New Jersey county using AI to map, address community public health threats: Q&A

What are the public health challenges in Essex County?

The key public health issues in Essex County include mental health stigma, chronic diseases and access to care. Chronic disease affects all area codes in Essex County and is closely tied to preventive care. Preventive care is connected not only to access to care, but also to self-efficacy.

We partner with Rutgers University, which has a large preventive cancer screening program that we work with.

Access to care has been identified as a major barrier, including challenges such as transportation. Additionally, with new Medicaid regulations expected in June 2026, eligibility requirements will be changing. Our main priority is to ensure that access to care does not worsen as these changes take effect.

How has Essex County used AI?

We partnered with one of our larger municipalities to apply GIS and machine learning to what some may call “predictive AI” to several key public health efforts.

Essex County is able to use AI mapping for urban flooding.

Photo courtesy RerF, iStockphoto

We used it to predict flu seasons and identify hotspots and also to forecast rodent activity.

By mapping and analyzing patterns, we were able to proactively mitigate high-risk rodent areas, which ultimately led to a significant reduction in rodent complaints and allowed us to eliminate a $20,000 pest control contract.

We analyzed rodent complaints over a five-year period and mapped the data to identify hotspots in specific areas.

Through this process, we found that some of these hotspots were associated with natural water sources. We worked with our (Department of Public Works) to mitigate those conditions.

In addition, we took a proactive approach by anticipating seasonal increases in rodent activity. Ahead of those periods, we deployed inspectors to affected neighborhoods to ensure proper conditions such as keeping items off the ground, using garbage cans with secure lids and removing large brush piles.

The goal was to reduce potential rodent harborage areas before activity was expected to spike.

How was AI used to predict flu outbreaks?

When we looked at where to place our vaccine clinics, one of the most interesting findings from mapping five years of data was that our hotspots were concentrated around train stations.

We found out that areas around train stations have a much higher level of activity, with many people passing through and using nearby services. Even if someone doesn't live there, they may still interact with those spaces, while residents consistently use the same local businesses. As a result, disease transmission, especially for respiratory illnesses, occurs at a higher rate in these areas.

What about predicting urban flooding?

This is actually one of our newest and our most proud components.

We're able to use NOAA data, a project called Giovanni from NASA, and FEMA data. We were able to make a map to create a live simulation in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Let's say the news is forecasting three inches of rain for four hours. We're able to put that into the machine learning.

It's able to create that type of simulation, which will actually give you pools of water. We're able to see the depth of the pool, the flow of the pool, so we'll be able to do recovery efforts in case there's a flooding situation.

Public health is different these days. We're no longer a reactive public health system. We need to be proactive.

What other ways does Essex County use AI in its work?

We're using AI in every possible way that makes sense for our staff to increase our volume of work to be more efficient. And again, I think that AI is going to be integrated into our daily lives. We all need to understand how it's working and make it work for us.

Essex County recently won an award.

We won the ESRI SAG Award, which is given once a year to outstanding projects. It is selected out of 100,000 applicants worldwide. I do believe we are 100% on the cutting edge of public health.

What advice would you give other public health agencies?

You need to make sure that your data is correct, proper, vetted — this kind of initiative is nothing without the data.

You also need to make sure that you have proper compliance with cyber security, with HIPAA laws, especially in public health.

Before you start (an AI- based) program, you need to have a very good relationship with your IT team and make sure data is secure. You need to make sure that you have a process for your data collection, a process for data sharing, and you need to make sure that you have data sharing agreements as well.

For more, visit www.essexcountynjhealth.org. This interview was edited for length, clarity and style.