Q&A with University of Utah Health CIO Donna Roach: “Change management is core to everything we do.”

There are a lot of things that seem to come full circle. Change management, according to Donna Roach, is one of them. She believes the most effective way to successfully drive change is through a feedback and improvement loop, rather than a one-time interaction. Think of it as “morphing change management and agile,” said Roach, who has learned quite a bit about the topic during the past three decades. Both in her role as CIO at University of Utah Health and CHIME Boot Camp faculty member, she has preached the importance of guiding teams thoughtfully through change, building and cultivating partnerships – particularly with clinical leaders, and listening “with a critical ear.”

Recently, she spoke with Kate Gamble, Managing Editor and Director of Social Media, about her team’s digital transformation strategy, the innovative work they’re doing with AI sandboxes, the deliberate approach they utilize with any implementation, and what it was like to take on a new role during the pandemic.

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Bold Statements

We have a governance process that allows groups to submit case studies or user stories or situations that they would like to have AI assist them in. We have set up some sandboxes so that we can start to test the usability of the tool with AI in the background.

In our digital architecture, we have a platform approach that we apply; we stick with that rather than one-offs, because you can get into trouble with too many bright, shiny objects.

We learned this through Covid, we can do things faster. And you definitely have to fail fast. But if we weren’t doing it in conjunction with our nursing leaders, our physician leaders, and our clinical leaders, it fell flat on its face.

Sometimes you have to listen with a critical ear to say, ‘okay, tell me more. You’re telling me you don’t like it — what don’t you like about it? What are the pain points? Are there pain points that are more pronounced than others?’

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. We have to focus on the problem and not move so fast to the solution. A lot of times people will come to me with a solution, and I’ll ask, what are you trying to solve for? Tell me more about that.

 

Q&A with Donna Roach, CIO, University of Utah Health

Gamble:  Hi Donna, it’s good to see you.

Roach:  You too. How are things?

 

Gamble:  Things are good. I see you’ve been busy. You’ve gone to quite a few conferences this spring.

Roach:  I have. Actually, I just got back from Becker’s, which was good. I did two panels there and talked to a number of people — my typical CIO cohorts and what they’re up to. AI is still big — it’s the main topic, but there is so much going on. For me, the topper was meeting Martha Stewart.

 

Gamble:  I’d love to meet her. I’d love to interview her, actually.

Roach:  You know what?  You would be a really good interviewer for her. She has been so good at creating her brand, managing it, and evolving it. She’s very astute. She has different groups of people who follow her, and she has this wide expanse from Snoop Dogg to her wine and now Sketchers. And she’s 82. I want to be as astute as she is at that age.

And she hates the word ‘reinvent’; I can see that it’s a little demeaning because it’s been much more evolution than reinvention. She’s an interesting case.

 

Gamble:  I agree. There have been so many iterations of her career. It’s a great opportunity to learn from someone like her.

Roach:  She is fascinating. Even my 26-year-old daughter follows her,