Hi LHIT, I wanted to post this right away to get this info on your radar:
"Something Big Is Happening" in AI
This Fortune piece is making the rounds and frames February 2026 as a potential "2020 moment" for AI acceleration. Whether you agree with the framing or not, it underscores how quickly enterprise AI adoption is moving - particularly around autonomous/agentic tools.
Something big is happening in AI - and most people will be blindsided | Fortune
| Fortune |
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| Something big is happening in AI - and most people will be blindsided | Fortune |
| It's not like a light switch... more like the moment you realize the water has been rising around you and is now at your chest. |
| View this on Fortune > |
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Cyberattack Disrupts Local Government Payment Systems
A recent cyberattack disrupted a local government payment service - a reminder that vendor risk and shared infrastructure vulnerabilities continue to be major exposure points for public agencies.
Cyber Attack Disrupts Local Government Payment Systems
| GovTech |
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| Cyber Attack Disrupts Local Government Payment Systems |
| The third-party payment processing vendor, BridgePay Network Solutions, is reporting a systemwide outage to its services following a ransomware attack. An investigation and recovery efforts are ongoing. |
| View this on GovTech > |
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Utah Experimenting with AI for Medication Refills
Utah is piloting AI-supported prescription refills. This signals how quickly AI is moving into direct service delivery - including regulated health workflows.
Utah allows nation's first AI drug prescriptions
| Axios |
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| Utah allows nation's first AI drug prescriptions |
| The move could shape AI regulation nationwide, but critics say bots could make bad decisions. |
| View this on Axios > |
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Arlington, VA Modernizes Emergency Dispatch
Arlington County is upgrading its emergency management and dispatch systems. This modernization trend is happening nationally - and increasingly intersects with data integration and real-time analytics.
Arlington County, Va., Modernizes Its Emergency Dispatch
| GovTech |
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| Arlington County, Va., Modernizes Its Emergency Dispatch |
| The county's Department of Public Safety Communications and Emergency Management upgraded its computer-aided dispatching system to one that is cloud-based and can work more easily with neighboring agencies. |
| View this on GovTech > |
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If your jurisdiction is modernizing CAD or emergency systems, would love to hear lessons learned.
ASTP 2026: Interoperability + Agentic AI Everywhere
At ASTP this week, the dominant theme has been the future of interoperability - and the enormous role AI (particularly agentic AI) is expected to play in health data exchange, summarization, monitoring, and workflow automation.
Key themes from sessions and hallway conversations:
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Agentic AI + FHIR APIs: Tools that can query, synthesize, and trigger actions across health systems without human prompting.
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Data liquidity expectations are rising - ONC/ASTP messaging emphasized that interoperability is now a baseline, not a differentiator.
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Security + AI governance conversations are catching up to deployment speed - especially around model transparency and auditability.
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Growing discussion about public health inclusion in interoperability roadmaps - ensuring LHDs aren't an afterthought in national data exchange design.
If you missed the keynotes, you can watch the livestream recordings here:
https://www.astpannualmeeting.com/en/agenda-page#2216
A Few Additional Watch Items for LHIT:
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Expect more federal attention on AI governance frameworks tied to cybersecurity requirements.
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Increased scrutiny of AI-enabled decision support in regulated environments (clinical + public health).
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More vendor claims about "AI-powered security" - worth separating marketing from meaningful implementation.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on any of the above, especially if you're also here at ASTP. Looking forward to hearing from you all!
Angie
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Angie Castillo
Senior Web Specialist
National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
Washington DC
(571)484-4663
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