The 229 Podcast

June 25, 2025: Sebastian Estades , Healthcare Lead of Google Chrome , and Andrew Morris , CTO and Executive Director of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles , explore the shift in healthcare to working on secure browsers. What makes Chrome OS particularly suited for healthcare environments transitioning to web-based applications? The conversation reveals how CHLA's strategic shift to Chrome OS devices...

July 31, 2025: Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson preview their upcoming show changes while tackling critical CIO challenges. They discuss "CIO escape rooms"—high-pressure scenarios such as your EHR vendor going out of business or handling a 3 AM security breach. How do healthcare IT leaders navigate the treacherous waters of CEO transitions, and what's the real difference between a w...

July 30, 2025: Marco Casale , Systems Integration Architect at the University of Rochester , and Drew Ivan , Chief Architect at Rhapsody , join Bill to discuss healthcare interoperability. What would happen if these critical integration platforms suddenly went down, and why does even Epic need hundreds of external connections to keep hospitals running? The discussion covers the evolution from HL7...

Even cyber pros have technical issues sometimes – our camera caught a bug, but the audio is clean and packed with security insights! July 28, 2025: Aaron Heath , CISO and Cybersecurity Counsel at the Medical University of South Carolina , and Brian Zegers , Information Security Officer at Lee Health , discuss a variety of security topics. The conversation takes a turn when both leaders address the...

July 24, 2025: Theresa McDonnell , Chief Nursing Executive and SVP at Duke University Health System , discusses how she maintains her clinical practice while leading strategic transformation across a billion-dollar organization. What specific changes helped Duke reduce nurse turnover from 21% to 11%? Theresa discusses her role in orchestrating the complex $1.7 billion merger that created the Fred...

July 23, 2025: Michael Vipond , Head of Healthcare Provider GTM at ServiceNow , discusses everything from the basics to the cutting edge of AI. As health systems face mounting pressure from Medicare cuts and operational costs, how do leaders navigate the difference between traditional automation and the emerging world of agentic AI? Michael reveals how AI agents are already handling IT incidents a...

July 22, 2025: Charles Christian , VP of Technology and CTO at Franciscan Health , joins Nayan Patel , SVP of FinThrive , to discuss their healthcare innovation lab and supporting clinicians. What happens when a tech giant realizes it can't just provide a platform but must become a true partner in life-safety systems? Charles reveals how Franciscan's tech innovation lab uses donated equipment and...

July 21, 2025: Amie Teske , Founder and CEO of Echelon , joins Sarah to discuss how she is shifting the landscape of sales. Amie discusses the realities of solo practitioner work, from pricing your expertise to maintaining sanity without a traditional corporate structure. How has institutional investment reshaped the sales landscape, and what does it take to create genuine peer communities for hig...

July 17, 2025: Chris Harper , CIO and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor of AI at the University of Kansas Medical Center , discusses the nuances of AI governance. Chris discusses why he'd rather be "a pro than a hero" and how this philosophy shapes his collaborative leadership style in implementing AI solutions. They explore his organization's strategic technology bets over two decades, from meanin...

July 16, 2025: Aaron Neinstein, MD , Chief Medical Officer at Notable Health , explores breaking down the barriers to the patient experience with AI. The conversation examines the human side of AI implementation and how leaders can address workforce fears while ensuring automation enhances rather than replaces care delivery. How do you shift from thinking about AI as labor replacement to embracing...

July 11, 2025: Mick Coady , CTO at Armis , tackles a problem that has been haunting healthcare IT for decades: you can't protect what you don't know you have. The conversation reveals how hospitals still rely on manual processes to track everything from IV pumps to imaging equipment, often discovering critical vulnerabilities only when it's too late. What's the real cost when imaging machines sit...

July 10, 2025: Christopher Scanzera , Interim CIO at Lurie Children's Hospital , and Judy Kirby , Executive Recruiter at Kirby Partners , join Bill for a discussion around interim roles. With 53% of sitting healthcare CIOs having been in their roles for only three years, what Bill dubs “the great CIO musical chairs,” the conversation dives into the critical differences between interim and permanen...

July 9, 2025: Todd Barton , AVP, Enterprise Sales Engineering at Rubrik , and PV SubbaRao , SVP of Global Healthcare and Life Sciences from Rackspace , reveal how they're revolutionizing healthcare's approach to cyber resilience through their groundbreaking partnership. The conversation delves deep into the concept of Isolated Recovery Environments (IRE) and the "Minimum Viable Hospital" - but wha...

July 3, 2025: Alan Smith, SVP and CIO of Lifepoint Health , joins Bill for a discussion on the top challenges facing CIOs. How do you balance immediate system stability when your organization is built through constant acquisitions? Al discusses his approach to the "CIO escape room" scenarios that define modern healthcare IT, from major partner outages to the ongoing tension between cloud-first str...

July 1, 2025: Sue Schade , Principal at StarBridge Advisors , sits down with Brian Sterud , VP of IT, CIO, and CISO of Faith Regional Health Services . Brian tackles a pressing question facing healthcare leaders today: how do we regulate AI without killing innovation? His perspective on finding the right balance between safety and progress offers valuable insights as the industry navigates unchart...

June 26, 2025: Michael Han , MD, Enterprise CMIO and VP of MultiCare Health System , discusses his transition from the operating room to the boardroom. He argues that the path forward isn't through automating clinical decisions, but through revolutionizing call centers, scheduling, prior authorizations, and referrals. Michael reveals how ambient clinical documentation must evolve beyond simple not...

June 24, 2025: Mathew Moss , SVP and CIO at New England Donor Services , joins Sarah to discuss the amazing stories and stubborn challenges in the world of organ donation. When hospitals process over 100,000 death referrals annually, how do cutting-edge systems determine which cases have life-saving potential? The conversation delves into the sobering reality that less than 50% of organ donors are...

June 23, 2025: Chris Plummer , Senior Cybersecurity Architect from Dartmouth Health , discusses the realities of defending healthcare systems against sophisticated threats. Chris shares his path from childhood computer enthusiast to cybersecurity leader, including the surprising story of how he discovered a major Google security flaw that made national headlines. Why do over 6,000 hospitals still...

June 19, 2025: In this webinar re-run Jill McCormick , Co-Founder and EVP of Design and Product Development at Pixel Health , and Daniel Small , Vice President of Digital Services at Hartford HealthCare , discuss the process of creating a world-class patient experience. The conversation explores Hartford HealthCare's bold approach to reimagining digital and physical spaces, where defining the expe...

June 18, 2025: Glenn Wirick , Chief Commercial Officer at Clearsense , explores how freeing up your data allows for a new world of innovation. How can health systems transform their bloated application portfolios while cutting millions in unnecessary costs? Glenn unpacks the journey from basic data archiving to creating unified patient records that power advanced analytics and AI innovations. The...

June 16, 2025: Corina Clark, COO at Gardner Health Services and one of Becker's "COOs to Know," discusses her transformative journey as a leader in communal, equitable healthcare. Drawing from influential mentors who shaped her leadership philosophy, Corina discusses how equity must serve as "the lens through which we look at clinical decision-making" rather than just a checkbox exercise. She offe...

June 12, 2025: Jennifer Stemmler , Chief Digital and Information Officer at Adventist Health , opens up about orchestrating one of healthcare's largest EHR migrations—transitioning 28 hospitals and 400 clinics from a decades-old Cerner system to Epic. Guided by the mantra "on time, on budget, on Epic, on us," how does she maintain control without micromanaging every decision? When groups push back...

June 10, 2025: Reid Stephan , VP and CIO of St. Luke’s , and Dr. Spencer Dorn , Vice Chair & Professor of Medicine at UNC , tackle the reality behind AI's promise in healthcare, exploring why only one in three clinicians actually stick with AI scribes despite the initial enthusiasm. As they navigate between "AI doomers" and "techno-utopians," the conversation reveals what's working and what is...

June 6, 2025: Timothy Boettcher , SVP, Head of GTM Strategy North America for AvePoint , discusses the often-overlooked sensitive information spread across Microsoft 365 environments, particularly as departments independently adopt AI tools. Drawing from his experience across Australia, Japan, and the US, Timothy examines why information governance challenges continue to be the primary barrier to...

June 5, 2025: Bill Russell sits down with Erica Olenski , VP at Finn Partners and Founder of August’s Artists , Ironman athlete, and board-certified patient advocate, who brings a unique perspective from navigating the healthcare system through hundreds of overnight hospital stays with her son August, a four-time brain cancer survivor. Why does a family with an extensive hospital history still get...