PhD, MPH, FAMIA
Professor and Beerstecher-Blackwell Distinguished Term Scholar, School of Nursing
Associate Director, Carolina Health Informatics Program (CHIP)
Director, Carolina Applied Informatics Research (CAIR) Lab
Research Fellow, Sheps Center for Health Services Research
Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Vice Provost for AI
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program
Area of Interest
Our group seeks to improve healthcare delivery and patient access and safety through novel design, implementation, and evaluation of health information technology. Our group is made of members who have a passion for improving technological aspects in the medical field. These interests cover a broad range of topics in health informatics but are concentrated into three areas:
- Electronic Health Record Usability with the aim on improving EHRs from a practical perspective
- Telemedicine with the aim of using technology to give more patients access to better health care
- Teleconsent with the aim of recruiting patients to clinical trials in a way that is more convenient for the patients
We are known to use novel methodological approaches to evaluate health IT technologies. We have transformed evaluation methods of health information systems using our eye-tracking methods. To the extent that we developed eye-tracking algorithms to precisely measure providers’ fatigue levels related from the use of technologies as well as assess the impact of information overload on providers’ decision-making.
We developed the first-of-its-kind digital health vulnerability index score that enables the classification of U.S. neighborhoods regarding readiness and access of digital health tools. Our geospatial methods enabled the ability of telemedicine tools to bridge health inequities by looking at social, access, and digital factors.
Awards and Honors
- APIC-AJIC Award for Publication Excellence, Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC), 2023
- Breaking Barriers Through Telehealth Award, Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center (MATRC), 2023
- Strategy Execution for Public Leadership, Harvard University, Massachusetts, MA, 2023
- AMIA Leadership Award, Washington DC, 2022
- Leadership Fundamentals Program, Center for Faculty Excellence, UNC Chapel Hill, 2021-2022
- Third Place, Best Paper Award Competition, Knowledge and Data Mining Working Group, AMIA. Washington, DC, 2019
- Nominated for Best Student Paper Award, 17th World Congress of Medical and Health Informatics, Lyon, France, 2019
- Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA). Atlanta, GA, 2019
News and Stories
Khairat to serve as chief AI officer
Saif Khairat, PhD, MPH, FAMIA, School of Nursing professor and UNC Lineberger member, will shepherd Carolina’s vision of ensuring that the invention, use and governance of AI serves the public good.
Scientific retreat underscores impact and promise of cancer center’s research
UNC Lineberger's annual scientific retreat brought together faculty, staff and trainees to learn about the latest research at the cancer center.
