The CereCore Podcast

In this episode of The CereCore Podcast, host Phil Sobol sits down with James Wellman, VP and CIO at Nathan Littauer Hospital and Nursing Home in Gloversville, New York. A certified healthcare CIO with more than three decades of experience, James has led technology transformations at organizations ranging from large academic medical centers to rural critical access hospitals. He’s also a senior pa...

What does it take to manage IT across 13-plus hospitals; rapidly, responsibly, and always with the patient in mind? In this episode of The CereCore Podcast, Phil Sobol sits down with Tiffany Laurenz, Vice President of IT Delivery Operations at McLaren Health Care, for a candid conversation about the realities of leading a large, complex health system's technology operations. From her early days as...

What does it take for a community hospital to modernize its EHR, stay independent, and embrace AI responsibly? Craig Rice, Vice President and CIO at Schneck Medical Center in Seymour, Indiana, has a lot to say about it. Schneck Medical Center is the only organization in Indiana to receive the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. They made a deliberate choice to stay independent and stay on ME...

Paula Blomquist has spent her career figuring out what people need before they know they need it. She calls it retail magic. Now, as Chief Experience Officer at GoHealth Urgent Care, she is working to bring that same instinct into healthcare. Paula leads patient and consumer experience strategy across GoHealth's national network of urgent care centers, which operates through joint ventures with he...

Rural hospitals are not too small to be targeted. In fact, they are often more vulnerable. In this episode of The CereCore Podcast, Phil Sobol sits down with Chris Riha, Senior Cybersecurity Advisor at CereCore, to talk about one of the biggest risks facing community hospitals today: cybersecurity. Chris brings a rare operator perspective. He spent more than 14 years inside Carilion Clinic leading...

What happens when a practicing hospitalist becomes both CMO and CMIO? Dr. Devjit Roy shares his journey from COVID frontlines to dual leadership at Nathan Littauer Hospital. As author of Between Heartbeats and Algorithms: Reclaiming What Matters in Healthcare, Dr. Roy makes a powerful case for compassion and presence in an era of metrics and automation. Hear how he keeps clinicians connected to mi...

From the bedside to the boardroom, Holly Davis has spent nearly three decades advocating for nurses and patients in rural healthcare. In this episode of The CereCore Podcast, Holly, Chief Nursing Officer at Bingham Memorial Hospital, joins host Phil Sobol to share a practical, people-first view on nursing leadership, technology adoption, and sustaining nursing careers. Holly discusses the realitie...

What happens when bold leadership meets groundbreaking technology? In this episode of The CereCore Podcast, host Phil Sobol speaks with Sir David Sloman, former Chief Operating Officer of NHS England, about the digital transformation of one of the world’s largest healthcare systems. From artificial intelligence and data-driven care to leadership resilience and global collaboration, Sir David share...

What does it take to thrive as an independent specialty hospital today? In this episode of The CereCore Podcast, host Phil Sobol talks with Rick Rasmussen, CEO of Northwest Specialty Hospital, about balancing financial discipline with clinical excellence, leading teams through EHR change, and building a culture of care in northern Idaho. Rick shares his journey from CFO to CEO, why technology and...

From his early days as a finance intern at Cerner to leading Oracle Health Services at CereCore, Richard Barrett has witnessed healthcare IT evolve through seismic shifts: the rise of SaaS and the cloud, interoperability breakthroughs, the Oracle acquisition, and now the AI revolution. If you’re a CIO, IT strategist, or healthcare leader navigating Oracle Health, this episode of The CereCore Podca...

What happens when a hospital leader takes lessons from both the CEO and CFO seat into statewide advocacy? You get a strong advocacy voice for rural health. In this episode of The CereCore Podcast, host Phil Sobol talks with Tim Powers, Chief Financial Officer of the Idaho Hospital Association, about his 35-year journey in healthcare leadership. From turning around struggling hospitals in Idaho and...

From the ED to the C-suite, Dr. Kathy Tussey, CEO of Harrison Memorial Hospital, has never stopped solving problems. Dr. Tussey shares how EHR optimization became a strategic imperative and why it’s about more than technology. In this conversation with host Phil Sobol, she discusses the ripple effect of technology on staff, patient safety, regulatory and revenue cycle. Hear how her nursing roots s...

Explore a remarkable journey of transformation, resilience, and leadership in rural healthcare. Host Phil Sobol welcomes back Lynn Falcone, CEO of Cuero Regional Hospital, and Ismelda Garza, CIO Cuero Regional Hospital and CereCore manager, for a candid conversation about their multi-year effort to implement MEDITECH Expanse and evolve into a high reliability organization (HRO). From overcoming in...

What happens when a former clinician becomes the architect of digital transformation? You get bold, practical innovation that actually works. In this episode of The CereCore Podcast, we talk with Julie Demaree, Executive Director of Clinical Innovation and Transformation at St. Mary’s Healthcare Amsterdam, about how she’s turning tech frustration into clinical empowerment. From rebuilding trust in...

How do you strike the right balance with IT governance? Peyman Zand, chief strategy officer at CereCore, talks about developing strategic plans and IT governance to drive innovation and growth. In this conversation with host Phil Sobol, chief commercial officer at CereCore, Peyman shares how to align strategic planning and governance with enterprise goals. Hear why it's important to establish a mu...

Clinical staff want more from their EMR explains Judy Krupala, Chief Nursing Officer at Cuero Regional Hospital. In this episode, hear what’s important to clinical leadership and staff when it comes to technology, their experience transitioning to MEDITECH Expanse and approach to integrating technology into patient care. In this conversation with Phil Sobol, Chief Commercial Officer at CereCore, J...

AI is going to change our entire healthcare system, and so are strategic approaches to EHR optimization and continuous improvement. Darrell Bodnar, CIO of North Country Healthcare, unpacks top of mind healthcare leadership topics from operationalizing new technologies like AI and machine learning to optimizing the EHR for clinical efficiencies and workflow optimization. Hear practical leadership a...

Focus on what’s most important for a health system. That’s what Kevin Olson, CIO at Jupiter Medical Center, explains as he talks about their Epic implementation, the challenges and opportunities of unifying fragmented systems, and governance in IT decision-making. Kevin also delves into the role of AI in healthcare, the significance of understanding market dynamics, and much more in this conversat...

How can we make the EHR implementation process less manual? Krischan Krayer, VP of Expanse Implementation & Operations at HCA Healthcare, discusses ways healthcare organizations can evaluate and use automation for EHR implementations. He shares experiences working with stakeholders and teams to educate them on what’s possible with automation. Hear more about EHR adoption trends, insights from his...

Dr. Patrick Woodard is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Monument Health. Monument Health operates the busiest ER in South Dakota, serving a remote area where the nearest comparable trauma center is over 300 miles away. In this episode, hear how Dr. Woodard’s background as practicing internist ignited a passion for healthcare technology and health policy. He discusses how healthcare technolog...

Dr. Aaron Parker Banks, Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO) at UK St. Claire Healthcare treats patients in the clinic four days a week and he's using technology throughout the day to help him provide the best care to his tight-knit community in Kentucky. Listen to this “day in a life” episode to hear how this CMIO led physicians, nurses and staff through technology change during their EHR go-...

A highly customized EHR in need of costly updates challenged the new CIO at Oklahoma Heart Hospital (OHH) to evaluate the technology stack he inherited and chart a new course at this award-winning healthcare organization. In this episode, Phil Sobol, Chief Commercial Officer, talks with David Miles, Chief Information Officer of OHH, and Jim Wetzel, the facility’s director of clinical systems. The...

“Every project you might be involved in is still a business project at the end of the day,” says Nayan Patel, CIO at Upson Regional Medical Center. Nayan explains how simple tools like a top 10 list can foster transparency and trust, highlighting technology’s impact on and value to healthcare projects. During this conversation with host Phil Sobol, chief commercial officer at CereCore, Nayan share...

Ajai Sehgal, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Mayo Clinic, discussed the building blocks of healthcare data strategy and the value of data analytics from examples of physicians and patients who experienced better care, time savings and reduced cost. “Early detection of disease is a way of both curing patients and delivering better healthcare, but also scaling our physicians,” said Sehgal in thi...

Listen to this masterclass in healthcare IT leadership from Marty Paslick, retired SVP and CIO of HCA Healthcare. He shares experiences from his nearly four decades in HIT and covers topics from workplace culture where “technologists see themselves as healthcare professionals first,” to financial and operational resiliency during adversity. He's not shy about sharing what worked and didn't work wh...