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- [00:00]
A
I think it really took me getting into my late 30s, early 40s, before I finally felt comfortable with knowing exactly who I am. You have to ask for what you want for. It's so easy to wait for folks to recognize you and to recognize that you have something to contribute. But, you know, oftentimes I found that no one's really going to offer that up.
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B
A lot of times we just let. We let fate. But then if you just rely on fate, you may miss out on what was truly to be yours.
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A
Welcome to Digital Voices, where healthcare and life science leaders explore the real work behind transformation. This podcast is about people, leadership and the conversations that move healthcare forward. Now. Your host, Ed Marks.
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B
Welcome to another edition of Digital Voices. So excited to be with you again. Thank you for listening. We know you have a lot of choices and thanks to you, we're number four in the world. And part of the reason is great guests like Ruchini, Musabi Ruchini. Welcome to Digital Voices.
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A
Thanks, Ed, for having me on today.
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B
Yeah, it's great to have you. You're such a great person in the industry, a great personality, a great executioner, a great leader, helping sort of lead the way for other organizations as well as they follow everything that you're all doing with analytics. So great to have you. Hey, we met just a few years ago. I was down in North Carolina and we had dinner, we had a few others join us and we were talking about writing in a book and you came through for me and you helped put together one of our Voices of Innovation books and it's been fabulous. Helped raise a lot of money for cancer research. So thank you also for being part of that book.
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A
It's just such a great thing that you do with these books. It helps us all to learn, but it also giving back to cancer research. I mean, a win win, right? Sharing, sharing and G for the whole society. I just love it.
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B
Genie, you know the most important question we'll be talking about is what songs are on your playlist? What kind of music do you like to listen to?
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A
Oh, and you're just, you're just going to laugh at me, right? So I'm one of those I like everything kind of people. So if I'm running, it's usually a mix of hip hop, rap or rock, hard rock, right? If I'm, if I'm just, you know, relaxing, it could be anything, honestly. Country, pop, you, you name it, it's all on the playlist. But if I'm writing or I'm developing a PowerPoint, it has to be classical music. I, I just can't have words. And I, I love the peacefulness of it.
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B
Yeah, love it. That's cool. What about life message or mantra? Are there words that sort of guide you that you live by?
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A
Yeah, people sometimes make fun of me when I say this, but I picked up my, my personal motto from a Disney movie and it, it's, it's really just one of those impactful things where, you know, you're watching Cinderella and the next minute you're like, oh my gosh, that makes such per. You know, the mom in, in the Disney movie said, have courage and be kind. And so I've adopted that as, as my life mantra. And I've tacked on just one more piece to that. It's have courage, be kind, stay curious. And that's. Those are the words that I try to live by.
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B
I love that. That's good. Yeah, we can pick up wisdom from all sorts of unusual sources. So I love that. That's awesome. So tell us a little bit about yourself, like where did you grow up?
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A
I am a first generation American. My parents moved here from Sri Lanka and started college over in Illinois. And, and you know, you live, when you grow up that way just like everybody else. Who's the first generation? You kind of straddle worlds, right? You're, you're part American and you're part. Whatever culture you come from. For me, that was Sri Lankan, so I've always had a little bit of an identity crisis. I think it really took me getting into my late 30s, early 40s before I finally felt comfortable with knowing exactly who I am. But, but yeah, I mean, being Sri Lankan means there's a lot of great food, great, great community. We do a lot of things to celebrate together in, in those types of communities. And, you know, lots of laughter and fun and dancing and baila, the music that they dance to. So it's, it was always fun growing up with that kind of lifestyle.
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B
Yeah. Cool. Did your parents try to teach you? What is it? Sri Lankan. What's the language? Sri Lankan?
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A
Singhalese. Yeah, it's Singalese. I'm like a lot of those first generations who didn't ever really learn to connect the words to make the sentences. But I can, I can hear it fluently. So when folks are speaking it, I, I can weird people out sometimes because I'll pick it up and follow along, but I can't reply back to them.
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B
Yeah, no, that's, that's pretty cool. Tell us about a pivotal moment, like growing up or in your early life that fundamentally changed your trajectory?
- [04:56]
A
Oh, gosh, that is such a great question. So I grew up with a brilliant sister, a brilliant older sister who just, you know, never had to try, just super smart, would always get perfect straight A's. And I was one of those kids in elementary school who just, you know, kind of got by. I liked to play and mess around and do nothing. And one day, I actually remember this one day when my mom asked my sister, you gotta 98. What happened to the two points? And then I got a B that same day. And it was like celebration, right? Yay. You did. Really floored me. I think I had this moment where I realized what's up with the double standard? And it made me want to prove not just my parents, but just prove just the world wrong. And, you know, somewhere around fifth grade, it all just became so much easier. I learned to not be as nervous about the fact that it took me longer to read things and, and catch on. And I just dug into, like, my way of learning. And today I'm kind of at this point where I tell my kids all the time, every. Everybody's super smart. They just have their own way of getting there. You have to embrace it. So that was my pivot point, I think, for my success.
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B
Yeah, that's, that's really interesting. So let's talk a bit about your career. So you started directly into healthcare, right? When you graduated, you went right into healthcare. How'd that come about?
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A
Well, I was like the majority of UNC Chapel Hill students who came in pre med and quickly had to shift. So I thought I was going to be a doctor. I actually got my certified nursing assistant's licensing when I was in high school. So while I was at Carolina, I was able to work at UNC hospitals as a nurse aide. And that was a really great experience. It helped me to really lean into what were the parts of healthcare that I thought were interesting. And I found that the business side, the operational side, is what I really gravitated towards. And that led me to joining the program over at the School of Public Health, where I could get a health policy and management degree. And it kind of snowballed into the. My entire career is going to be wrapped around healthcare from there. I honestly, business only makes sense to me in the context of healthcare. It just aligns with my values and what I want to do in the world. And being able to go straight from my undergrad in that degree to, to straight into consulting, where I got to, you know, really think about patient throughput at hospitals across the country. And then when I came to. To UNC after I was done with that consulting work, it really was a. You know, I don't really want to do rev cycle and. And do billing in the rev cycle space, but it was interesting. And that's where I actually found my love of analytics, and it's been a career grip from there ever since.
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B
Yeah, that's pretty cool. And did you ever think to yourself, like, when you were as a consultant or early in your. In your development into analytics, that you'd be the chief Analytics Officer?
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A
Never. Never. I never dreamt that I would get to have this much fun in a position, first of all, but that I get to be a chief anything. It wasn't on this big grand plan. It was really a series of, hey, here's an open door. Do I walk through it or not?
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B
Yeah. And were you the first into that role at UNC Health or did it exist previously?
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A
No, I. I'm the second, but I had the privilege of. Of learning under. Under Jason Burke, who was the first at UNC Health to start our chief Chief Analytics Officer position. And. And Brent Lamb, who's our cio, filled. Filled that gap well after Jason left. Before I position.
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B
All right, very cool. And you grew pretty much your whole career at UNC Health, so obviously there's some magic there. What's the magic? Other than Brent Lamb, who's definitely a great person to work with. Tell us about your career growth there.
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A
Yeah, Honestly, it has been a dream to work at UNC Health. You can work at a lot of different places, but it truly is an incredible culture of people who reinvest in. In just good talent, who really see what needs to be done and align to the right work. And, you know, we actually have conversations about it's the right thing to do as opposed to, you know, it's the. It's the financial or the, you know, the operational thing to do. And so it's. It's really great that you have good people who are doing great work. And, you know, I think the other part is I've been lucky enough to find opportunities. Sometimes I had to make them. Sometimes, you know, they. They presented themselves to me. But I've been able to steadily grow in career and take on new challenges.
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B
Yeah, that's pretty awesome. What is one thing that most of our listeners would not know about UNC Health?
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A
What.
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B
What can you share something unique or a differentiator for the organization?
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A
Yeah. So I. I think what makes this really cool. We recently spoke to Somebody who was based out of, out of England and they compared UNC health kind of to like the national health system in, in Europe. But I think that's a differentiator for us. We are an academic health system. We have one AMC and we have a lot of community practices. One big powerhouse that's over in Raleigh called Rex and then a bunch of community hospitals. So 18 hospitals in total. They're spread across the state of North Carolina. And we really lean into our mission to promote the health and well being of all North Carolinians across our state. Right. So it's, it's a very aligned mission. We, we are part state owned or at least state funded to get us, to get us off the ground. But it is just a phenomenal way of working when your whole mission is to really think about everyone across a state that has the second highest rural health population. Right. So it's a really intriguing group of patients and citizens that we really try and take care of.
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B
Yeah, you're not just an academic medical center, you're this whole system of health, to your point, taking care of all these North Carolinians. Is that how you said it?
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A
That's right, North Carolinians.
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B
That's awesome. So in terms of being the chief analytics officer, share a little bit with us about what that, what that entails and maybe one or two things that, that you're either working on or have worked on that that you're really excited about.
- [11:35]
A
Yeah. So in my role, and again, like I said, it's the most fun I've ever had in any position. Highly recommend it to anybody who's even a little bit of a data geek. It's super fun. So I get to oversee, I really have an incredible team who actually does amazing work, but I get to oversee everything from data extraction from source systems, how we put that into a data warehouse and put some logic over it so that others can consume that data. We turn those into insights by working with a community of over 500 people who develop some of the data reporting analytics around it to support all of their customers and their partners. That's through visualization and AI and other tools. Have a great data science team, really thought leaders in that space. Also have interoperability that reports up to me and some of the epic research sides of the work that we do. So a blend of a lot of different things, but a couple of the things that we're most proud of. So I'm going to hit a few really fast. So the first is that we just went live with Fabric and we are the sixth largest fabric implementation worldwide across all industries, the largest for an amc. So really incredible with that migration. And it took our entire community of 500 plus people to help with that. With that migration. We have a community. So we support not just our centralized team, but all of the folks that are embedded in pharmacy and Rev cycle and the nursing side and all these different pockets, individual analysts, folks that might have felt like they were in a silo. We really created a community out of it and really proud of our analytics community and how they continue to come together. We created what we call shire, which is our trusted research enclave to support our researchers. Really exciting new capability to really fulfill our research mission that recently went live doing some incredible work with the state on interoperability. Things like identifying behavioral beds across the state and helping the state to even define that. I mean, the list just goes on and on with the great work this team is doing. But it's really fun. And I haven't even touched the AI stuff. We can have great stories on the AI work.
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B
That's pretty cool. Tell everyone what fabric is for those who might not know.
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A
Sure, yeah. So it's Microsoft fabric. It's our cloud implementation for our data warehouse.
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B
Yeah. Yeah. You're the biggest AMC to date, right?
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A
That's right.
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B
Why I like you so much, Ruchini, is that you're a person of passion, you're an expert, you're really good at what you do, you're a great leader, and you're most importantly a great person. Let's jump into leadership a bit because I know there's a lot of listeners that hear your story, like first generation, and you've made something of yourself, you made something of your career. And everyone's gonna wanna know, like some of the magic sauce behind the leadership. So what would you say, looking back, are one or two key skills that you developed along the way throughout your career that have helped you to become who you are today?
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A
Gosh, that's a fabulous question. I think vulnerability is one thing. Getting comfortable with accepting what you don't know so that you can have real conversations to learn to be real things. Sometimes it feels like when we have that imposter syndrome, we. We try and hide it and mask it as opposed to embracing it and diving in. And I really had the privilege of working with a lot of great people who let. Let me go through my journey with my imposter syndrome to get to the other side of it. Let me ask questions and learn alongside some of the experts. But also I've you know, I'm. I'm a mom of three kids who also have health issues too. Right. So, you know, it's. It's one of those things where the struggle is real sometimes. And I also have had an incredible community around me that's helped me to get there. And that vulnerability piece, that showing up as a real person, I think it helps when you're in a leadership position to connect that back so your teammates feel like they can be real with you as well. I have some really great conversations with some of my teammates around their own experiences, and that helps us to. To do great work together, but in a way where we all feel supported.
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B
Yeah, that's. That's awesome. And it's clear that you do operate that way. And I just want to double down on it a little bit for our audience because people are always asking, like, how do I become like Ruchini or how do I become like some of these other chiefs that they see? And it takes vulnerability and a lot of times we don't think about it because it might be natural to us. But it's great to hear a chief talk that way and give encouragement to others who are maybe managers that are listening or directors, VPs, hoping to someday, you know, continue to enhance their leadership capabilities. It's just to be real and to be vulnerable. So thank you for talking about that. Where do you go? Because obviously you have a lot of life demands you already talked about. Yeah, you're a mother, you're a wife, you've got all these kids, you've got work, all the different stuff. You got community, all of that kind things. Where do you go when you feel a little bit drained and you're looking to sort of rekindle the spark?
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A
Yeah. So I've got a lot of different places I go. One of the first is Orange Theory is I'm kind of an Orange Theory junkie. I find that working out allows me to get out some of that pent up energy that starts to build when you're standing or sitting at a desk all day long. So I think that's an important piece of it, having that outlet. The other side, honestly, is I've got a lot of great family and friends around me that I can decompress with, that I can have just great moments with. I'm going to Triangle Women in STEM event this evening with my sister, who is also in stem. It's those small things that really make a difference in connecting with community that really helps.
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B
Is that that older sister that you mentioned earlier that's right.
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A
That's right.
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B
That's great that you're all still friends and in this, we're still friends. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. What are one or two things that you learned the hard way? So along the way, surely you ran into some challenges and what did you learn from them?
- [18:08]
A
Yeah, you know, I think the biggest is that you have to ask for what you want, for what you want out of, out of anything. Um, it's so easy to wait for folks to recognize you and to recognize that you have something to contribute. But, you know, oftentimes I found that no one's really going to offer that up. They're not going to take the time to ask you whether you should be invited or included or anything like that. So let me, let me give you a quick example when I'm actually, I think in my seat today because I made a shift from being a revenue cycle leader that did analytics to really shifting into analytics and taking on an executive role in analytics. And I did that by raising my hand. We were going through something called Carolina Value when we were starting to talk about enterprise analytics. And I wasn't immediately invited to that table to plan out the enterprise analytics, but I used my connections to say, hey, I want to be in that room. And then when I showed up in that room and got the invite, I asked a lot of questions, I engaged in the conversation. I got to know the person leading it so that when he started up his new team and I raised my hand and applied for a position, it became easier to get into that role. Right. So sometimes you have to make the opportunities happen. And I, I didn't know that in my early career.
- [19:31]
B
Profound. Another great pearl of wisdom for our audience. Hey, tell me one more thing about your sister. So how do you help one another in your career? Obviously in your personal life, I'm sure you do, but career wise, like, have you ever leaned on your sister or vice versa?
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A
Oh, a hundred percent. So she is a brilliant writer amongst being also a technical type as well. So there's, there's times where I've had her proofread things. I've had her, I've bounced ideas off of her and said, hey, this is something that I'm thinking of doing. Doing. I want to present it to my team. What do you think about? Right. And so it's always just nice to have somebody who's willing to tell you you're wrong. Right. Like, sisters are great for that. Oftentimes co workers will just tell you, yes. I like having people who Tell me no. And my sister is wonderful for, for saying that's wonderful. But have you thought about.
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B
That's super important to surround yourself with people like that. And it's, it's very nice that it happens to be one of them is your sister because, you know, you're in the same community. What about parents? So was there ever a time when your parents forced you to do something and you sort of rolled your eyes, but looking back today you're like, I'm glad they made me do that.
- [20:50]
A
I, to this day I wish that was true for piano because they tried at five, but I was one of those five year olds who couldn't sit still and I unfortunately quit and I kicked myself today for that. But, but I will say that, you know, for me it was probably math. So being in an analytics position, my early days was not to really care for or get excited about math. But I had a lot, I have a lot of great memories growing up, getting help from my parents. I mean, I still remember the Pythagorean theorem and I couldn't figure it out. And my dad doesn't know how to just open a book and say, do steps one through three. He has to derive the Pythagorean theorem for me first. Right. But what a wonderful memory. Right. To, to really find an individual who did something 20 to 30 years back and could really teach it to you again and find his excitement in it and then to be able to bring that forward to, to see how I can apply it to my life.
- [21:50]
B
Yeah. What about a situation where your three kids are now graduating and let's just say the timing works out, that they're all graduating at the same time and you're asked to be the person that comes in and gives the speech. What are one or two admonishments or encouragements that you would give the younger generation? Just graduating could be high school, could be college, to really focus on not just in career but in life.
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A
I would definitely say to them that life is a meandering path that we often like to talk about and ask the question of where are you going to be in five years? And I think it's perfectly okay to say, I don't know.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Because what that means is you are open to the journey and that journey does not need to be predefined. And, and that's perfectly okay. Right. I think there's an entire generation of kids that defined success way too strictly and it, and it creates anxiety for them and they just need to know that so many of us that are successful. If you look at our career paths, they weren't straight lines. They were a series of steps, missteps, sometimes side steps, back steps, Right. But we got to where we are because we were open to the next, to the next step.
- [23:02]
B
We were willing to take good counsel routine. We talked about so many things, including music, type of music you like to listen to. And then your Disney inspired motto, have courage, be kind and stay curious. And then we talked about your upbringing and your parents coming in from Sri Lanka. You're being first generation and how that impacted you. Then we talked a lot about your career, how you started off on the clinical side, which has sort of gave you the roots and passion for a lot what you do today. We talked about how you got into analytics, and we really sort of covered all things related to the analytics in your career in terms of passion and your expertise. And then we went into leadership quite a bit, talked about some key things, the vulnerability being the highlight, the humility. And then we talked about some of the things that you and your team have been doing, but also other things for emerging leaders to really lean on as they grow in their career. And that's the most important one that I picked out in my notes is to raise your hand. Right. A lot of times we just let. We let fate. But then if you just rely on fate, you may miss out on what was truly to be yours. So, great counsel. Is there anything that we missed or anything that you want to double down on? I'll give you the last word.
- [24:17]
A
No. I think this has been an incredible conversation and if I have one last word, it's simply to say, thank you, Ed Marks, for doing what you do in healthcare. It is truly an inspiration for leaders like me to figure out what can we do to give back. And I think that inspirational piece you bring to all of us is just phenomenal. Thank you.
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B
Thank you. That wraps up another edition of Digital Voices.
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A
Thank you for listening to Digital Voices. We hope today's conversation sparked ideas, reflection and connection. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple and Spotify podcasts so you don't miss an episode.