AI in Healthcare

My Book on AI in Public Health Is Coming

Here’s Why I Wrote It

On April 12, 2026, my book Artificial Intelligence in Public Health will be published by Springer.

I wrote this book because after 20+ years I’ve been teaching health informatics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Recently, I’ve watched AI go from a distant concept to something that is reshaping how we prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life. And too few people in public health are prepared for it.

This book is designed to help. You don’t need a math or IT background to read it. It’s built around AI literacy — helping public health professionals, students, and practitioners understand how AI works, how to adopt it, how to evaluate it, and how to live with it.

The book covers six areas:

Why public health needs AI
How to design and evaluate AI applications in public health
Big data as the foundation of AI
Case studies including EquiRisk (equity-aware risk stratification), PMCO-AI (personalized motivation, capability, and opportunity empowered by AI), and PAPO (policy-aware personalized opportunities)
Living and working alongside AI, including workforce education
The future — challenges and opportunities ahead

This Substack is where I’ll continue that work. I’ll be writing about concepts, frameworks, and real cases at the intersection of AI and public health. Think of this as well, come here to draw the water you need.

The book is available for pre-order now: Springer Amazon

Welcome to minphai.substack.com

— Min Wu, PhD Associate Professor, Zilber College of Public Health University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

The cross-section of a cut tree, highlighting the dense, circular patterns that represent years of incremental growth.

Homework Is the Rehearsal: Why AI Education Needs to Measure the Process, Not the Output

Case of the Week, Min Wu, PhD · ai-public-health.com Two students in my health informatics class submitted the same AI-assisted assignment last semester — a high-level design for a drug-drug interaction alert in a hospital’s medication ordering system. Both produced correct, well-organized designs. On paper, they looked identical. I asked

A quiet winter road winding through snow-covered woods under a clear blue sky and bright afternoon sun.

The Wood Stove I Almost Never Use: What Cheap Backup Actually Buys You

Case of the Week - Min Wu, PhD · ai-public-health.com Last winter, after a heavy snowstorm, the leaning utility pole at our street corner snapped. Our block lost power for two days. After that, I bought a small wood stove from Temu — nothing fancy, under a hundred dollars. I grew

View from an airplane window showing the wing over a dense layer of white clouds.

Is Public Health Still a Good Major in the AI Era?

A parent who knew I teach in a college of public health asked me the question quickly, the way people ask questions they have been carrying for a while: “Is public health still a good major? With AI doing everything now — will there even be jobs?” I have been asked

Springer E-Book is available now!

Artificial Intelligence in Public Health (Springer, 2026) is a textbook, written by Min Wu, Associate professor in Zilber College of public health, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. If you're a student or faculty member at a university that licenses the Springer Nature eBook Collection, the eBook is free — just search

Read more

Homework Is the Rehearsal: Why AI Education Needs to Measure the Process, Not the Output

The Wood Stove I Almost Never Use: What Cheap Backup Actually Buys You

Is Public Health Still a Good Major in the AI Era?

Springer E-Book is available now!