The UNC Center for Health Innovation is pleased to announce the awardees of the 14th Annual Innovation Pilot Awards. Proposals were sought from across UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine faculty and employees for innovations across a spectrum of areas including care delivery, workforce development, new technology, advanced analytics, and more.
Five projects were selected from the second most applications in the program’s history. The selected proposals demonstrated clear dedication to improving care for our patients and strengthening our health care system and meeting the mission of the UNC Center for Health Innovation.
The selected teams include:
AI-Enabled Transfer Toolkit for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) at UNC Health
PI: Jared Gallaher, MD, MPH (Department of Surgery)
Primary Care Physical Therapy at UNC Family Medicine South Durham
PI: Carla Hill, PT, DPT (UNC Therapy Services, Departments of Health Sciences and Orthopaedics)
Co‑PI: Jonathan Mitchell, MD (Department of Family Medicine)
AI-Enabled Dashboard for Discharge Barrier Identification
PI: Carlton Moore, MD (Division of Hospital Medicine)
Co‑PI: Ram Rimal, MS (UNC Health ISD EADS and Gillings School of Public Health)
Piloting AI-Assisted Self-Scanning for Accurate Pregnancy Assessment
PI: Katelyn Rittenhouse, MD (Obstetrics & Gynecology)
Co‑PI: Elizabeth Stringer, MD, MSc (Obstetrics & Gynecology)
System-Wide Anticoagulation Stewardship Through Epic-Enabled Population Monitoring
PI: Cassiopeia Frank, DrPH, MMSc (Department of Medicine)
Co-PI: Aubrie Rafferty, PharmD, BCPS (UNC Health)
“We are incredibly grateful to every applicant who took their time to submit a proposal for this year’s Awards,” said Lesley Hall, Director of UNC Health Enterprises. “The selection process was exceptionally challenging due to the number and extraordinary quality of submissions we received.”
Applications aimed to tackle a broad spectrum of important health care challenges. The strength of the applicant pool demonstrates that UNC Health is leading the way when it comes to generating ideas for disruptive innovation within healthcare. Descriptions of the selected applications from this and previous years can be found online.
“We are very grateful to all of the 2026 applicants for their interest and dedication, and to the volunteer Innovation Pilot Award Review Committee. Congratulations to the 2026 award recipients!” said Hall
Established by UNC Health Care and the UNC School of Medicine, the Center for Health Innovation initiates, evaluates and supports the adoption of disruptive, patient-centered innovations in the delivery and financing of health care. The Center strives to provide rapid assessment, coordinated facilitation, program management, partnership development and funding for innovation. To learn more about the Center, visit www.med.unc.edu/innovation.