In this episode of Healthcare Uncensored, host Rani Khetarpal sits down with Dr. Deepti Pandita, VP of Clinical Informatics and Chief Medical Information Officer at UC Irvine Health, to talk about what it really takes to implement technology in healthcare—especially as AI moves from buzzword to everyday tool.

Deepti shares her journey from training in India with almost no computer access to becoming one of the early board-certified clinical informaticists in the U.S. She breaks down how clinical informatics has evolved from “EMR enablement” to a broader discipline at the intersection of people, process, and technology—and why governance, workflow fit, and user trust matter more than the tool itself.

Rani and Deepti also discuss real-world examples of AI in action—from ambient AI scribing that helps clinicians get time back, to health-system-built LLMs supporting discharge planning—and how data and design decisions can either widen or close health equity gaps.

Meet the Guest: Deepti Pandita, MD

Deepti Pandita, MD is the VP of Informatics and Chief Medical Information Officer at University of California Irvine Health, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCI. She leads AI governance at UCI and has implemented solutions to improve clinician proficiency using AI. Her organization is a founding member of CHAI (Coalition for Health AI), and she serves as a Board Member of the American Medical Informatics Association, is the immediate past Chair of the Medical Informatics Committee for the American College of Physicians, and Chair for HIMSS Physician Informatics. She is also a Physician Advisory Board member for Epic. Dr. Pandita has published on bridging digital disparities and most recently coauthored the American College of Physicians position paper on AI in healthcare. She was named one of Becker’s “Top 50 CMIOs to Know” in 2025.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How Deepti went from “what is an icon?” to leading clinical informatics and AI governance
• Why clinical informatics is really the intersection of people, process, and technology
• What changed between early EMR rollout challenges and today’s AI implementation reality
• How governance helps prioritize what to build, buy, train, or fix inside a health system
• How ambient AI scribing is improving documentation burden and clinician wellness
• How a health-system-built LLM can support discharge readiness and operational efficiency
• Why equity work often starts with data—and the small details that make a big difference
• Deepti’s take on agentic AI, AI oversight, and why AI should be normalized—not feared
• Where she believes healthcare will be in 12 months: lower burnout metrics for clinicians

Connect with Dr. Deepti Pandita
🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepti-pandita-b361ab117/

Listen to more episodes on Mission Matters:
https://missionmatters.com/author/rani-khetarpal/

Listen to more episodes on Mission Matters:

https://missionmatters.com/author/rani-khetarpal/