Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health has created a generative AI-based internal chatbot using Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service.
The AI-based bot will respond to "questions specific to UNC Health and provide real-time recommendations or directions to help save time and provide more efficient, patient-focused care in administrative use cases," according to a June 23 press release from the health system.
UNC Health said it will use the bot to help streamline administrative work for its staff. Some of the tasks the bot will take on will include "how-to" documents, in which staff can ask the bot questions on how to access reference materials and documents.
"This is just one example of an innovative way to use this technology so that teammates can spend more time with patients and less time in front of a computer," said David McSwain, MD, chief medical informatics officer at UNC Health.
The chatbot is hosted in a "secure and governed internal environment," according to UNC Health.
The health system is also working with generative AI from Epic Systems and Microsoft to help physicians respond to patients' questions in online portals.