promoting public and population health. In particular, after providing examples of how the AI for Good Lab has articulated the value of using AI to improve public and population health, we provide examples and references of the work demonstrating how the Lab has: applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve maternal, fetal, and infant health; leveraged large language models to improve population health; and applied AI to improve rural health and healthcare. We also summarize what we have learned through our work, finding that: getting the question right and ensuring the limitations of any analysis are understood is important; collaboration across public, private, and educational institutions with subject matter experts will be the most effective and efficient way to harness this new technology; and that focusing on metrics that reflect health, and not just the accuracy of the model, is the most impactful way to improve the health of populations, worldwide.