The 4 executives featured in this article are all speaking at the Becker’s Healthcare Spring Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit, April 30 – May 1, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
To learn more about this event, click here.
If you would like to join as a speaker or a reviewer, contact Mariah Muhammad at mmuhammad@beckershealthcare.com or agendateam@beckershealthcare.com.
For more information on sponsorship opportunities or vendor access-only badges, contact Jessica Cole at jcole@beckershealthcare.com.
As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who will speak at our conference. The following are answers from our speakers at the event.
Question: What is the most impactful way you’re leveraging AI, and how is it transforming your operations or decision-making processes?
Quan Pho, PharmD, CPh, MBA, FACHE. Senior Director of Pharmacy at AdventHealth (Altamonte Springs, Fla.): Within our world of pharmacy at AdventHealth, our decision-making process is centered around the ultimate interest of people – their privacy, safety and ensuring those in our care receive the highest quality clinical care.
To this end, we are leveraging innovative AI solutions to support the creation of more seamless experiences for our consumers and team members.
We do this in many ways, including streamlining the prior authorization process for drug therapies. This advanced technology automates the completion of necessary forms for insurance companies and other payers, ensuring costly pharmaceutical therapies are authorized and paid for efficiently while saving up to 30 minutes per patient therapy and resulting in a higher acceptance rate; thus, minimizing the need for rework on prior authorizations. By extracting data directly from the EHR, the solution predicts potential rejections, allowing for proactive adjustments before submission, ultimately enhancing patient care and operational efficiency.
Melanie Joe, PharmD. Chief Pharmacy Officer of UCI Health (Orange, Calif.); Associate Director and Founding Associate Dean of Pharmacy Professional Affairs at University of California, Irvine, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences: UCI Health has implemented an AI platform to facilitate the completion of prior authorizations for specialty pharmacy. AI has helped to streamline workflow and permits team members to focus on patient care activities and other tasks that require creativity or complex cognitive function. Our increased efficiency has allowed us to maintain staffing, despite the significant growth in prescription volume that we have experienced. Automating repetitive tasks has helped to reduce employee burnout and gives pharmacists and pharmacy technicians the opportunity to focus on duties that are more professionally rewarding. At UCI-Health, we are planning to expand our use of AI-based strategies to address other areas of pharmacy, including 340B audits and medical billing, going forward.
Lacie McKamey, PharmD. Clinical Pharmacy Outcomes Manager of Novant Health (Winston-Salem, N.C.): I am utilizing AI to streamline administrative tasks, such as drafting emails, creating educational documents, and developing protocols or standard operating procedures. Additionally, I am integrating automation into our team workflow to alleviate repetitive monthly processes. My goal is to continue using these technologies to organize and track projects, requests, and other activities, ultimately making our team more efficient and effective in achieving our goals and delivering high-value results.
Wafa Samara, PharmD. Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer of City of Hope (Duarte, Calif.): The use of AI is transforming pharmacy operations and reshaping the pharmacy industry. In my opinion, pharmacy has done a great job leveraging technology to address the rapid changes in healthcare even when faced with staffing shortages, increased costs, and lower reimbursements. AI is enabling data driven decision making to improve efficiency, safety, satisfaction, and outcome. From personalized medicine and automation to improving patient outcomes and drug development, AI is reshaping the pharmacy industry and profession. The future of AI in pharmacy looks promising, with even more innovative applications on the horizon. What excites me about AI too is the ‘top of license’ that will be a positive byproduct of the technology.
