Podcasts about health it

For the 194th episode of the Healthcare IT Today Podcast, we are back with another episode of everyone’s favorite game – buy or sell! In case you’ve forgotten or this is your first buy or sell episode, we set out a list of hot topics and trends in healthcare to discuss whether we believe the topic or trend is true/is going to happen (aka, we ‘buy’ it), or if we think it is not true/will not happen (aka, we ‘sell’ it). For this episode, we are doing a special conference edition, focusing on the trends we’ve heard from all of the different conferences we’ve both attended recently! Here's a preview of the topics and trends we discuss in this episode: Health IT budgets are shrinking. Vendor consolidation is still a high priority for CIOs. Value-based care is the key to rural health’s success and survival. Healthcare AI will not replace people. Now, without further ado, we’re excited to share with you the next episode of the Healthcare IT Today podcast. We publish a new Healthcare IT Today podcast every ~2 weeks. Thanks to our friends at Healthcare Now Radio, you’ll be able to listen to the latest episodes of Healthcare IT Today on their radio station for the first two weeks. Then, we’ll be publishing each episode as a podcast and YouTube video here after it finishes on the radio. You can also subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today podcast on any of the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Stitcher Podcast Radio TuneIn Spotify iHeartRadio Pandora Thanks for listening to Healthcare IT Today and if you enjoy the content we’re sharing, please rate the podcast on your favorite podcasting platform. Along with the popular podcasting platforms above, you can Subscribe to Healthcare IT Today on YouTube. Plus, all of the audio and video versions will be made available to stream on HealthcareITToday.com. If you work in Healthcare IT, we’d love to hear where you agree and/or disagree with the perspectives we shared. Feel free to share your thoughts and perspectives in the comments of this post, in the YouTube comments, with @Colin_Hung or @techguy on Twitter, or privately on our Contact Us page. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if you have any ideas for future episodes. Thanks so much for listening! Listen to Our Latest Episodes:

For the 193rd episode of the Healthcare IT Today Podcast, we are talking about trends in healthcare marketing and patient experience! We kick this episode off by discussing how we think the healthcare website is changing this year. Then, we debate where we think AI is affecting how patients seek and receive care. Next, we share the marketing message that surprised us at the Swaay.Health LIVE conference. Lastly, we conclude this episode by talking about our key takeaways from Swaay.Health LIVE that we think health IT leaders need to know. Here's a preview of the topics and questions we discuss in this episode: How is the healthcare website changing in 2026? Where is AI changing how patients seek and get care? What marketing message surprised you at the Swaay.Health LIVE conference? What are the key takeaways from Swaay.Health LIVE that Health IT leaders need to know? Now, without further ado, we’re excited to share with you the next episode of the Healthcare IT Today podcast. We publish a new Healthcare IT Today podcast every ~2 weeks. Thanks to our friends at Healthcare Now Radio, you’ll be able to listen to the latest episodes of Healthcare IT Today on their radio station for the first two weeks. Then, we’ll be publishing each episode as a podcast and YouTube video here after it finishes on the radio. You can also subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today podcast on any of the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Stitcher Podcast Radio TuneIn Spotify iHeartRadio Pandora Thanks for listening to Healthcare IT Today and if you enjoy the content we’re sharing, please rate the podcast on your favorite podcasting platform. Along with the popular podcasting platforms above, you can Subscribe to Healthcare IT Today on YouTube. Plus, all of the audio and video versions will be made available to stream on HealthcareITToday.com. If you work in Healthcare IT, we’d love to hear where you agree and/or disagree with the perspectives we shared. Feel free to share your thoughts and perspectives in the comments of this post, in the YouTube comments, with @Colin_Hung or @techguy on Twitter, or privately on our Contact Us page. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if you have any ideas for future episodes. Thanks so much for listening! Listen to Our Latest Episodes:

Tim Elliott is the CEO of Navvis, a value-based enablement company that works with health systems, health plans, physician groups, and employers to drive performance under value-based agreements. Navvis takes a cross-continuum view of care — supporting patients before, during, and after the physician visit — and operates across the full spectrum of payment models, from full-risk MA and MSSP ACOs to bundled payments, TEAMS, and CJR. Tim's core conviction is that physicians are the linchpin of any sustainable change in value-based care, and that the "last mile" of transformation is change management — not technology. Navvis doesn't show up with a blank piece of paper or a mandatory platform; they bring a point of view on what world-class looks like and engage physicians in the refinement and rollout.We discuss:What AI consistently misses in value-based care — and why "human in the loop" needs to be on steroids in healthcare, not just a check on the modelHow to recognize when a health system is rolling tools out faster than clinicians can absorb them — and why bottom-up physician demand is reshaping the AI rollout playbookThe real difference between a care model physicians co-designed and one that was handed to them — and how Navvis approaches refinement vs. a blank-paper exerciseWhat surprises health systems most when they move into real downside risk for the first time — the misalignment between contract incentives and operational behaviorWhy "two standards of care" is the wrong frame for value-based vs. fee-for-service patients — and what the EMR needs to recognize at the point of encounterThe alignment problem at the executive and physician level that quietly kills downside-risk contracts before the year is outThe lesson Tim hopes the industry finally learns 20 years from now — why the 3-5% of patients driving 60-80% of cost are the unfinished work of this eraWho Navvis is built for, and why their model is to optimize existing technology rather than force a 12-to-18-month rip-and-replace— Brought to you by: Sage Growth Partners — Value-focused strategy and marketing for growth-driven healthcare organizations. — Where to find Jared: • X: https://x.com/jaredstaylor • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredstaylor/

Clinicians do not have time to switch screens to search for medical evidence. Forcing them to open another application to find answers just adds to their cognitive load.Healthcare IT Today sat down with Derrick Leung from the BMJ Group. We discussed how his organization is rethinking the delivery of medical evidence. You will learn why they are moving their knowledge base directly into the clinical workflow via an API and using human curation to ground AI tools.

Behavioral health units require strict safety measures. That often means no bedside phones. Taking away the phone completely broke the standard meal ordering process at UCHealth.Healthcare IT Today sat down with Jenna Sampson, Nutrition Systems Coordinator at UCHealth. We discussed how her team turned this intentional constraint into a massive operational win. You will learn how they deployed an existing mobile app from Illumia to solve their challenge and along the way, how they addressed a free-text allergy risk in their Epic EHR along the way.

Healthcare organizations bleed money through disconnected food service systems. It takes more than a spreadsheet to fix a broken supply chain.Healthcare IT Today sits down with Arun Ahuja, SVP and GM for Healthcare, and Aric Alibrio, SVP of Sales and Client Success at Illumia. They discuss the hidden risks of fragmented nutrition technology. Viewers will learn how unifying these systems protects patient safety and uncovers massive cost savings.

Generative AI is powerful but its unpredictable nature can create compliance risks for health systems, especially for revenue cycle. You cannot afford to guess how an algorithm arrived at a billing code.Healthcare IT Today sat down with Chetan Parikh, Founder and CEO of RAAPID. We discuss how their neuro-symbolic AI moves risk adjustment away from opaque models to a fully transparent approach. Viewers will learn how to balance revenue capture with strict regulatory compliance while reducing the mental load on medical coders.

For the 192nd episode of the Healthcare IT Today Podcast, we are finishing our Mount Rushmore for Health IT! In case you missed it, we had so much to discuss that we started our Mount Rushmores in the previous episode. If you want to hear the full build, make sure to check out the previous episode as well. To complete our Mount Rushmores, we first talk about what Health IT Companies we think should be on it. Then we discuss who would be on our own personal Health IT Mount Rushmore. Do you think we missed out on putting someone on our lists? Is there anyone we added to our lists that you think we shouldn’t have? Here's a preview of the topics and questions we discuss in this episode: Who should be on the Mount Rushmore of Health IT Companies? Who would be on your own personal Health IT Mount Rushmore? Now, without further ado, we’re excited to share with you the next episode of the Healthcare IT Today podcast. We publish a new Healthcare IT Today podcast every ~2 weeks. Thanks to our friends at Healthcare Now Radio, you’ll be able to listen to the latest episodes of Healthcare IT Today on their radio station for the first two weeks. Then, we’ll be publishing each episode as a podcast and YouTube video here after it finishes on the radio. You can also subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today podcast on any of the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Stitcher Podcast Radio TuneIn Spotify iHeartRadio Pandora Thanks for listening to Healthcare IT Today and if you enjoy the content we’re sharing, please rate the podcast on your favorite podcasting platform. Along with the popular podcasting platforms above, you can Subscribe to Healthcare IT Today on YouTube. Plus, all of the audio and video versions will be made available to stream on HealthcareITToday.com. If you work in Healthcare IT, we’d love to hear where you agree and/or disagree with the perspectives we shared. Feel free to share your thoughts and perspectives in the comments of this post, in the YouTube comments, with @Colin_Hung or @techguy on Twitter, or privately on our Contact Us page. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if you have any ideas for future episodes. Thanks so much for listening! Listen to Our Latest Episodes:

Buying more software does not automatically equal higher productivity in radiology.Vijay Ramanathan, CEO at Ramsoft, and Charlie Lamb, CEO at Lamb Technologies, break down the realities of modern medical imaging. They explain why successful IT deployments require deep workflow integration instead of just dropping off a new product. Viewers will learn how to shift from reactive break-fix IT to continuous optimization that actually helps clinicians do more with less.In addition, hear how a long-term partnership between a service provider and solution vendor has evolved through years of collaboration in a changing healthcare environment – and how that parallel evolution has helped both organizations.

Physicians are drowning in pajama time and rework. If your current system feels like a digital weight around your neck, it is because it was built for a world that no longer exists.Healthcare IT Today sat down with Richard Atkin, CEO, and Dr. Michael Blackman, Chief Medical Officer at Greenway Health, at HIMSS26. We dig into their new AI platform, Novare. You will hear exactly why they stopped adding features onto old technology and how they use agentic AI to make clinical documentation a natural byproduct of the visit.

We spend all our time obsessing over the latest healthcare software and completely forget about the electricity needed to run it. Health systems are rapidly hitting a physical wall as new AI tools demand more power than existing buildings can handle.Healthcare IT Today sat down with Malcolm Murray from Schneider Electric to discuss this exact problem. He breaks down why hospitals must prioritize their electrical infrastructure before deploying low-latency edge AI or robotic surgery tools. You will learn why planning microgrids and smarter facilities right now prevents massive headaches at the 11th hour.

Navin Gupta is the CEO of Viventium, a verticalized HCM platform purpose-built for the post-acute care market — serving home health, skilled nursing, and hospice providers. He's spent over a decade at the intersection of senior care and technology, with deep experience across EHR, revenue cycle management, and engagement platforms for senior living. Adam Lewis is the founder of Apploi and now GM of Talent and Workforce Management at Viventium following the February acquisition. He's been building HR tech since 2007 and grew Apploi into a leading recruiting, credentialing, onboarding, and scheduling platform for healthcare. Together, the combined company now serves 13,000+ provider organizations and is on a mission to fix workforce instability in the most demographically urgent corner of healthcare.We discuss:Why post-acute care is the most mission-critical — and most underserved — tech opportunity in healthcareThe four-part workforce crisis every operator is fighting: supply, utilization, retention, and complianceWhat the Apploi + Viventium acquisition unlocks that a five-year partnership couldn'tWhy hiring friction is a direct hit to revenue — and why staffing now sits with CEOs and COOs, not just HRThe case for purpose-built vertical platforms over retrofitted horizontal HCMThe Perks4Care acquisition, and why you cannot hire your way out of a retention problemWhere AI creates real leverage in caregiver hiring — and how to deploy it without losing the human touchThree audit questions every post-acute provider should ask their current vendor today—Brought to you by:Sage Growth Partners — Value-focused strategy and marketing for growth-driven healthcare organizations.—Where to find Jared:• X: https://x.com/jaredstaylor• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredstaylor/

On this episode of The Dish on Health IT, Tony Schueth is joined by Dr. Thomas Keane, National Coordinator for Health IT at ONC, along with Alix Goss and Janice Reese. The conversation moves between policy, standards, and real-world implementation, with Tony often grounding the discussion in the practical friction points the industry continues to face. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

Data sharing in healthcare is deeply broken. Waiting years for federal rules to take effect only hurts patients and frustrates IT teams. We need a faster approach.Healthcare IT Today sat down with Amy Gleason, Administrator at the US Digital Service and Strategic Advisor to CMS and HHS. She breaks down the new CMS Health Tech Ecosystem pledge and explains how the industry is voluntarily coming together to solve interoperability right now. You will hear the inside details on the push for a National Provider Directory, strict identity verification, and the plan to finally kill the medical clipboard.Are we ready to ditch the clipboard in healthcare? Drop your thoughts below.

Healthcare doesn't suffer from a lack of data; it suffers from a lack of connection between it.In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, Philip Wickline, cofounder and CTO at Zus Health, talks about how fragmented patient data continues to limit care quality, increase costs, and create unnecessary risk across the healthcare system. He explains how deeply complex, specialized, and distributed healthcare data has become, making integration far more difficult than in other industries. Drawing from personal experience with his father's long health journey, he highlights the real human consequences when providers lack a complete picture of the patient. He also emphasizes that solving fragmentation is not just technical, it's foundational to improving outcomes.Wickline introduces the concept of a patient-centric “common patient record” that aggregates data across systems into a real-time, longitudinal view of each individual. He contrasts this with the traditional provider-centric model, where each organization operates in isolation with incomplete information. By connecting dozens of data networks and enabling shared access based on treatment relationships, this model creates the conditions for more proactive, coordinated care. Ultimately, it shifts healthcare from episodic encounters to continuous, data-informed decision-making.He also explores the role of AI and policy in accelerating this transformation, while acknowledging their limitations. AI can help normalize and extract insights from complex data, but only after that data is accessible and aggregated in the first place. Emerging frameworks like TEFCA signal progress toward broader interoperability and patient access, though adoption remains uneven and early. Wickline underscores that real change will require not just better technology, but alignment across systems, incentives, and culture.Tune in to hear how unlocking connected, patient-centered data could redefine how care is delivered, and why the future of healthcare depends on getting this right!ResourcesConnect with Philip Wickline on LinkedIn here.Follow Zus Health on LinkedIn here and visit their website here.

Security in healthcare feels like an unwinnable race right now. Threat actors move incredibly fast, leaving hospital networks highly exposed.Healthcare IT Today sat down with Patrick McGill, President and CEO of Community Health Network, and Jon Brown, CIO at TripleKey. They discussed why traditional patching cycles and static security audit reports no longer protect patient safety. They explain how switching to continuous, real-time monitoring helps health systems spot vulnerabilities and fix them the same day.Are you still relying on annual security audits to protect your network? Share your thoughts in the comments.

[SPONSORED] If your patient access team feels stretched thin, you're not imagining it. Most organizations are carrying more demand than their current workflows can handle.In this interview, Jenna Hagan, Vice President of Product Marketing at NextGen Healthcare (NextGen), breaks down what happens when AI starts handling the routine work that slows practices down. She shares how one organization saved more than 700 staff hours in six months, why patients often don't realize they're talking to AI, and how smarter data signals can flag burnout risk and reduce no-shows. It's a clear look at what practices are gaining from the Closed Loop solution right now.

In this episode of The Dish on Health IT, Tony Schueth is joined by Dr. Thomas Keane, National Coordinator for Health IT at ONC, along with Alix Goss and Janice Reese. The conversation moves between policy, standards, and real-world implementation, with Tony often grounding the discussion in the practical friction points the industry continues to face. Tony opens by noting that “ONC is ONC again,” setting a lighter tone while also framing the broader conversation around where federal health IT policy is headed. He highlights Dr. Keane's unusual background spanning engineering, clinical practice, and federal leadership, asking how that path shaped his perspective on impact. Dr. Keane explains that his transition into policy was driven by exposure and opportunity, but importantly, he continues to practice medicine. Tony picks up on that point, noting how rare it is for a National Coordinator to still be actively practicing, reinforcing the value of having a policy leader grounded in real-world care delivery. Interoperability at the “Speed of Trust” Tony then shifts the conversation to one of his core themes: interoperability as infrastructure. He references Dr. Keane's framing of interoperability needing to operate at the “speed of trust,” and pushes on the tension between that vision and the reality of legacy systems still dominating the market. Dr. Keane responds by walking through ONC's dual-track approach. On one hand, rulemaking like HTI-5 is pushing toward a FHIR-based, API-driven future. On the other, ONC recognizes that legacy standards are deeply embedded and must continue to be supported. He also points to the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem initiative as a powerful example of how government can accelerate progress by convening stakeholders rather than relying solely on regulation. Tony brings Janice Reese into the discussion to ground this vision in implementation reality. Janice emphasizes that the biggest barriers are not the APIs themselves, but the underlying trust infrastructure. She outlines identity, security, consent, and directory services as the key gaps preventing interoperability from scaling nationally. Imaging as a Case Study in Misaligned Incentives Tony pivots to diagnostic imaging, framing it as a clear example where standards exist but adoption lags. He references the continued reliance on physical media like CDs and asks whether the issue is less about technology and more about incentives and certification. Dr. Keane agrees and shares a detailed example from his time as a radiologist, describing how consolidating imaging workflows improved efficiency and reduced turnaround times. He uses this to illustrate the broader point: the technology exists, but economic and operational incentives often work against seamless data exchange. He also notes that ONC's recent RFI is intended to better understand these barriers and inform future rulemaking. Tony keeps the tone light with a quick aside about McDonald's and queue efficiency, but uses it to reinforce a serious point. Even when better systems exist, organizations sometimes stick with less efficient models because they are familiar or expected. Prior Authorization: Progress, but Still Fragmented Tony then moves into prior authorization, referencing CMS-0057 and Da Vinci use cases as signs of progress, particularly on the medical side. He contrasts that with the ongoing fragmentation in pharmacy prior authorization and asks how ONC is thinking about bridging that gap. Dr. Keane emphasizes that standards alone are not enough. Real progress depends on making those standards usable in practice. He points to ongoing work with EHR vendors, PBMs, and intermediaries to ensure that real-time prescription benefit tools deliver complete and accurate information that clinicians can trust. Tony and Alix build on this by connecting real-time benefit checks to broader price transparency efforts, suggesting that combining these capabilities could fundamentally change how patients and providers make decisions together at the point of care.  Price Transparency: Still Not Patient-Friendly Tony directly challenges the current state of price transparency, asking how the industry moves beyond “check-the-box” compliance to delivering something that is actually usable for patients. Dr. Keane acknowledges that while progress has been made, much of the data remains too complex and not sufficiently tailored to individual patients. He notes that CMS continues to iterate on requirements, but that making cost information actionable at the point of care remains an ongoing challenge. AI: From Hype to Real Utility Tony transitions to AI with a callback to a joke Dr. Keane made about AI either transforming healthcare or reducing it to three bullet points. He uses that setup to ask whether AI can realistically make complex healthcare data usable for patients and clinicians. Dr. Keane answers with a firm yes, pointing to existing use cases in radiology and clinical workflows where AI is already improving accuracy and efficiency. He shares examples of AI identifying stroke patterns, highlighting abnormalities in imaging, and even summarizing clinical reports. Tony then brings the conversation back to risk, asking about overreliance on AI and how policy should address bias and accountability. Dr. Keane is clear that responsibility still sits with the clinician, noting that physicians are trained to recognize bias and must independently validate AI-driven insights. Janice and Alix add that AI's success ultimately depends on the quality and standardization of the underlying data. Without consistent, trusted data, AI will simply amplify existing gaps. Information Blocking and Enforcement Tony closes the main discussion by turning to information blocking, asking what message ONC has for organizations that continue to restrict data access under the guise of technical or legal constraints. Dr. Keane outlines a range of enforcement mechanisms, from corrective action plans to potential financial penalties. He emphasizes that while ONC prefers to work with organizations to resolve issues, the expectation is clear: data must flow. Final Call to Action: Data Liquidity As always, Tony ends with a call-to-action question. If there were one thing the industry could do starting tomorrow, what would it be? Dr. Keane's answer is direct: make data liquid. He ties this back to reducing administrative burden, improving price transparency, and enabling better patient decision-making. The goal is a system where data flows seamlessly, at the direction of the patient, to support care and operations. Janice and Alix close by reinforcing that the industry does not lack standards or policy direction. The real challenge is aligning stakeholders and scaling adoption.  

For the 191st episode of the Healthcare IT Today Podcast, we are building our own Mount Rushmore for Health IT! We have so much to discuss that this topic will actually be split up into two episodes. So for part 1, we first talk about who we think should be on the Mount Rushmore of Health IT Technologies. Then we discuss all of the Health IT People we would put on our Mount Rushmores.  Who would you add to our list and who would you remove from our lists? Here's a preview of the topics and questions we discuss in this episode: Who should be on the Mount Rushmore of Health IT Technologies? Who should be on the Mount Rushmore of Health IT People? Now, without further ado, we’re excited to share with you the next episode of the Healthcare IT Today podcast. We publish a new Healthcare IT Today podcast every ~2 weeks. Thanks to our friends at Healthcare Now Radio, you’ll be able to listen to the latest episodes of Healthcare IT Today on their radio station for the first two weeks. Then, we’ll be publishing each episode as a podcast and YouTube video here after it finishes on the radio. You can also subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today podcast on any of the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Stitcher Podcast Radio TuneIn Spotify iHeartRadio Pandora Thanks for listening to Healthcare IT Today and if you enjoy the content we’re sharing, please rate the podcast on your favorite podcasting platform. Along with the popular podcasting platforms above, you can Subscribe to Healthcare IT Today on YouTube. Plus, all of the audio and video versions will be made available to stream on HealthcareITToday.com. If you work in Healthcare IT, we’d love to hear where you agree and/or disagree with the perspectives we shared. Feel free to share your thoughts and perspectives in the comments of this post, in the YouTube comments, with @Colin_Hung or @techguy on Twitter, or privately on our Contact Us page. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if you have any ideas for future episodes. Thanks so much for listening! Listen to Our Latest Episodes:

The healthcare industry loses billions to fraud every year and struggles with dangerous patient matching errors. We often treat these as back-office problems to fix later. They are actually severe clinical risks that need immediate attention.Jay Meier, Chief Identity Technology Strategist at FaceTec, joins Healthcare IT Today to discuss the realities of healthcare fraud and duplicate records. He breaks down how relying on basic passwords leaves health systems vulnerable and explains how verifiable human liveness completely changes the equation. You will learn why keeping biometric data out of centralized databases protects patients and how dual verification (different than two-factor authentication) at the point of care can stop phantom claims permanently.

In this episode, host Sandy Vance welcomes back Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser, Chief Strategy Officer at DirectTrust, for her third time on the show. This time the conversation goes deeper than ever, covering three major developments: DirectTrust's role in vetting apps for the new CMS Medicare App Library, the launch of a groundbreaking AI accreditation program built on the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and the urgent but widely misunderstood gap in HIPAA coverage that leaves millions of consumers thinking their health data is protected when it really isn't. If you work anywhere in the health tech ecosystem, this episode is essential listening. In this episode, they talk about: HIPAA only covers covered entities and business associates, meaning most consumer health apps have little obligation to protect your data The CMS Medicare App Library is a vetted directory of trusted digital health apps, and DirectTrust is helping validate which apps earn a spot in it When CMS moves, the rest of the industry follows, making this app library a trust signal far beyond Medicare beneficiaries DirectTrust's AI accreditation program is built on the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and assessed by independent third-party reviewers The program will offer two tiers: a foundational version for organizations early in their AI journey and a comprehensive version for those with greater maturity The four pillars of the AI accreditation program are governance, management, mapping, and measurement AI is unlike any other technology implementation because it touches every aspect of an organization simultaneously DirectTrust's annual conference is October 20th and 21st in Kansas City at the Oracle Innovations Campus A Little About Kathryn: Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser, MBA, FACHDM, CHPC, is Chief Strategy Officer at DirectTrust®, the national non-profit alliance and accreditor building trust in healthcare technology and secure information exchange. With nearly two decades of advancing interoperability, identity, privacy, and technical trust, she leads community engagement, communications, and strategic partnerships, shaping national standards and policy. Kathryn is a recognized thought leader featured in outlets like Healthcare IT Today and Health IT Answers, and under her leadership, DirectTrust has earned multiple HITMC awards, including Marketing Team of the Year in 2025. She has been named among the Top 50 Women Chief Strategy Officers and Becker's 100 Women in Health IT to Know.

Feed bad data into an artificial intelligence model and it will confidently lie to you. AI is a pattern matcher with zero intuition. It will simply scale your existing data mistakes at a terrifying speed. Proper data governance is the only way to prevent this.Healthcare IT Today sat down with James Kirtley, Senior Software Engineer, and Julie Lamoureux, Senior Healthcare Consultant, from Dimensional Insight. They break down the messy realities of hospital consolidation and the hidden friction of dirty data . You will learn how establishing clear data rules ends executive arguments over conflicting spreadsheets . This approach builds internal trust and acts as a fast track to better leadership decisions .

The LSE Middle East Centre hosted a Kuwait Programme workshop, presenting research on the influence of social media on food-consumption behaviours in Kuwait. Kuwait is experiencing public health challenges driven by rising rates of non-communicable nutrition-related diseases such as diabetes and obesity. According to the World Bank, the prevalence of diabetes in Kuwait increased tenfold between 2000 and 2021, with approximately 25% of Kuwaiti adults now affected. Adding to this issue is the widespread social media culture in Kuwait surrounding food photography. There is a significant trend among individuals, as well as social media influencers, to share food-related content on platforms. The extensive use of digital platforms, combined with Kuwait's unique social media culture, offer new and unique avenues for studying how online content and interactions might shape food-consumption behaviours. This research addresses the influence of social media on food-consumption behaviours in Kuwait. Meet our speakers Fabrício M. Fialho is Assistant Professor of Sociology at HSE University and Research Fellow at the LSE International Inequalities Institute. His current work has focused on public opinion research and quantitative research methods. Abrar Al Hasan is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management at the College of Business Administration, Kuwait University. Her research interests include Social Media and Social Networks, Health IT, Online Markets, Digital Innovations, Crowdsourcing, and the Economics of Information Systems. Meet our chair Dr Aygen Kurt-Dickson is Senior Innovation Development Manager in the LSE Innovation & Impact team focuses on enhancing LSE's I&I ecosystem through improved connections between LSE research and innovation and by building internal and external relationships to facilitate innovation.

What if the biggest risk to patient care isn't clinical, but simply the inability to reach someone?In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, Damon Covey, General Manager of Unified Communications & Collaboration at GoTo, discusses how fragmented communication systems are failing small- and mid-sized healthcare practices and impacting real patient outcomes. He explains that most practices rely on 5–7 disconnected tools, which create inefficiencies and missed interactions. He highlights how these gaps lead to staff burnout and poor patient experiences. He emphasizes that this is not just an operational issue, but a clinical and safety concern.He also explores the value of unified communications as a solution to this growing problem. By bringing calls, texts, scheduling, and data into one platform, practices gain visibility and control over patient interactions. This reduces context switching and administrative burden for staff. It also enables faster, more consistent responses for patients.Finally, he discusses the role of AI in transforming healthcare communication workflows. He shares how AI can automate routine tasks like scheduling and call routing while analyzing sentiment in real time. He stresses that AI works best when embedded into existing workflows rather than as a separate tool. He also warns against adopting too many point solutions, predicting consolidation into trusted platforms.Tune in to learn how simplifying communication, not adding more tools, can transform patient care and practice performance!ResourcesConnect with Damon Covey on LinkedIn here.Follow GoTo on LinkedIn here and visit their website here.

Healthcare leaders are facing a growing crisis of burnout, with many mission-driven professionals feeling exhausted, disconnected, or even emotionally checked out while still in their roles.In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, Bemene Piaro, MPH, ICF-credentialed transformational life coach and founder of The Wholeness Center, highlights that common solutions like wellness apps or resilience training fail to address the deeper issue. At its core, the problem is not just a lack of resources, but a loss of space to slow down and think clearly. This episode reframes the discussion, emphasizing the importance of staying grounded and mentally clear as essential to both personal well-being and the future of healthcare.Bemene Piaro shares that her work is rooted in a lifelong commitment to service shaped by her experiences with displacement, inequity, and community support. Through a diverse career in public health, education, and nonprofit leadership, she consistently focused on helping others thrive. Her introduction to coaching during a personal period of transition and loss allowed her to reconnect with her own voice, purpose, and sense of control. That experience now fuels her mission to help others move from overwhelm and survival mode into clarity, authenticity, and intentional action.The discussion explains that burnout often stems from losing sight of personal values and operating on autopilot in high-pressure environments. Coaching helps individuals reconnect with what truly matters by examining their beliefs, reframing perspectives, and making value-based decisions. Practical tools such as gratitude practices, mindfulness, body awareness, and reflective journaling can create small yet meaningful shifts in mindset and energy. Ultimately, both individuals and organizations must prioritize intentional pauses, supportive spaces, and deeper reflection to foster resilience, alignment, and sustainable well-being.Tune in for a conversation full of practical tools and a powerful reminder: sustainable well-being starts with slowing down and listening to yourself! ResourcesConnect with Bemene Piaro on LinkedIn here.Follow the Wholeness Center on LinkedIn here and visit their website here.

Join us on the latest episode, hosted by Jared S. Taylor!Our Guest: Carrie Hodge, Co-Founder and CEO at Dimer Health.What you'll get out of this episode:Carrie Hodge's experience as both clinician and cancer patient exposed critical gaps in post-discharge care.Dimer Health validated its model through real patient care before scaling technology.The company is introducing a new care model centered on “transitionists” to support recovery at home.AI and clinicians work together to provide continuous, responsive patient support.A $13.5M raise reflects strong product-market fit, patient outcomes, and growing demand.To learn more about:Website https://www.dimerhealth.com/ Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/dimer-health/Our sponsors for this episode are:Sage Growth Partners https://www.sage-growth.com/Quantum Health https://www.quantum-health.com/Show and Host's Socials:Slice of HealthcareLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sliceofhealthcare/Jared S TaylorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredstaylor/WHAT IS SLICE OF HEALTHCARE?The go-to site for digital health executive/provider interviews, technology updates, and industry news. Listed to in 65+ countries.

On this episode Carol Flagg recorded live at HIMSS 2026 in Las Vegas. Her guests are Amber Parmentier, HIMSS Enterprise Marketing Director and Shahid Shah, award-winning Government 2.0, Health IT, Medical Device Integration software expert. To stream our Station live 24/7 visit www.HealthcareNOWRadio.com or ask your Smart Device to “….Play Healthcare NOW Radio”. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

The Department of Health and Human Services is reshuffling its top officials for data, artificial intelligence, and technology back under its chief information officer, undoing a 2024 reorganization of those roles under the Biden administration. In a Tuesday announcement, HHS said the department's chief AI officer, chief technology officer, and chief data officer would move from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, known as ASTP/ONC, back to the Office of the Chief Information Officer. The department is also ending the dual title of ASTP/ONC and reverting it back to just ONC. According to the press release, the reversal is aimed at reinforcing “OCIO's statutory responsibility for enterprise IT, cybersecurity, and data operations.” The move, the department said, also enables ONC to focus on its mission of health IT policy standards and certification. HHS CIO and acting CAIO Clark Minor said in a statement included in the release that the move allows the department to “move faster on shared platforms, protect our systems more effectively, and support ONC and the operating divisions with the technology capabilities they need to innovate for patients.” The Biden-era reorganization was first announced in July 2024 and generally moved functions away from the OCIO, with a goal of clarifying and consolidating those responsibilities. The Federal Communications Commission has tapped the Food and Drug Administration's former chief digital officer as its new IT chief, the independent agency announced Monday. Farhan Khan, who left the FDA for a private-sector role in August 2025, takes over as the FCC's chief information officer following the retirement of Allen Hill last October. Deputy CIO Don Tweedie had been serving in the role in an acting capacity since then. At the FDA, Khan oversaw digital transformation projects for the agency, managing a $200 million budget and team of more than 400 staffers, according to the FCC's press release. Khan began his federal career as a team lead with the Department of Justice in 2009, per his LinkedIn profile. He later served as the Department of Transportation's director of infrastructure, the FDA's CTO, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s IT infrastructure operations chief, and the U.S. Army's director of architecture and integration for the senior executive service. As the FCC's CIO, Khan — who holds a master's degree from George Washington in information systems — will be charged with overseeing the agency's overarching technical priorities, leading modernization efforts and securing data. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

AI models look great in validation studies. They clear regulatory review. Then they land in your hospital with different scanners, different workflows, and different staffing realities. That is where performance starts to drift.In this conversation, Dr. Khan Siddiqui, Founder and CEO of HOPPR, discusses a simple question: Does your AI actually work here? We explore why frozen AI models struggle site to site, how image acquisition differences change AI performance, and why some of the most valuable AI use cases in radiology are operational and financial.At the center of that discussion is what he calls an AI Foundry. Instead of shipping another fixed model, the Foundry gives health systems and radiology teams the infrastructure to fine-tune models against their own data, protocols, and risk thresholds. It shortens the path from idea to deployment and allows organizations to build solutions for problems that may exist in only one department. In other words, AI designed for a market of one.

Join us on the latest episode, hosted by Jared S. Taylor!Our Guest: Matt Seefeld, Chief Executive Officer at MedEvolve.What you'll get out of this episode:Matt Seefeld argues that healthcare's biggest revenue cycle problem is not just strategy, but the lack of visibility into human touches and workflow breakdowns.He says the industry is relying on outdated lagging metrics instead of leading indicators that show where margin is leaking in real time.Seefeld challenges the promise of AI in healthcare, saying automation without financial outcome tracking is incomplete.He identifies wasted touches, front-end errors, and overstaffing as major sources of preventable revenue loss.He believes better revenue cycle performance ultimately improves the patient experience by reducing billing confusion and friction.To learn more about:Website https://medevolve.com/ Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/medevolve/Our sponsors for this episode are:Sage Growth Partners https://www.sage-growth.com/Quantum Health https://www.quantum-health.com/Show and Host's Socials:Slice of HealthcareLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sliceofhealthcare/Jared S TaylorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredstaylor/WHAT IS SLICE OF HEALTHCARE?The go-to site for digital health executive/provider interviews, technology updates, and industry news. Listed to in 65+ countries.

Interoperability looks solved on paper. In practice, clinicians are still switching systems, managing workarounds, and waiting on data that should already be there.In this conversation, Robert Fox, CEO of OntarioMD, breaks down why health IT progress depends less on new tools and more on coordination across systems, vendors, and care teams. He explains what convergence actually looks like in healthcare, why team-based care exposes the limits of point integrations, and where AI delivers real operational value beyond documentation.

If your clinicians are still charting after dinner, you are not imagining the burnout curve. Many teams have hit the wall and are looking for relief that didn't require hiring staff they could not find.In this conversation, Dr. Derrick Hamilton of Juniper Health and Kathy Halcomb of White House Clinics share how NextGen Healthcare's Ambient Assist changed daily life for their clinicians. Along with Dr. Robert (Bob) Murry, Chief Medical Officer at NextGen Healthcare, they talk openly about pajama time, rising chart backlogs, unexpected early adopters, and the speed at which ambient documentation shifted patient, staff, and family experience. This conversation shows the surprising speed at which AI scribes can have an impact on a physician practice.What surprised you most about the results of implementing AI scribes at your organization? Share your experience below.

[SPONSORED] What happens to radiology workflows when the cloud is unavailable, connectivity drops, or systems are under strain? For many health systems, these scenarios are no longer hypothetical.In this interview, Karim Karti, CEO of RapidAI, explains how radiology AI platforms need to be built for real-world conditions. The conversation spans resilient cloud architecture that can shift on-prem when needed, why continuity matters in acute care like stroke, and how AI's long-term value in radiology is moving toward prediction rather than just faster reads.How are you thinking about resilience and continuity in your imaging and AI strategy? Share what you're seeing in your organization.

Join us on the latest episode, hosted by Jared S. Taylor!Our Guest:  Karthik Ganesh, Chief Executive Officer at OnMed.What you'll get out of this episode:Karthik Ganesh describes healthcare as both his profession and his vehicle for making the world better.His 26-year career spans health plans, PBMs, value-based care, consulting, and tech-enabled care delivery.At OnMed, he focused on amplifying product strengths while neutralizing blind spots rather than reinventing what already worked.He believes AI should empower clinicians and improve workflows, while the human element remains the last mile in care.OnMed's work in underserved communities is showing strong adoption, with many patients identifying the care station as their medical home.To learn more about:Website https://www.onmed.com/ Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/onmedcarestation/Our sponsors for this episode are:Sage Growth Partners https://www.sage-growth.com/Quantum Health https://www.quantum-health.com/Show and Host's Socials:Slice of HealthcareLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sliceofhealthcare/Jared S TaylorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredstaylor/WHAT IS SLICE OF HEALTHCARE?The go-to site for digital health executive/provider interviews, technology updates, and industry news. Listed to in 65+ countries.

[SPONSORED] Healthcare organizations invest heavily in analytics, yet improvement often stalls. Reports arrive late. Dashboards feel disconnected from real clinical work. In this conversation, we unpack why timing, trust, and ownership matter more than another metric.At IHI Forum 2025, Holly Rimmasch, Chief Clinical Officer and SVP of Improvement Services at Health Catalyst, and Kathleen Merkley, SVP of Clinical Improvement, spoked candidly about what actually drives measurable improvement in healthcare. They explore how near-real-time data, AI-guided prioritization, and frontline clinician ownership are changing how health systems approach sepsis, heart failure, cost management, and sustained improvement.

[SPONSORED] IT teams hear the same question every budget cycle: does interoperability actually pay off? It turns out the ROI shows up in places most organizations never track.In this interview, Muhammad Chebli, Vice President of Product at NextGen Healthcare, breaks down where interoperability creates measurable value across scheduling, referrals, inbox load and patient engagement. He also shares why Info Blocking enforcement is not about technology gaps but policy missteps and what NextGen's Kno2 partnership means for QHIN connectivity. Plus you'll hear why Chebli believes APIs are the future front-door to EHRs.

Staffing shortages. Growing waitlists. Fixed capacity. Radiology leaders are running out of room to experiment, and AI is moving from “nice to have” to operational necessity.In this interview, Roland Rott, CEO and President of Imaging at GE Healthcare, explains why health systems are rethinking how AI fits into daily radiology operations. The focus is not on future promises, but on how AI is already being used to save time, reduce friction, and turn long-unused data into practical workflow improvements. The discussion spans staffing constraints, trust in AI, and why operational impact is now driving adoption.

Healthcare organizations keep adding new tools, yet frontline frustration continues to grow. More dashboards. More data. Slower decisions. This conversation digs into why focusing on integrating existing technologies together can make a bigger difference for clinicians and patients.In this interview, Josh Clark, Vice President of Quality & Safety Operating Systems at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), shares what he's seeing across health systems globally. He explains why integration, not acquisition, has become the real bottleneck in healthcare IT, how delayed data undermines frontline decision-making, and where process-level insights can improve care in real time.Josh also discusses why IHI often advises organizations to pause new technology adoption, how CIOs can gain space to focus on integration, and where AI has the most practical potential to improve quality and safety without adding more burden.

Imaging demand keeps rising, but building new capacity is slow, expensive, and disruptive. What if mobile imaging could feel less like a workaround and more like an extension of the hospital?In this interview from RSNA25, Henry Howe, CEO of Akumin, and Greg Sitkiewicz, Chief Commercial Officer, explain why the company introduced a mobile drop trailer that lowers directly to ground level. They discuss how small design decisions change patient access, staff workflow, setup time, and imaging throughput, especially for health systems dealing with backlogs or rural coverage gaps.You'll hear how the drop trailer removes stairs and lifts, deploys in minutes, integrates with hospital IT systems, and supports higher patient volumes.

[SPONSORED] Health IT roadmaps used to span years. Now they are collapsing into months. The question many leaders are asking is whether vendors can actually keep up.In this interview, David Cohen, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Greenway Health, explains why the pace of change in healthcare has outgrown traditional multi-year planning cycles. He shares how Greenway is shifting to shorter delivery timelines to stay aligned with what ambulatory practices need right now, using provider–payer data exchange as a clear example of where faster execution matters.The conversation also touches on why manual workflows are becoming harder to justify, how expectations around delivery speed have changed, and what healthcare IT leaders should listen for when vendors talk about their roadmaps.How have shorter timelines changed what you expect from your technology partners?Where do you feel the most pressure to move faster?

Electronic Medical Records have transformed the way we practice health care, making patient data readily accessible to health care providers, facilitating collaboration within and across large medical teams, increasing transparency, and drastically improving the legibility of patient charts and prescriptions. But despite these benefits, many physicians cite the electronic medical record as a primary driver of burnout, pointing to the overwhelming volume of documentation it requires. In this episode, we explore how the launch of EMRs within the context of America's predominantly fee-for-service health care system led to the technology falling short of its promise — and how transitioning to value-based care models might redeem the technology, revitalize physicians, and recenter public health. Our guest on this episode is Farzad Mostashari, MD. After completing a degree in public health at Harvard, medical school at Yale, and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Mostashari spent over a decade working in public health: first for the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service and then for the New York City Department of Health. From 2009 to 2011, he served as the National Coordinator for Health IT at the Department of Health and Human Services where he helped oversee the nationwide transition from paper to electronic medical records. In 2014, he founded Aledade, a company that helps primary care physicians form value-based care networks in the US.  Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Mostashari shares how his childhood in Iran pushed him towards public health, how his experience watching his father being cared for in the hospital drove him towards medicine, and how he has spent his career in the liminal space between public health and medicine. We discuss the rollout of EMRs, and how fee-for-service payment models led to EMRs being optimized for documentation rather than patient care. We explore how value-based care not only solves the problem of over-documentation, but also better aligns the goals of patients, physicians, and even insurance companies. Dr. Mostashari maps out the progress we have made toward this kind of model and the hurdles we have to clear before we have a system that incentivizes preventing stroke as much as treating stroke. In this episode, you'll hear about: 3:35 - How Dr. Mostashari became drawn to the intersection between the intimate work of doctoring and the wide lens work of public health. 12:12 - Dr. Mostashari's experiences modernizing health IT systems and learning to optimize for the number of lives saved rather than the number of technological solutions implemented.16:05 - Dr. Mostashari's assessment of the rollout of the electronic medical record in the US.25:09 - How Aledade frees primary care physicians to prioritize patient outcomes and reduces the burden of EMR documentation.38:57 - What the US can learn from international health care systems. 41:00 - Challenges in transitioning to outcome-based models of primary care.50:30 - How Dr. Mostashari's medical training has shaped his career in public health. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.Copyright The Doctor's Art Podcast 2026

AI could become the greatest equalizer in healthcare if we use it the right way.In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, Dr. Harvey Castro, a physician, entrepreneur, and CEO of 8 free-standing ERs, a medical billing and physician staffing company, and a strategic advisor to ChatGPT and healthcare, discusses how artificial intelligence is poised to transform global healthcare access and delivery. He shares how discovering ChatGPT in 2022 immediately convinced him that AI would reshape medicine. Drawing from his experience building more than 20 emergency rooms and launching multiple healthcare companies, he explains why bold innovation and acting on new ideas are critical. He also reflects on how entrepreneurs and clinicians must trust their instincts when they see transformative technology.Dr. Castro also explores how AI, satellites, and wearable devices could dramatically expand access to healthcare worldwide. He explains how predictive analytics, combined with satellite connectivity, could remotely monitor patients and alert clinicians before life-threatening events occur. This infrastructure could help overcome the reality that geography often determines survival in medical emergencies. By enabling global connectivity, he believes AI-powered systems could bring care to underserved populations that currently lack reliable access to healthcare.The conversation also tackles the challenges of adopting AI responsibly in healthcare. Dr. Castro discusses the cultural resistance within medicine and the need to train future clinicians to work alongside AI. He highlights the dangers of biased datasets and why AI systems must represent diverse populations to avoid reinforcing disparities. Ultimately, he argues that leaders, policymakers, and clinicians must work together to ensure AI improves equity rather than widening the healthcare gap.Tune in to hear how AI, space technology, and bold thinking could reshape the future of global healthcare.ResourcesConnect with Dr. Harvey Castro on LinkedIn here and visit his website here!Check out Dr. Castro's TED Talks here!

Join us on the latest episode, hosted by Jared S. Taylor!Our Guest: Aaron Sheedy, COO at Xealth.What you'll get out of this episode:Building Xealth with health system partners: Early validation from Providence and other major systems helped shape a scalable integration platform for digital health tools.Improving patient readiness through digital engagement: Sending timely pre- and post-visit information dramatically improves patient preparation, including a 42% increase in MRI appointment readiness.Reducing friction in patient communication: Portal-adjacent access allows patients to view care instructions without logging into traditional patient portals, driving significantly higher engagement.Samsung's healthcare vision: With devices already in millions of homes, Samsung aims to use wearable data and home technology to connect patients to the right care at the right time.Digital health strategy beyond the EHR: Health systems relying solely on their EHR for digital health risk lacking a true digital strategy and differentiation.To learn more about:Website https://www.xealth.com/Linkedin http://www.xealth.comOur sponsors for this episode are:Sage Growth Partners https://www.sage-growth.com/Quantum Health https://www.quantum-health.com/Show and Host's Socials:Slice of HealthcareLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sliceofhealthcare/Jared S TaylorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredstaylor/WHAT IS SLICE OF HEALTHCARE?The go-to site for digital health executive/provider interviews, technology updates, and industry news. Listed to in 65+ countries.

Join us on the latest episode, hosted by Jared S. Taylor!Our Guest: Dan D'Orazio, CEO at Sage Growth Partners.What you'll get out of this episode:Access Program & Fee-for-Service Disruption: New regulatory and payment guidance signals a major shift away from fee-for-service toward market-driven healthcare reform.PBM Reform & Transparency: Accelerating policy changes aim to increase transparency and reshape pharmacy benefit management.AI: From Hype to Practicality: The industry is moving from AI excitement to enterprise-level use cases in clinical, revenue cycle, and administrative workflows.Interoperability & Data Liquidity: Data liquidity remains a central priority, with interoperability still an unresolved industry-wide challenge.The Fax Paradox: Despite AI momentum, fax remains deeply embedded in healthcare workflows—now increasingly moving to the cloud.To learn more about:Website http://www.sage-growth.comLinkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/sage-growth-partners/Our sponsors for this episode are:Sage Growth Partners https://www.sage-growth.com/Quantum Health https://www.quantum-health.com/Show and Host's Socials:Slice of HealthcareLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sliceofhealthcare/Jared S TaylorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredstaylor/WHAT IS SLICE OF HEALTHCARE?The go-to site for digital health executive/provider interviews, technology updates, and industry news. Listed to in 65+ countries.

In this episode of The Dish on Health IT, host Tony Schueth is joined by co-host Alix Goss and special guest Amy Gleason, Strategic Advisor to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Administrator of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Service, for a wide-ranging discussion on how health IT modernization is evolving under a pledge-driven, incentive-backed federal strategy.The conversation begins not with policy, but with lived experience.From Emergency Room to Interoperability AdvocateAmy shares how her early career as an emergency room nurse exposed the dangers of fragmented information. Providers were expected to make critical decisions without access to complete patient histories, while patients, often in pain or distress, were unrealistically asked to recall complex medical details.That professional frustration became deeply personal when her daughter went more than a year without diagnosis for a rare autoimmune disease, juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM). Multiple specialists saw pieces of the puzzle, but no one could see the full picture across charts and settings. Amy reflects that if today's AI tools had been applied to her daughter's complete longitudinal record, the condition may have surfaced sooner.That experience shaped her philosophy. Technology must converge with policy and trust in ways that tangibly improve care.Why Pledges Instead of Rules?Tony presses on a central theme. Amy has argued that we cannot regulate our way to success. Why pursue voluntary pledges instead of federal rulemaking?Amy explains her frustration returning to government in 2025 to find interoperability policies she helped draft in 2020 still not fully effective until 2027. Seven years is an eternity in technology. Meanwhile, the industry had technically complied with numerous mandates including Meaningful Use, Cures Act APIs and CMS interoperability rules, yet many workflows still felt broken.In her view, regulation created a floor but not always real transformation.The CMS Health Tech Ecosystem Pledge was launched as a different model. The federal government used its convening power to articulate a clear vision and challenge industry to deliver minimum viable products within six to twelve months rather than years.Initially announced with roughly 60 companies, the pledge initiative has grown to more than 600 participants collaborating in working groups. The three initial patient-focused use cases include:Improving data interoperability“Killing the clipboard” through digital identity and QR-based sharingLeveraging conversational AI and personalized recommendations for chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesityAmy describes live demonstrations at a Connectathon showing OAuth-enabled data retrieval, QR ingestion into EHR workflows and AI-powered recommendations built on patient data. The goal is not perfection by the first milestone, but real-world minimum viable functionality that can iteratively improve.Alix notes that from the standards community perspective, this approach feels aligned with long-standing calls for industry-driven collaboration, though it remains early to measure widespread impact.Carrots, Sticks and Rural HealthThe discussion turns to incentives.Amy outlines the administration's carrots and sticks strategy:Stick: Enforcement of information blocking, with penalties up to $2 million per occurrenceCarrots: Financial incentives such as the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program and the CMS ACCESS Model, which pays for technology-enabled outcomesThe Rural Health Transformation Program directs money to states with expectations that ecosystem-aligned interoperability and app participation be incorporated into funding proposals. CMS retains oversight and clawback authority to ensure funds support rural providers.The ACCESS Model represents a significant shift. Technology-enabled care platforms can register as Medicare Part B providers and be paid for measurable outcomes in tracks such as cardiometabolic disease, musculoskeletal conditions and behavioral health. Providers remain in the loop and receive compensation for referral and care plan oversight.Alix underscores that rural providers face steep financial and workforce constraints. Standards participation, implementation and technology upgrades require resources that are often scarce. The success of these incentives will depend on whether they reduce burden rather than add to it.AI: Evolution, Risk and RealityAI becomes a central thread of the episode.Amy compares AI adoption to autonomous vehicle models. Some scenarios allow tightly controlled automation, such as medication refills, while others require a human in the loop for higher-risk decisions. She points to a Utah prescription refill pilot as an example of bounded automation, where malpractice coverage and clearly defined use cases mitigate risk.When Tony asks who owns risk in this evolving landscape, Amy emphasizes the need for light but clear regulatory pathways rather than fragmented state-by-state oversight.Patients, she notes, are already there. Millions are asking health-related questions weekly through AI tools. The more pressing issue is ensuring those tools are grounded in structured medical data rather than incomplete memory or unverified inputs.She shares a striking story. Her daughter was excluded from a clinical trial due to a misclassification of ulcerative colitis. By uploading her records into an AI model, they identified a more precise diagnosis, microscopic lymphocytic colitis, which did not disqualify her from the trial. For Amy, this demonstrates both the power and inevitability of AI use.Alix adds caution. AI is only as strong as the data beneath it. Dirty, inconsistent and poorly structured data limits performance. Standards and terminologies remain essential to fuel high-fidelity models and safeguard trust.FHIR, Deregulation and the Data FoundationThe conversation addresses an emerging tension. If regulatory burdens are being reduced, does that signal less need for structured standards like FHIR?Amy candidly admits she initially wondered whether AI might reduce the need for FHIR altogether. After discussions with labs and technologists, she concluded the opposite. Standardized data dramatically improves AI performance and reduces error.Deregulation is about removing unnecessary burden, not abandoning foundational data structures.Alix reinforces that FHIR enables discrete, normalized data capture that supports both legacy transactions and AI evolution. While future innovations may emerge, today FHIR remains the backbone for scalable interoperability.Prior Authorization and HIPAA ModernizationThe episode dives into prior authorization modernization across medical and pharmacy domains.Amy notes growing interest among pledge participants to expand into pharmacy prior authorization testing, diagnostic imaging, real-time benefit checks and bulk FHIR performance testing.Alix provides insight into ongoing work within the Designated Standards Maintenance Organizations to incorporate FHIR-based approaches into HIPAA-named standards, particularly for prior authorization. She highlights testing beyond Connectathons, including implementer communities and real-world pilot efforts.Both stress the importance of public comment periods and industry engagement, describing participation as a civic responsibility for health IT professionals.Trust as the Core EnablerThe final segment centers on trust.Amy explains that the ecosystem initiative aims to reinforce trust through:Stronger digital identity verification such as Clear, ID.me and Login.govCertification frameworks such as CARIN and DIME for patient-facing appsA new national provider directory to replace fragmented provider data sourcesTransparency dashboards showing data requests, volumes and purposeRather than replacing frameworks like TEFCA, she describes the pledge model as an accelerator layered above the regulatory floor.Transparency acts as sunlight, enabling visibility into who is accessing data and for what purpose.Final TakeawaysIn closing, Amy urges providers not to sit on the sidelines. Too often, she says, providers feel change is imposed on them. The pledge environment is designed as an open forum where they can directly shape what works or does not work in real workflows.Alix echoes the call. Standards require participation. Organizations must allocate budget and staff to engage, comment and collaborate. It truly takes a village.Tony concludes by framing the episode's core message. Regulation establishes baseline expectations, but voluntary movements can demonstrate what is possible before mandates reach the Federal Register.Across pledges, payment reform, AI evolution and trust frameworks, the episode underscores a consistent theme. Modernization in health IT depends not only on policy direction, but on shared accountability and active participation from every stakeholder in the ecosystem.Listeners are reminded that POCP is available to support organizations in understanding the implications of federal initiatives, enforcement priorities and their strategic implications. Reach out to us to set up an initial consultation. The episode closes, as always, with the reminder that Health IT is a dish best served hot.Prefer video? Catch episodes on the POCP YouTube channel

AI in healthcare has moved past the hype, and leaders are now demanding real value, accountability, and global perspective.In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, Jeffery Heenan-Jalil, CEO of hunterAI, talks about the global evolution of AI analytics in healthcare and what it takes to move from experimentation to real impact. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience leading analytics and technology initiatives across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America, Jeffery explains why healthcare organizations are now at a maturity inflection point. He emphasizes the shift from AI hype and “AI-washing” to disciplined, ROI-driven adoption. The conversation highlights why responsible, scalable analytics will define the next phase of healthcare transformation.Jeffery shares his professional journey from leading billion-dollar global teams at companies like Wipro, Cognizant, Unisys, and EDS to becoming a healthcare AI entrepreneur. His experience working directly within healthcare delivery systems, including Southern Cross Healthcare in New Zealand, shaped his practical view of technology's role in real-world operations. Rather than focusing solely on innovation, he stresses the importance of execution, governance, and alignment with clinical and administrative realities. This background informs hunterAI's mission to deliver analytics that healthcare leaders can trust and operationalize.The discussion also explores how AI is gaining early traction in administrative areas such as prior authorization, claims processing, and clinical documentation, where friction reduction is delivering measurable wins. Jeffery and host Christopher Kunney discuss why these use cases are building confidence for broader clinical adoption. They examine the global differences in AI readiness and regulation, underscoring why lessons from international health systems matter. Ultimately, the episode reinforces that AI's future in healthcare depends on thoughtful deployment, transparency, and outcomes that genuinely improve performance and care.Tune in to hear how global experience, disciplined execution, and responsible analytics are shaping the next chapter of healthcare AI!ResourcesConnect with Jeffery Heenan-Jalil on LinkedIn here or reach out to him via email.Follow hunterAI on LinkedIn here and visit their website here.Check out his podcast as well as his company's podcast, The Health Intelligence Pitch

On this episode of The Dish on Health IT, host Tony Schueth, CEO of Point-of-Care Partners (POCP), is joined by colleagues Mary Griskewicz, Regulatory Resource Center Lead, and Janice Reese, Senior Consultant and Program Manager of FHIR at Scale Taskforce (FAST), for a wide-ranging discussion on two major proposed rules released in mid-December 2025: the HTI-5 proposed rule from the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy (ASTP) and CMS's latest proposal on healthcare price transparency. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

Dementia is both a growing national crisis and a profound health equity issue, with African Americans facing nearly double the risk of Alzheimer's disease compared to white Americans.In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, Chuck Brown, founder of Expose Dementia, shares how his personal journey caring for his aunt with dementia led him to confront his own lack of awareness and ultimately to found Expose Dementia, an organization that uses the arts, media, and storytelling to educate, reduce stigma, and spark dialogue, especially within the African American community. Through projects like the documentary Remember Me: Dementia in the African American Community, Expose Dementia addresses mistrust in healthcare, the need for inclusive research, and the power of representation.Chuck explains how Expose Dementia leverages creative expression, film, books, visual arts, and live experiences to humanize dementia, uplift caregivers' voices, and change the narrative around the disease, while also identifying structural gaps in care. While the organization centers African American experiences, Chuck emphasizes the importance of cross-community collaboration, exemplified by their annual conference, which brings diverse groups together through a shared commitment to brain health and the arts. He also explores the emerging role of technology and AI in education, advocacy, and awareness, and his belief in amplifying innovative tools as they arise.Cuck offers guidance for caregivers and individuals concerned about brain health, stressing honesty, early action, and self-care. He highlights the “six pillars of brain health”: mental stimulation, exercise, diet, sleep, stress reduction, and social connection, and underscores that prioritizing quality of life and personal well-being is essential for sustaining both caregivers and communities.Tune in for a powerful conversation with Chuck Brown on how storytelling, art, and community can change the way we understand dementia and care for one another! ResourcesConnect with Chuck Brown on LinkedIn here.Visit the Expose Dementia website here.

The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC) kicks off its 2026 author podcast series with Nate C. Apathy, PhD, guest editor of AJMC's 15th Health Information Technology (IT) special issue. He is an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and an affiliated research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana. To set the stage for this milestone issue, Apathy reflects on the most significant health IT advancements of the past 15 years before zeroing in on developments from 2025. He then explores the issue's central themes, including artificial intelligence (AI) and telehealth. As highlighted in this year's Health IT issue, Apathy explains that AI has the potential to reduce administrative and clinical burdens and has been rapidly adopted by clinicians. At the same time, AI presents challenges, including maintaining clinical vigilance and managing costs. He also underscores the benefits of telehealth, particularly when tailored to specific clinical contexts. Despite the pace of technological innovation, Apathy emphasizes that success in health IT ultimately depends on building trust and strong relationships, as well as closely aligning solutions with user needs. Looking ahead, he hopes health IT tools will become more intuitive, seamlessly supporting equity, access, and high-quality care while enabling greater personalization.

Join us on the latest episode, hosted by Jared S. Taylor!Our Guests: Dan D'Orazio, CEO, Sage Growth Partners, and Christina Speck, Chief Solutions & AI Officer, Sage Growth Partners.What you'll get out of this episode:Strategic AI Adoption: Leaders must align AI tools with real business problems, not just adopt technology for its own sake.Enterprise Change Management: Success hinges more on people and process readiness than on the AI technology itself.Human + AI Synergy: The rise of “HI + AI” and “HSI” (Humanist Super Intelligence) models puts empathy at the center of AI innovation.Clinical & Administrative Focus: Real AI excitement lies in automating repetitive administrative tasks, with clinical applications gaining cautious momentum.Sage's Growth-Centric AI Model: From readiness to impact, Sage Growth Partners tailors AI strategies to support each client's growth journey.To learn more about:Website http://www.sage-growth.comLinkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/sage-growth-partners/Our sponsors for this episode are:Sage Growth Partners https://www.sage-growth.com/Quantum Health https://www.quantum-health.com/Show and Host's Socials:Slice of HealthcareLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sliceofhealthcare/Jared S TaylorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredstaylor/WHAT IS SLICE OF HEALTHCARE?The go-to site for digital health executive/provider interviews, technology updates, and industry news. Listed to in 65+ countries.