This Week Health: Conference

March 13, 2025: Tracy Donegan , Chief Information and Innovation Officer at MLK Community Healthcare , shares her approach to solving seemingly insurmountable problems through creative thinking and scrappiness, pushing beyond conventional limitations. The conversation explores MLK's commitment to health equity through innovative programs like their street medicine team and the upcoming empath unit...

March 12, 2025: From the floor of HIMSS 2025 in Vegas Colin Banas , CMO of DrFirst , and Thomas Wells , Medical director of Piedmont , explore the evolving landscape of healthcare technology. How might AI transform physician-patient relationships rather than diminishing them? What would need to change for true interoperability to become reality instead of remaining an endless talking point? The ph...

March 11: In this episode of TownHall, Karla Arzola , Chief Information Officer at Campbell County Health speaks with Jay Millar , Client Director at World Wide Technology and author of 'Be a Hero in Your Home’. Jay shares his compelling journey from a challenging upbringing to becoming a mentor and leader dedicated to helping others succeed. How does one turn personal struggles into strengths? Wh...

March 7, 2025: In this Interview in Action live from ViVE ‘25, Bill talks with Patience Phillips , Senior Director Information Technology at St. Luke’s University Health System . They dive into Patience’s role overseeing IT physician services, various service lines, access centers, and project management offices. They discuss St. Luke’s transformation of their call centers, highlighting the shift...

March 7, 2025: Dr. Andrew Gostine , CEO of Artisight , to discuss how Artisight is revolutionizing patient care with their integrated hardware and AI solutions. The interview focuses on their easy-to-implement hardware innovations. Shifting to software, Andrew highlights their AI’s ability to understand ambient video and audio, learning across thousands of hospital and operating rooms.  Key P...

March 6, 2025: Eric Smith , SVP and CDO at Memorial Hermann Health System , discusses how their health system successfully transitioned to Epic's EHR while maintaining patient satisfaction. Eric reveals the strategic approach that led to nearly 500,000 patient activations and details Memorial Hermann's innovative AI governance structure with specialized working groups. From expanding services into...

March 5, 2025: Scott D'Entremont , CRO from Parlance , explores how Parlance's conversational AI technology is transforming the often overlooked healthcare voice channel. D'Entremont reveals how their AI solutions handle everything from appointment inquiries to complex routing across thousands of destinations. Key Points: 01:18 Conversational AI in the Call Center 04:11 Challenges and Solutions in...

March 5, 2025: Sebastian Estades , Healthcare Lead of Google Chrome , explores how Google is reimagining healthcare browser security. Sebastian reveals how healthcare systems can move beyond traditional operating systems toward web-based environments that don't compromise on security or integration capabilities. What possibilities emerge when healthcare IT leaders consider repurposing existing har...

In today’s TownHall, host Beth Cooper , Chief Technology Officer at Tivity Health speaks with Deborah Backus , VP of Research and Innovation at Shepherd Center about their efforts toward innovation and technology in rehabilitation. They discuss the challenges faced by individuals with paralysis, brain injuries, and other complex conditions in finding appropriate assistive technologies. Deborah sha...

March 3, 2025: Dave Dyell , Managing Partner of Innovative Consulting Group , explores how healthcare organizations effectively rationalize their application portfolios in just 8-10 weeks. What strategies can CIOs employ to identify application overlap and recover significant cost savings through contract and SLA management? Dyell reveals how CIOs can secure executive support by demonstrating thei...

March 3, 2025: Kris Nessa , CTO of Healthcare at SHI , and John Kirkman , VP of Government, Healthcare, and Education at Island , explore Islands partnership with SHI at VIVE Nashville. As organizations face staffing shortages and cybersecurity threats, could Island's approach help democratize IT access across healthcare systems of all sizes? Join this discussion where practical technology meets h...

February 28, 2025: This is the fifth episode in the Zero Trust Hospital Series . Tamer Baker , Healthcare CTO at Zscaler , covers the first steps hospitals can take in their zero trust journey. Through practical insights, Tamer challenges traditional security thinking, demonstrating how organizations can achieve significant risk reduction even on day one, all while maintaining operational efficien...

February 27, 2025: Liz Scott , Co-Executive Director and Alex’s Mom from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation explores how a four-year-old's simple lemonade stand transformed into a movement that has raised over $300 million for childhood cancer research. Can the healthcare industry's involvement reshape the landscape of pediatric cancer research? As Scott shares stories of hope, resilience, and scien...

February 26, 2025: Colin Banas , CMO of DrFirst , explores how innovation powers their medication management solutions across 2,000+ hospitals. What strategies is DrFirst implementing to combat healthcare's most pressing challenges like provider burnout and specialty medication management? With the uncertainty surrounding healthcare policy under a new administration, how is DrFirst positioning its...

February 26, 2025: Amar Maletira , CEO of Rackspace , explores the evolving role of multi-cloud environments—why are CIOs now rethinking their cloud strategies after years of rapid migration? As AI continues to weave itself into every facet of IT, how can healthcare organizations effectively harness its power while navigating workforce gaps and security risks? And in a world of increasing cyber th...

 February 25: In this episode of TownHall, Albert Villarin, MD , VP and CMIO at Nuvance Health , Christine Silvers, MD , Healthcare Executive Advisor at Amazon Web Services , Praveen Meka, MD , Senior Physician/Hospitalist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute , and Qing Liu , Senior Solutions Architect (Healthcare) at Amazon Web Services explore the transformative impact of AI in healthcare. They...

February 24, 2025: Steven Ramirez , VP and CISTO of Renown Health , discusses how organizations are grappling with increasingly sophisticated threats. What makes the 60-minute breach window so critical in today's threat landscape, and how are healthcare organizations reshaping their approach to identity security? As Ramirez shares insights from his journey at Renown, we explore the delicate balanc...

February 21, 2025: This is the fourth episode in the Zero Trust Hospital Series . Tamer Baker , Healthcare CTO for Zscaler , dives into the myths surrounding zero trust implementation in healthcare settings. As healthcare systems grapple with digital transformation, what really stands between organizations and successful zero trust adoption? Through their discussion of real-world examples and stra...

February 20, 2025: Dr. Alistair Erskine , Enterprise CIO and CDO of Emory Healthcare , explores the unique fusion of university and healthcare IT at Emory, challenging conventional wisdom about institutional separations. As we delve into innovative approaches to leadership, including streaming rounds and trickle feedback systems, how might these methods reshape organizational culture in healthcare...

February 19, 2025: Karla Arzola interviews Julia Zhou , Healthcare Technologist and Mountaineer, who shares her extraordinary journey to the summit of Mount Everest, detailing the physical and mental battles that tested her limits. From the grueling months of training in her garage through COVID to the life-threatening moments at 8,000 meters, Julia and Karla reflect on how challenges can bring ab...

February 18, 2025: Shiv Rao , CEO and co-founder of Abridge , delves into their revolutionary ambient listening technology. Through the lens of 100+ enterprise deployments, Rao explores the delicate balance between technological advancement and clinical practicality. As the discussion unfolds, we discover how contextual reasoning is reshaping documentation and bringing joy back to clinicians. Key...

February 17, 2025: Andrew Kerr , CEO and Managing Partner of FortyAU and author of The Humility Imperative, draws from his transition from HCA to leading a Nashville-based software and AI consulting firm to explore essential questions about modern leadership. How does a leader maintain authenticity while driving innovation in today's rapidly evolving tech landscape? Through discussions of AI imple...

February 14, 2025: This is the third episode of the Zero Trust Hospital Series . Tamer Baker , Healthcare CTO for Zscaler , dissects the anatomy of a breach—how attackers identify vulnerabilities, move laterally through systems, and execute double-extortion ransomware. How does Zero Trust disrupt each stage of an attack, preventing even compromised credentials from being useful? And can collective...

February 13, 2025: Sue Schade , Principal at StarBridge Advisors , interviews Albert Oriol , CIO of Rady Children's Hospital , to discuss how genomics and technology partnerships are transforming pediatric care. How can precision medicine and newborn screening change the trajectory of a child’s life? What role does IT play in addressing workforce burnout and cybersecurity risks? And how do visiona...

February 12, 2025: James Wellman , VP and CIO of Nathan Littauer Hospital & Nursing Home , and Vik Patel , COO of Tido , as they explore advancing data integration, operational efficiency, and patient care. Learn what happens when a healthcare IT partnership transcends traditional vendor relationships to become a true team extension, and discover how trust-based partnerships drive success in h...