Humanity in healthcare: How Tucson Medical Center is balancing automation and patient care

Nearly half of medical practices in the U.S. have been using AI at work for over a year. As AI is making significant inroads in U.S. healthcare, organizations are honing in on its true benefit and impact on patient experience, workflows and improving clinical decision support.

Becker’s Healthcare recently spoke with Joshua Lee, MD, CIO and Senior Vice President of Tucson, Ariz.-based TMC Health about how his organization is maximizing the use of technology while preserving the human touch that defines exceptional patient care.

Preserving the human touch

While a recent survey showed that nearly half of nurses express concern about reduced human interaction due to AI, TMC is committed to creating a patient experience that is automated and digitized, yet also easily navigated.

Dr. Lee likened it to flying on a plane; many aspects of the journey are handled digitally but humans on the ground and in the air ensure everything goes according to plan.

“At Tucson Medical Center, we want to ensure that humans remain in all of the places where only humans can be,” said Dr. Lee. “Although scheduling, pre-registration and check-in may be highly digital, we want the greeting, patient assessment and validation of medication lists to be human moments.”

Ambient AI scribes are among the fastest-adopted technologies in healthcare and a recent survey showed that 95% of healthcare executives believe generative AI will transform healthcare. TMC is now using both to enable physicians to focus on what matters most to them; spending face-to-face time with their patients and improving patient outcomes.

“That’s the core of preserving humanity, using humans where humans belong and enabling providers to be completely present with patients,” Dr. Lee said.

AI as a strategy

Introducing ambient AI into the outpatient clinic setting has helped TMC understand the importance of governance, equity and creating a strategic plan. While AI presents an opportunity to transform patient care, research shows clinicians want to see more assurances around data privacy, governance and integration.

TMC’s experience encouraged their leadership team to create architectures that define the most appropriate and beneficial uses of AI throughout the enterprise. These architectures include regulatory considerations and potential risks associated with the technology.

Dr. Lee explained that by taking a strategic approach to leveraging AI tools at every site of care, TMC is reducing the digital divide between patients who seek care at a semi-urban hospital and those who visit a rural clinic or use telehealth.

“Creating a regulatory compliance and ethical framework has really guided our future expansion for AI,” Dr. Lee said. “When health systems focus on technology implementation, they sometimes forget about the people’s transformation. I’m proud that TMC Health is already thinking about what the workforce and patients need in this highly automated world.”

Transforming care at TMC

TMC is now at an exciting inflection point as it moves into the inpatient space and potentially the procedural care setting with ambient and AI. The organization is also about to launch Microsoft’s DAX Copilot in the emergency and inpatient departments.

TMC is also in the final stages of evaluating generative AI tools for nurses that can translate conversations into the vital structured data needed to maintain patient safety, as well as quality in the EHR.

“A great example is ambient listening during a conversation that a nurse may have at the bedside,” Dr. Lee said. “In the background, the system must be sophisticated enough to put all the right data into the appropriate flow sheet entries or in the structured data needed for appropriate tracking.”

Over the past two years, TMC has launched an internal medicine residency program to train the physicians of tomorrow to provide compassionate care with excellence. From the very first day, the team introduced generative AI tools, so that all program participants understand these technologies.

In addition to recognizing the value of generative AI, TMC’s leaders also see great potential in combining predictive AI solutions with large data sets. In April 2025, TMC opened a regional cancer center across five sites with clinics in multiple specialties.

By marrying 20 years of digital patient information with imaging data and new molecular and genetic testing tools, Dr. Lee believes that TMC will be able to fine tune treatments for cancer patients in the very near future.

Throughout its history, TMC has maintained an intense focus on exceptional care with compassion. With the advent of AI tools, the organization has been called to rethink how it works, trains employees and engages with patients.

“People have used the term ‘precision medicine’ for a long time, but I feel now that we have the firepower in predictive AI to deliver on that promise,” Dr. Lee said.

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