In this episode of The Digital Clinic, we explore the patterns shaping healthcare marketing and health IT with John Lynn, Founder and Chief Editor of Healthcare Scene, the organization behind Healthcare IT Today and the Swaay.Health community, two of the most recognized names in healthcare media.

John shares his perspective on the current state of healthcare marketing, drawing on nearly 20 years of interviews and conversations with CMOs, digital marketing directors, and health IT leaders. We discuss why budget constraint, far from slowing organizations down, is quietly becoming one of the most powerful catalysts for creative and targeted marketing strategy, and how the organizations embracing that reality are pulling ahead of those waiting for resources to return.

The conversation covers John's honest assessment of AI in healthcare marketing, where it is genuinely moving the needle, where agentic workflows are burning more relationships than they're building, and why he believes robotic campaigns will struggle until the humans on the receiving end are no longer the decision-makers. We also explore the three AI breakthroughs John believes will have the most transformational impact on the industry: ambient clinical voice documentation, intelligent data summarization, and the next generation of chatbots that go far beyond website interactions.

John reflects on the deeper shift he sees happening across healthcare marketing and health IT, a growing hunger for meaning and purpose in the work itself. From his own journey as an IT guy turned media entrepreneur to the communities he has built around shared success stories, John makes the case that highlighting what's working and pushing the industry forward is not just a media philosophy. It is a competitive advantage.

This episode delivers actionable insights for healthcare marketers navigating budget pressure, AI adoption, and the evolving skill sets that will define the next generation of leaders in health IT and healthcare marketing.