Leveraging AI in Advancing Public Health Officers’ Practice in Sanitary Premise Inspection: A Demonstrative Study.

Abstract

In Kenya, the public health profession faces several challenges which contribute to noncompliance with public health requirements. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have become popular in the country, such as ChatGPT which can be accessed by the public, including public health officers. ChatGPT can leverage public health activities and improve the outcomes and practice competence during premise inspections. This study aims to examine AI’s role in advancing public health officers’ practice with a focus on premise inspection. This study employs the demonstration method where the generative AI tool, ChatGPT, will be used to generate output for premise inspection in various priority areas and compared with contemporary public health practices, and existing public health literature. The key priorities in sanitary premise inspection for compliance with public health to be examined will include sanitary inspection goals, inspection forms, licenses and certificates, and sanitary requirements for food premises. The contextual replies from ChatGPT will be discussed to establish their relevance to improving public health services in domains such as inspection, checklist development, inspection report writing, and premise compliance with statutory notices among premise owners. AI must be thoughtfully embraced at both the community level (premise owners, general public) and professional level (public health officers, health structure, health service tiers). This is because it can generate trustworthy suggestions for compliance with premise inspection requirements and evade committing public health offences. In this regard, AI can potentially play a role in preventing diseases and promoting health in both urban and rural communities. Recommendations will be provided on limitations encountered and appropriate suggestions given on the potential value or opportunities of ChatGPT in public health inspections.