The 229 Podcast

September 29, 2025: In this episode of Newsday, Drex is joined by Russell Teague of Fortified Health Security for a candid look at the storm brewing in healthcare IT. From the promises and pitfalls of AI to the growing sophistication of cyber threats, they explore how health systems are balancing innovation with risk. The conversation dives into financial pressures, shifting reimbursement models,...

September 26, 2025: George Pappas , CEO of Intraprise Health by Health Catalyst , joins This Week Health for the News. Together, they unpack the Salesforce breaches that turned cybersecurity companies into victims and the explosion of personal injury lawyers now chasing data breach cases. With class action lawsuits up fivefold and cyber insurance policies being voided for non-compliance, they expl...

September 25, 2025: How did Baptist Health Kentucky scale from 10,000 to 90,000 prescriptions? Tricia Julian, CIO, and Nilesh Desai , Chief Pharmacy Officer, of Baptist Health System reveal the details behind their three-and-a-half-year project of creating an automated prescription center, achieving a 93% patient retention rate, and creating a system where robots handle medication. As health syste...

September 24, 2025: Amirah Centinario , EVP at Optimum Healthcare IT , dives into the hard truths and hacks to healthcare M&A. What separates the organizations that pull off lightning-fast integrations from those that crash and burn? Amirah reveals why some health systems are acquiring distressed entities at breakneck speed, the hidden costs that blow up budgets, and the one factor that can ma...

September 22: Today on Newsday Sarah and Drex speak with Jacob Hansen , Chief Product and Technology Officer at AvaSure , about virtual care, AI, and more from the news. Jacob highlights the company's focus on inpatient care, virtual observation, and AI solutions. They address the rising expectation for tangible ROI from EHR AI projects, the importance of pilot studies, and the role of virtual car...

September 18, 2025: Matt Sullivan , MD, CMIO for Advocate Health , explores the complex realities of scaling healthcare technology across massive merged organizations. Matt reveals the hard lines his organization draws around cybersecurity and AI safety while discussing the gray areas where clinical workflows must adapt. The conversation delves into Advocate's ambitious computer vision implementat...

September 17, 2025: Healthcare is notorious for changing slowly, but does it have to be? Nishith Khandwala , Co-Founder of Bunkerhill Health , is breaking down the walls between an idea and life-saving reality. Nishith reveals how major health systems are now identifying thousands of at-risk patients through automated clinical workflows, including the story of a police officer whose dismissed "hea...

September 15, 2025: Patients now walk into doctors' offices armed with AI-generated diagnoses and treatment plans—but what happens when ChatGPT becomes your primary care physician? Ryan Bengtson , CEO and Board member at Panda Health , joins the This Week Health team to dive into this shifting dynamic while confronting an imminent government shutdown that threatens to pull the rug out from under t...

September 11, 2025: Chris Carmody , CTO and SVP at UPMC , discusses their ambitious Epic implementation less than a month out. How does UPMC consolidate 10 different EHR systems serving 108,000 users while maintaining 43 million daily transactions? They discuss their controversial two-wave strategy, the new AI voice analytics model they're launching called "Vana," and why 17 years of coaching seve...

September 8, 2025: Ed Gaudet, CEO and Founder of Censinet , joins the This Week Health team for the news. When SalesLoft's Drift chatbot breach exposes over 700 companies through a single API vulnerability, it raises an unsettling question: are we witnessing a preview of something much larger? The security experts shift seats and play the role of the hackers, answering where they would attack firs...

September 4, 2025: In the inaugural episode of The 229 Podcast, Bill Russell sits down with John Lee, MD - practicing physician and founder of HIT Peak Advisors - for an insider's deep dive into Epic's game-changing UGM announcements. Lee, who describes himself as "firmly in Camp Epic," brings a unique dual perspective as both a clinician and Epic consultant to decode what really matters from the...

August 29, 2025: Michael Robinson , VP of Healthcare Solutions (Americas) from Omnissa , discusses what it takes to maintain momentum during massive transitions and Omnissa's vision for autonomous workspaces. As healthcare organizations face shrinking margins and accelerating digital demands, Michael explores how strategic partnerships with Epic and CrowdStrike are reshaping the technology landsca...

August 28, 2025: In this Keynote Rewind episode, we explore how organizations balance the revolutionary potential of generative AI with the critical need for rock-solid infrastructure. Leaders share stories of mobile clinics outperforming traditional facilities, drone deliveries reaching remote islands, and home-based care achieving superior outcomes to hospital stays. With TEFCA enabling secure d...

August 27, 2025: Dan Dodson , CEO of Fortified Health Security , discusses how healthcare organizations are rethinking cybersecurity strategy amid mounting financial pressures. Dan shares insights from their Nashville Executive Briefing Center, where healthcare leaders are uncovering critical gaps in their security programs. As AI tools spread faster than anyone anticipated—with physicians using p...

August 26, 2025: Anika Gardenhire , RN, Chief Digital and Transformation Officer at Ardent Health , joins Reid Stephan , VP and CIO at St. Luke’s Health System , to discuss the complicated world of nursing. As healthcare faces workforce shortages and an aging population, the discussion examines whether current documentation requirements are actual regulations or simply historical inertia that's ne...

August 25, 2025: Chase Franzen , VP and CISO at Sharp Healthcare , discusses how they transformed their cybersecurity training into something so engaging that employees actually call it fun. But as AI capabilities advance at breakneck speed, what happens when traditional phishing indicators disappear and deepfakes become indistinguishable from reality? Chase discusses Sharp's AI ethics committee a...

August 21, 2025: In this Keynote Rewind, healthcare leaders are hitting their breaking point, and the numbers tell only part of the story. This episode goes beyond burnout statistics to reveal how some organizations are quietly transforming healthcare work—reducing alert fatigue from a million notifications to under 100,000, implementing "wellness sprints" where IT teams shadow physicians, and ach...

August 20, 2025: Michael Fredrickson , VP of Sales for US Healthcare from Rubrik , discusses cyber resilience when patient care is on the line. Michael reveals the sobering reality that many younger nurses have never worked without electronic health records. What happens when these systems fail, and staff trained entirely on digital platforms must suddenly revert to pen and paper? As they discuss...

August 19, 2025: Dr. William Morgan , MD, CEO at Copiah County Medical Center , discusses his unexpected four-year transformation of CCMC, a rural Mississippi hospital that's now pioneering AI-driven healthcare solutions. William discusses how partnerships with companies like Neteera have enabled everything from AI fall prevention to real-time patient monitoring, fundamentally changing how rural c...

August 18, 2025: Stephanie Lahr , MD, Founder of Vital Thread Advisory, reveals her transition from healthcare executive to solo consultant. What drives a seasoned physician-executive to question decades of traditional employment and embrace the uncertainty of independent consulting? Stephanie discusses overcoming the fear of leaving structured organizations, the practical realities of building Vi...

August 14, 2025: Healthcare has moved from "what if" to "what now" with AI, as health systems quietly implement artificial intelligence across operations from revenue cycle to bedside care. Bill Russell explores how virtual care adoption jumped from 3% to 95% in three months, questioning whether healthcare's barriers are truly technological or cultural. As hospitals face mounting complexity and cl...

August 13, 2025: Eric Utzinger , Co-Founder and Chief Client Officer at Revuud , tackles the world of healthcare consulting. Drawing from 15 years in healthcare consulting, Eric reveals how the industry shifted around 2013, creating a system where traditional staffing firms often add little value beyond letterhead while charging substantial markups. What happens when technology enables direct acce...

August 12, 2025: Dr. Zafar Chaudry , SVP, CDIO, and AI Officer, speaks with Dr. Vittorio Gallo, Chief Scientific Officer at Seattle Children's Research Institute , about the transformation happening in pediatric research. As healthcare shifts from traditional lab work to data-driven science, how are research institutions keeping pace with the explosion of information they're generating? Vittorio d...

August 7, 2025: In this Keynote recap, Bill takes viewers through the untold reality behind digital transformation: the biggest obstacles aren't technological, they're human. What happens when you're tasked with building an entire IT department from scratch, or when you have to justify why a hospital even needs a CIO? As organizations develop their fourth digital roadmap and AI promises to revolut...

August 6, 2025: Lisbeth Votruba , Chief Clinical Officer at AvaSure and a third-generation nurse, discusses how virtual care technology is transforming healthcare delivery. How can AI-powered platforms help nurses return to more personalized, joyful patient care while addressing the growing crisis of workplace violence in hospitals? Lisbeth shares her journey from ICU nurse to tech executive, disc...