Bahar Davidoff, Pharm.D., MBA | 2026 MHE Emerging Leaders in Healthcare

Growing up, I was drawn to healthcare because of the impact thoughtful care and strong leadership can have on individuals and families navigating complex health challenges. That early influence shaped my interest in both patient care and the operational side of healthcare delivery.

I earned my pharmacy degree and have built my career at the intersection of clinical operations, strategy and innovation. Earlier in my career, I held leadership roles in pharmacy and infusion operations, where I worked on expanding infusion services, optimizing workflows, improving access to specialty therapies, and supporting initiatives focused on quality and cost management.

Most recently at SCAN Health Plan, I was involved in AI-focused and digital health initiatives, including collaboration with healthcare technology companies focused on medication management, population health and care coordination.

I am particularly interested in the future of healthcare transformation and the role thoughtful innovation can play in building a more connected, efficient and patient-centered healthcare system.

Turning point in your career

One of the key lessons at SCAN was that successful AI implementation in healthcare is less about the technology itself and more about embedding it into real clinical and operational workflows in a way that drives measurable outcomes and improves the experience for both members and providers.

I realized that my background sits at the intersection of clinical operations, pharmacy strategy, managed care and digital health collaboration, which is exactly where many AI initiatives either succeed or fail.

Biggest day-to-day challenges

One of the biggest day-to-day challenges is helping organizations navigate rapid change while balancing operational realities, financial pressures, and the need to improve patient and member outcomes. Healthcare is an incredibly complex environment, and implementing innovation — particularly AI and emerging technologies — requires thoughtful alignment across clinical, operational and executive stakeholders.

Another challenge is ensuring that new technologies are integrated into existing workflows in a way that truly reduces burden rather than adding complexity. Many organizations are eager to innovate, but successful implementation depends on change management, trust, measurable return on investment and understanding how care is actually delivered day-to-day.

Use of AI

At Davidoff Strategy and Consulting, I focus on helping healthcare organizations think strategically about how AI can be integrated into real clinical and operational workflows in a way that improves outcomes, reduces administrative burden and creates measurable value. My work is centered not only on the technology itself but also on the operational and organizational changes required for successful implementation.

I am particularly interested in how generative and agentic AI can support areas such as care coordination, medication management, workflow optimization, patient engagement and administrative efficiency. A major focus is helping organizations evaluate where AI can realistically augment healthcare operations while maintaining clinician trust, compliance and a strong patient experience.

Top priority

Most healthcare AI companies fail not because the technology is inadequate but because the solutions are not designed around how healthcare is actually delivered, documented, reimbursed, regulated or trusted within real clinical and operational environments. That is where we come in. Our focus is on helping healthcare organizations implement AI in ways that are practical, workflow integrated and operationally sustainable. In 2026, the priority is tightly aligning AI with existing healthcare workflows and operations through the implementation of copilots focused on areas such as documentation support, clinical summarization, administrative efficiency and workflow assistance. As the industry evolves, the focus in 2027 will begin shifting toward more advanced autonomous orchestration. This includes agentic care coordination and AI-enabled chronic disease management designed to improve outcomes, reduce fragmentation and support more proactive, personalized care delivery.

Recommended book, article, podcast, TV show or documentary

“The Digital Doctor” by Robert Wachter, M.D., is a reminder that generative AI is essentially healthcare’s “second digital transformation.” The electronic health record (EHR) was the first, and Wachter argues that the first wave digitized healthcare poorly; AI may finally make workflows usable. In “A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future,” his book that was published earlier this year, Wachter explains how generative AI changes clinical workflows. He writes about AI scribes, inbox management and prior authorization automation. Wachter discusses the “human-in-the-loop” debate and shows why Epic and the EHR vendors may dominate deployment.

Making U.S. healthcare less expensive

The core problems include massive administrative waste (billing, prior authorization, documentation, fragmented records), too few clinicians relative to demand, fee-for-service incentives that reward volume over outcomes, high chronic disease burden, and lack of interoperability and consumer-friendly digital tools.

U.S. healthcare has failed to lower costs the way banking, retail and travel have through technology adoption. We need to incorporate the use of agentic AI, AI avatars, remote monitoring and automation to expand access and reduce operational costs.

Personal goal

I would like to become more involved in healthcare policy and expand my volunteer work. I was first introduced to the policy side of healthcare during my leadership fellowship with the California Health Care Foundation. I realize how important thoughtful policy leadership will be as AI continues transforming healthcare. Right now, there is still limited policy infrastructure around AI in healthcare, and policy makers need input from people who understand both the operational realities of healthcare delivery and the practical challenges of implementing these technologies responsibly.

I also value volunteer work because it provides important perspective outside of traditional healthcare systems. Spending time in community-based environments is a reminder that many patient challenges extend far beyond clinical care alone. It helps me better understand the social, economic and personal factors that influence health outcomes.