“We’ve been thinking about AI and changing the way the healthcare operations and clinical practice works, leveraging AI capabilities and really being augmented by it,” said Rachini Moosavi, chief analytics officer at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, N.C., on an episode of the “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast.” “We’ve really thought about this in terms of a partnership between people and technology, and rethinking the way we work. It’s really not just ‘let’s do it the way we’ve always done it.’ It’s rethinking our processes and redesign how some of these capabilities could work. But most importantly, let’s not just chase the shiny objects that are out there.”
The health system started by identifying practical solutions that address some of its greatest needs voiced by leaders and teammates. All areas identified for AI solutions are linked to the health system’s strategic goals for the next few years.
They are also going beyond AI to dive deeper into automation. The health system is incorporating Gartner’s BOAT concepts: business orchestration automation technologies.
“These are technologies that have been there for a really long time. However, for health systems and healthcare in general to really start getting to a place where we can be sustainable and continue to evolve, we need to marry together not just these new technologies like AI, but really think about how automation and orchestration plays into that,” said Ms. Moosavi.
In 2025, she said UNC Health is focused on “intelligent optimization and automation” to look for opportunities to align better, eliminate unnecessary processes and augment or automate where possible.
“We’re going to think about completely redesigning the process along with our teammates to get the benefit of a technology-enabled solution,” said Ms. Moosavi. “When I say automation in 2025, it’s really about looking for opportunities to make things better for our teammates to allow them to feel less overburdened and overworked, to allow our people to focus on the work that really humans do best, and people do best while letting some of the lesser tasks be automated and simplified.”
Ms. Moosavi said there has been some trepidation around AI and automation, but there is also excitement around building sustainable and future-proofed organizations. The leadership team has gained swifter buy-in by involving team members in the redesigns and engaging them to lead change.
“By identifying the areas where we want to approach intelligent optimization and automation, and working with the leaders and their folks to come up with where those solutions best fit, it gives more people a voice in where we’re looking for these opportunities,” said Ms. Moosavi.
But the rapid pace of change is still a challenge.
“You think about all the opportunities that are ahead of us, all the things we can be piloting, that we can be testing, all the things we can start enabling with a technology-enabled workflow that is in partnership with our people, and that’s a lot,” said Ms. Moosavi. “It’s just a lot of different things we could be juggling at once. When we think about the next two years, it’s about focus and ensuring we take the things that will have the greatest impact to really think about the betterment of our people, leaning into system goals around ease of practice and ease of access, and how do we make that better for our people and our patients.”
The leadership is also bringing operational and administrative staff into these conversations and decision-making process to fully understand how new technologies affect the organization as a whole.
“The biggest risk as well as the greatest reward is the pace of change,” said Ms. Moosavi. “It’s something we’re doing really well as an organization collaborating with our executive leadership to make sure we’re focused on the right things.”
