Healthcare has spent billions trying to force disparate systems to talk to each other through custom APIs and shared data standards. Yet administrative staff still spend their days copying data manually across disjointed software screens. What if solving interoperability does not require complex data integration at all?<\/p>\n
Healthcare IT Today sat down with Rishi Nayyar, CEO of PocketHealth<\/a>, at their offices to discuss how agentic AI is transforming health system operations. PocketHealth is pioneering a fresh approach to operational automation with its new agentic operations platform, Conductor<\/a>, which tackles longitudinal workflows across disconnected systems.<\/p>\n Key Takeaways<\/p>\n Agentic AI offers a direct workaround to traditional interoperability bottlenecks. Rather than waiting for universal standards or API adoption, intelligent agents can work across the entire system at the interface layer, not just the parts a vendor exposes through an API. Solving Interoperability Through Interface Automation<\/p>\n For decades, health care technology leaders viewed interoperability as a pure data standards challenge. Nayyar and his team at PocketHealth recognized that human staff currently serve as the makeshift bridge between systems that do not talk to each other. By applying agentic AI to navigate software screens, PocketHealth bypasses traditional integration hurdles entirely.<\/p>\n Nayyar pointed out that intelligent software can replicate these exact human workflows across graphical user interfaces. \u201cAgentic AI can do the Interoperability work that humans are doing now,\u201d Nayyar explained. \u201cRight now, if you have two systems that don\u2019t speak to each other, a human plays that role [the bridge]. I look at a work list, then I open up MEDITECH or Cerner, and then I do X, Y, Z task based on the work list. What are you leveraging? You\u2019re leveraging the GUI, the graphical user interface. Agentic AI can do the exact same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Separating Systems of Record from Process Orchestration<\/p>\n Healthcare organizations expect their EHRs to have comprehensive operational workflows. According to Nayyar, however, expecting an EHR to orchestrate complex care journeys across departments is unrealistic. Organizations are left waiting for the next release for the needed functionality or when it arrives, it does not exactly match the organization\u2019s workflow.<\/p>\n Nayyar believes that EHRs should stick with what they excel at: \u201cAn EHR or a PACS system, they are systems of record. Meaning they are meant to be consistent storers of the ground truth. A very valuable role. You need that in a health system. But those are point in time views. The \u2018work to be done\u2019 orchestration and longitudinal work is a completely different problem space.\u201d<\/p>\n Thus the need for separate and dedicated coordination layer to automate the cross-departmental workflows while using the EHR\u2019s data stores.<\/p>\n The Operational Risk of Delaying AI Adoption<\/p>\n For Nayyar, hesitating to automate administrative tasks carries measurable risk for health systems. Patient expectations have shifted dramatically toward instant access and digital convenience. Staying attached to legacy operational methods will slowly erode patient and staff confidence which leads to organizational decline.<\/p>\n In other words, organizations that rely on human-powered processes only will get left behind.<\/p>\n Nayyar went further and shared his opinion that patient retention and referral patterns will reflect this operational divide sooner than many executives think. \u201cWe are moving into a world where these things will very quickly become table stakes. Patients will expect to call and be able to talk to someone immediately, not stay on hold or print off and then fax a form in order to get a referral,\u201d Nayyar cautioned. \u201cYour scores across all of these metrics, including the soft metrics, will immediately begin to degrade relative to your peer group, and that has real implications. That\u2019s not just numbers on a page.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bottom Line<\/p>\n Health IT leaders cannot afford to wait for total data standardization before streamlining operations. By deploying agentic AI to handle cross-system tasks, organizations can immediately remove manual labor from front-desk staff while improving patient satisfaction. PocketHealth demonstrates that the path forward lies in pairing trusted systems of record with smart automation tools built specifically for process orchestration.<\/p>\n Questions Healthcare IT Leaders Are Asking<\/p>\n How does agentic AI address health system interoperability? Why shouldn\u2019t health systems rely on EHRs for longitudinal workflow orchestration? What are the operational risks of postponing administrative automation? Learn more about PocketHealth: https:\/\/www.pockethealth.com\/en-us\/<\/a><\/p>\n Listen and subscribe to the\u00a0Healthcare IT Today Interviews Podcast<\/a>\u00a0to hear all the latest insights from experts in healthcare IT.<\/p>\n And for an exclusive look at our top stories,\u00a0subscribe to our newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tell us what you think. Contact us\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0or on Twitter at\u00a0@hcitoday<\/a>. And if you\u2019re interested in advertising with us,\u00a0check out our various\u00a0advertising packages<\/a>\u00a0and request our\u00a0Media Kit<\/a>.<\/p>\n PocketHealth is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.<\/p>\n Get Fresh Healthcare & IT Stories Delivered Daily<\/p>\n Join thousands of your healthcare & HealthIT peers who subscribe to our daily newsletter.<\/p>\n We respect your privacy and will never sell or give out your contact information<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Healthcare has spent billions trying to force disparate systems to talk to each other through custom APIs and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[179,7493,4378,70820,29844,2094,70821,272,70822,70823,70824,70825,70826,51091,40973,4502,31681,70827,70828,70829,70830,70831,70832],"class_list":["post-143840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-agentic-ai","tag-agentic-ai","tag-agentic-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai-in-healthcare","tag-care-coordination","tag-clinical-workflow-automation","tag-conductor","tag-digital-health-solutions","tag-ehr","tag-electronic-health-records","tag-front-desk-automation","tag-graphical-user-interface-automation","tag-health-it-strategy","tag-healthcare-administration","tag-healthcare-artificial-intelligence","tag-healthcare-interoperability","tag-healthcare-operations","tag-patient-experience","tag-patient-retention","tag-pockethealth","tag-process-orchestration","tag-referral-management","tag-rishi-nayyar","tag-systems-of-record"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEHRs are built for data consistency, not dynamic process orchestration. Electronic health records excel at serving as systems of record, but managing complex, longitudinal operational workflows that span service lines and systems requires a dedicated automation layer.
\nDelaying operational automation leads to immediate patient drop-off. Modern health care consumers expect instant communication and rapid response. Organizations clinging to manual phone queues, fax forms and people-powered processes will lose patients to faster peers.<\/p>\n
Agentic AI can bypass traditional data integration challenges by interacting with software through graphical user interfaces rather than relying solely on custom APIs or shared data standards. The AI navigates screens, inputs data, and executes tasks across disparate systems just as a human staff member would. This allows health systems to automate cross-platform workflows immediately without waiting for underlying software architectures to unify.<\/p>\n
EHRs are engineered as static systems of record designed to preserve ground-truth clinical data at specific points in time. They lack the architectural flexibility required to orchestrate complex, multi-step workflows that span across different service lines, third-party systems, and patient communication channels. Using purpose-built automation layers on top of the EHR allows each system to perform its primary function effectively.<\/p>\n
Delaying operational automation exposes health systems to severe degradation in patient experience, lower retention rates, and reduced referral volumes. Today\u2019s patients expect immediate response times and digital self-service options. Organizations that maintain manual phone lines, paper forms, and slow scheduling processes, especially for referrals, will rapidly lose market share to competitors offering frictionless access.<\/p>\n