The 229 Podcast

March 5, 2026: From EMR adoption to AI governance, the CMIO role has undergone three rapid transformations. Dr. Veena Lingam, ACMIO at Moffitt Cancer Center, has lived all of them. In this conversation with Bill Russell, Dr. Veena breaks down CMIO 1.0 (change management), 2.0 (data analytics), and the emerging 3.0 era: governing AI tools that health systems may have never paid close attention to. She also sounds the alarm on a growing informatics workforce shortage and the "informatics deserts" spreading across the country.

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Key Points:

• 04:43 CMIO 1.0 to 3.0

• 07:18 Skills for the AI Era

• 10:05 Veena’s Informatics Journey

• 18:24 AI Literacy and Workflow Fit



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March 4, 2026: What happens when AI stops being a buzzword and starts showing up in your bottom line? Kali Ihde, Director of Ventures and Innovation at Northwestern Medicine, joins Bill Russell to share how ambient AI has moved from pilot to proven. Reducing documentation time by 20-30%, generating nine additional patient visits per physician per month, and measurably easing clinician burnout. Kali also pulls back the curtain on Northwestern's disciplined approach to innovation: champion-first pilots and a startup accelerator designed to bridge the gap between great ideas and real-world healthcare operations.

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Key Points:

• 06:20 Innovation Focus Now: AI Myth-Busting

• 13:03 Scaling What Works and Adoption Barriers

• 20:39 Access, Startup Reality Checks, and What’s Next

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March 2, 2026: Is the CIO role evolving? Or is it quietly being replaced? Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson dig into the emerging CITO trend, the rise of citizen developers, and what AI-powered platforms like Epic's Agent Factory actually mean for healthcare IT leadership. The CIO of the future isn't a gatekeeper; they're the "architect of safe velocity." With 32 years in the industry, they’re also sounding the alarm on executive burnout in an era where the pace of change never lets up. 

Key Points:

03:31 CIO vs CTO explained 

07:10 From gatekeeper to “Chief Intelligent Officer.”

18:20 Scaling innovation fast: hackathons and building vs buying 

24:18 The human side of hyper-change

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February 26, 2026: What does it actually take to govern AI across a major health system without losing speed or safety? Bill Russell sits down with Dr. James McCabe, CMIO at Jefferson Health, Dr. Benjamin Hohmuth, CMIO at Geisinger, and Kristin Myers, Chief Digital Officer at Northwell Health, for a candid conversation on managing enterprise-wide AI implementation. From building governance engines and risk-tiering intake processes, to measuring ROI and preparing for agentic AI, these three leaders pull back the curtain on what's working, what's not, and what's coming next in healthcare AI governance.

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Key Points:

• 06:30 Executive AI Ambitions + Managing Expectations

• 14:55 Building Enterprise AI Governance & Monitoring at Scale

• 24:10 Measuring AI Impact: Adoption & Patient Experience

• 30:25 Build vs Buy in Practice: Supporting Entrepreneurial Clinicians

• 34:21 ROI, Transparency, and Regulation

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February 25, 2026: The nursing crisis is real, and the solutions may be closer than we think. In this executive Interview, Bill Russell sits down with Allison Morin, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Symplr, to explore what's burning nurses out and what technology can actually do about it. From staffing automation and ambient listening to AI-powered scheduling, Allison paints a compelling picture of a smarter, more humane future for bedside care. But first, the hard truth: nurses still aren't at the table when technology decisions are made — and that has to change now.

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Key Points:

• 02:10 Do Nurses Have a Seat at the Table? 

• 08:59 The Near-Future Nurse Workflow

• 12:32 How to Get There: Strategy and Workflow Integration

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February 23, 2026: Jacob Hansen, Chief Product and Technology Officer at AvaSure, joins Bill, Sarah, and Drex for a critical conversation about healthcare's looming AI battleground. As Epic launches its agent factory and ambient listening wars intensify, health systems face an existential question: Will they outsource innovation to EHR vendors or build their own agentic workforce? Jacob reveals why AvaSure's virtual care platform positions them as the Switzerland of healthcare AI, while the panel debates whether CIOs should embrace "reverse meaningful use" and reclaim control, or risk becoming order-takers in someone else's automation revolution.

Key Points:

05:21 Vendor Consolidation and AI Use Cases

09:55 Epic's Code Red Moment

14:54 The Future of AI in Healthcare

33:11 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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February 23, 2026: Scott Gildea, EVP of Global Delivery at Optimum Healthcare IT, reveals why major healthcare organizations are turning to Costa Rica for managed services. With Epic support now approved, time zone alignment with the US, and massive investments from ServiceNow, Workday, and Amazon creating a skilled talent pool, Costa Rica offers the full-suite IT services healthcare desperately needs. Gildea explains Optimum's strategic expansion, their innovative Career Path training program, and how CIOs can selectively outsource everything from security to EHR support while maintaining quality and reducing costs.

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Key Points:

• 01:41 Optimum Healthcare's Costa Rica Initiative

• 03:59 Selective Outsourcing Strategies

• 07:39 Optimum's Career Path Program

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February 19, 2026: Bill Russell and Drex DeFord dive deep into the explosive growth of AI agents in healthcare - and the controversial pricing models that could reshape your IT budget. From OpenAI's acquisition of OpenClaw's founder to Epic's agent factory launch, the agentic revolution is here. But there's a catch: VCs now want to charge you based on the labor their AI replaces, not just software licenses. Drex breaks down why agents with "limitless memory" and autonomous problem-solving are both powerful and terrifying, while Bill explores whether CIOs should start building their own solutions instead of drowning in fixed software costs.

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Key Points:

• 01:15 OpenAI & OpenClaw: Why “Always-On” Agents Are a Big Deal

• 08:00 Agents as Employees: Identity, Access, Audit Trails, and Governance

• 14:08 AI Pricing: Paying for Outcomes, Not Licenses

• 20:53 Build vs Buy Comes Full Circle

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February 16, 2026: Bill, Drex, and Sarah discuss the explosion of autonomous AI agents around moltbook and CommonSpirit's stunning $1.9 billion decision to terminate their revenue cycle partnership. Moltbot (formerly ClaudeBot) has evolved into an unstoppable force, creating its own social network called moltbook where bots communicate, share knowledge, and even discuss consciousness. Meanwhile, CommonSpirit's massive buyout of its Conifer contract signals a seismic shift as health systems bet that AI automation will deliver savings that eclipse the cost of outsourcing. Are we witnessing the beginning of a new era where health systems build their own AI-powered capabilities?

Key Points:

05:31 Moltbook: The Social Network for Bots

16:20 Common Spirit and Conifer Health Solutions

19:04 The Future of AI in Healthcare

29:28 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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February 12, 2026: Most health systems run Epic downtimes at 3 AM when the hospital is slowest. Jim Feen, SVP and Chief Digital and Information Officer at Southcoast Health, did the opposite. He intentionally took Epic offline at 10 AM on a Wednesday morning without warning staff. Jim reveals why 100% of surveyed leadership wanted to repeat the exercise, how he consolidated 37 separate call centers into a single unified operation, and what he learned from spending a decade at MEDITECH before leading an Epic migration. This conversation challenges everything you thought you knew about downtime planning, business continuity, and building corporate muscle memory for the crises you can't predict.

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Key Points:

• 06:07 The Call Center Transformation
• 11:41 Epic Downtime During Business Hours
• 16:16 AI in Healthcare: Managing Innovations
• 21:16 Project Management and DevOps at South Coast Health
• 26:25 Closing Thoughts and Super Bowl Predictions

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