The 229 Podcast

January 22, 2026: Aneesh Chopra , Chief Strategy Officer at Arcadia and former first U.S. Chief Technology Officer, joins Bill Russell to discuss the transformative health tech ecosystem. Aneesh reveals how major EHR vendors, tech giants like OpenAI and Google, and health systems have committed to democratizing patient data access by March 2026. The conversation explores how AI-powered health info...

January 21, 2026: Abhishek Begerhotta , CEO of 314e Corporation , shares battle-tested insights from over 25 years in healthcare IT, including his pivotal role in Kaiser Permanente's landmark Epic implementation. From surviving IBM's clinical system cancellation to building a product-focused company specializing in EHR migrations, Abhishek reveals the hidden complexities of moving massive healthca...

January 19, 2026: Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson unpack OpenAI's two major healthcare announcements that could fundamentally reshape how patients interact with their health data—and how health systems govern AI. ChatGPT Health promises to finally deliver on the personal health record dream, letting patients aggregate everything from Apple Health to medical records in one secure pl...

January 15, 2026: How do you lead 120,000 caregivers across seven states while maintaining a relationship-first philosophy? Providence CIDO, Cherodeep Goswami , reveals how his health system reduced patient wait times by seven days through disciplined innovation and the power of asking "why". From the unique practice of reflections in faith-based healthcare to navigating AI governance at scale, Ch...

January 14, 2026: When 50% of your urgent care patients walk in with zero medical history, how do you deliver quality care? Mike Cordeiro , Senior Director of Interoperability Market and Product Strategy at MEDITECH , and Joe Diver , Signature Healthcare ’s CIO, discuss how they transformed fragmented records into a unified view that nearly 400 clinicians adopted in record time. One physician call...

January 12, 2026: Epic is defending three simultaneous lawsuits while CIOs grapple with vendors imposing staggering price increases—some as high as 600%. Bill, Sarah, and Drex tackle the uncomfortable truth about AI leadership: it's time to figure it out or risk getting left behind. They explore why AI with context is transformative while AI without it looks foolish, discuss whether board members...

January 8, 2026: Dr. Michael Pfeffer , SVP and CIDO at Stanford Medicine , reveals how his team built a secure AI sandbox in just six weeks—and what they learned from analyzing thousands of user prompts. From ambient scribes that actually work to ChatEHR transforming clinical workflows in real-time, Michael shares the practical wins and honest challenges of deploying AI across an academic medical...

January 7, 2026: Chuck Christian , CTO of Franciscan Health , and Charles Anastos , Senior Partner at Chartis , share the unfiltered story of migrating a 12-hospital Epic environment to Microsoft Azure—including the moment their hosting partner suddenly exited the business mid-contract. Chuck reveals why they rejected the "easy button" of Epic hosting, how they navigated a complex RFP with six ven...

January 6, 2026: Healthcare is transforming through connection, and 2026 promises to take that mission further than ever before. This Week Health is expanding its reach with 63 events across 30 cities, bringing healthcare leaders together for deeper conversations and meaningful relationships. From coast-to-coast dinners connecting local leaders to new training programs educating both sides of the...

January 5, 2026: ServiceNow's $7 billion acquisition of Armis signals a major shift in healthcare IT consolidation strategy. Jason Rose , CEO of Clearsense dives into what this deal means for health systems juggling overlapping security tools and bloated app portfolios. The conversation shifts to bold predictions for 2026, including a massive wave of multi-billion dollar health system mergers and...

December 29, 2025: As 2025 draws to a close, Drex, Sarah, and Bill gather to reflect on a year of struggles and triumphs. From unprecedented CIO turnover among top talent to the stark reality of workforce exhaustion, this candid conversation reveals why even quality leaders are finding themselves displaced. They explore how fear has stifled innovation, why AI advanced faster than expected with syn...

December 23, 2025: The AI revolution swept through healthcare in 2025, but did it deliver on its promises? Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson pull back the curtain on what really happened in AI this year—from North Korean deep fakes infiltrating hospital workforces to the sobering reality of billion-dollar AI investments with ROI timelines stretching to 2030. They reveal why ambient l...

December 22, 2025: What makes a healthcare event truly transformative? Guru Sundar , VP of Marketing at Abridge , explores their unique event, ‘The Conversation’, that blends art, science, and healthcare innovation. From Laird Hamilton's insights on trusting your subconscious to John McEnroe's lesson on staying true to your brand, this discussion reveals how cross-industry inspiration drives healt...

December 19, 2025: CMS has unveiled its new ACCESS Model—an ambitious 10-year initiative aimed at expanding digital, tech-enabled care for millions of Medicare beneficiaries. In this discussion, Laura O’Toole , CEO of SureTest , joins Bill and Sarah to unpack how outcome-based reimbursement could finally accelerate innovation in remote monitoring and chronic disease management. They explore what t...

2025 wasn't just another year in healthcare IT—it was a year of constant change. Leaders stopped waiting for permission and started building the future themselves. From AI implementations that deliver results in weeks instead of years, to cybersecurity boundaries that actually hold, to predictive care models that flip the reactive healthcare script entirely. This rewind captures the breakthrough m...

December 17, 2025: Real-time location data is revolutionizing hospital operations, but most executives haven't grasped the full magnitude of what's now possible with AI. Philipp von Gilsa , CEO of Kontakt.io , reveals how combining RTLS with AI agents enables immediate interventions when operations break down - no more dashboards, just actionable intelligence in the moment. From predicting equipme...

December 15, 2025: What if healthcare's biggest breakthroughs require throwing out the playbook? Joined by Daniel Schubert , CEO and Co-Founder of Revuud , this episode explores how AI is fundamentally reshaping healthcare IT strategy, from deploying countless virtual PhD-level agents across operations to rethinking patient access and workflow automation. Healthcare leaders discuss the challenge o...

December 12, 2025: When cloud platforms like AWS and Azure experience outages, hospitals across the country feel the impact. But are healthcare organizations truly prepared for these disruptions? Charles Knight , Founder of EHC Consulting , explores the critical gaps in healthcare's cloud resilience strategies. From understanding single points of failure to running actual failover tests, this conv...

 December 11, 2025: Medical imaging is undergoing a massive transformation, and the innovations unveiled at RSNA 2025 reveal just how profound these changes will be. Dr. Lee David Milligan , Managing Partner at Asbury HealthTech Partners , takes us inside the conference floor to explore groundbreaking advances that are reshaping radiology workflows. Discover how companies are revolutionizing...

December 8, 2025: Healthcare systems are drowning in administrative calls while patients struggle with fragmented portals and coordination nightmares. Will Akers , Chief Strategy Officer from Switchboard, MD , joins Bill Russell, Sarah Richardson, and Drex DeFord to unpack a stunning reality: 25-40% of health system calls are simple scheduling requests that could be automated today. Drawing from h...

 December 4, 2025: Tanya Townsend , CIDO at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health , didn't just receive a lifetime achievement award from CHIME—she pioneered the first all-digital hospital back in 2005. Now Tanya is navigating the ultimate healthcare paradox: how do you invest in AI and digital transformation while facing unprecedented budget pressures? In this conversation, she reveals how amb...

December 3, 2025: A nurse practitioner shows up for their first ED shift at the hospital where they've worked for years. But the system doesn't recognize them, their login doesn't work, and five different teams scramble to merge records while the manager burns hours just getting them access. Kristin Hoppe, Information System Manager at Baylor Scott & White , and Bill Willis , CTO and Head of A...

December 1, 2025: As AI tools rapidly transform healthcare IT workflows, leaders face an unexpected challenge: what happens when your team becomes dramatically more productive? Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson explore the productivity paradox hitting healthcare organizations—when AI enables staff to accomplish in hours what once took weeks, do you need fewer people or different appr...

November 27, 2025: Shane Thielman , Corporate SVP and CIO at Scripps Health , shares how a compliance auditor switched their primary care physician after reviewing ambient documentation—a surprising indicator of AI's real clinical impact. In this conversation, Shane reveals the seven-year journey to get 40% of appointments online, the command center approach that reduced admission wait times by 25...

November 24, 2025: Healthcare organizations are drowning in applications they can't even inventory, especially after mergers and acquisitions. But the real shock comes when they try to access archived data years later. Dave Dyell , Managing Partner at Innovative Consulting Group , reveals why cloud storage fees are forcing health systems to rethink their entire archiving strategy, particularly for...