The 229 Podcast

2025 wasn't just another year in healthcare IT—it was a year of constant change. Leaders stopped waiting for permission and started building the future themselves. From AI implementations that deliver results in weeks instead of years, to cybersecurity boundaries that actually hold, to predictive care models that flip the reactive healthcare script entirely. This rewind captures the breakthrough moments, the honest struggles, and the conversations that made room after room go silent before someone said, "We should be recording this." These aren't predictions about what's coming. These are the moves that already happened—and the leaders who made them possible.

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December 17, 2025: Real-time location data is revolutionizing hospital operations, but most executives haven't grasped the full magnitude of what's now possible with AI. Philipp von Gilsa, CEO of Kontakt.io, reveals how combining RTLS with AI agents enables immediate interventions when operations break down - no more dashboards, just actionable intelligence in the moment. From predicting equipment needs to optimizing patient flow, health systems are achieving real operating margin improvements by rethinking core operations. Discover why leading health systems are consolidating their point solutions onto next-generation platforms, and learn about an innovative AI hackathon model that helps executives experience these capabilities firsthand rather than just reading about them.

Key Points:

• 05:02 Real-Time Data and Its Impact
• 10:38 Pandemic Response and Operational Efficiency
• 13:50 Executive Engagement with AI

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December 15, 2025: What if healthcare's biggest breakthroughs require throwing out the playbook? Joined by Daniel Schubert, CEO and Co-Founder of Revuud, this episode explores how AI is fundamentally reshaping healthcare IT strategy, from deploying countless virtual PhD-level agents across operations to rethinking patient access and workflow automation. Healthcare leaders discuss the challenge of prioritizing AI initiatives amid competing demands, the importance of creating organizational margin for creative problem-solving, and why divergent thinking beats linear logic in digital transformation. The conversation tackles talent deployment, the dangers of "we've always done it this way" mentality, and a critical question every CIO must answer: how resilient are your systems when AI becomes mission-critical infrastructure?

Key Points:

• 01:40 AI in Healthcare: A LinkedIn Post Discussion
• 04:18 Challenges and Opportunities with AI
• 08:38 Future of AI in Healthcare
• 10:55 Organizational Impact and Talent Management
• 20:05 Resilience and Final Thoughts

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December 12, 2025: When cloud platforms like AWS and Azure experience outages, hospitals across the country feel the impact. But are healthcare organizations truly prepared for these disruptions? Charles Knight, Founder of EHC Consulting, explores the critical gaps in healthcare's cloud resilience strategies. From understanding single points of failure to running actual failover tests, this conversation reveals why documentation and operational readiness matter just as much as technical redundancy.

Key Points:

• 04:09 Challenges in Disaster Recovery and Documentation
• 16:14 Phishing and Cybersecurity Concerns
• 21:30 Thanksgiving Food Favorites

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 December 11, 2025: Medical imaging is undergoing a massive transformation, and the innovations unveiled at RSNA 2025 reveal just how profound these changes will be. Dr. Lee David Milligan, Managing Partner at Asbury HealthTech Partners, takes us inside the conference floor to explore groundbreaking advances that are reshaping radiology workflows. Discover how companies are revolutionizing cardiac care by replacing invasive procedures with advanced imaging that costs 90% less, why radiologists finally have the workflow tools they've needed for a decade, and how 3D visualization technology is transforming the way surgeons communicate with patients.

Key Points:

• 01:16 RSNA Conference Insights
• 05:46 Operational Improvements in MRI
• 18:08 HeartFlow and Cardiac Imaging Innovations
• 22:12 Challenges and Solutions in Radiology
• 25:23 Avatar Medical and Patient Communication

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December 8, 2025: Healthcare systems are drowning in administrative calls while patients struggle with fragmented portals and coordination nightmares. Will Akers, Chief Strategy Officer from Switchboard, MD, joins Bill Russell, Sarah Richardson, and Drex DeFord to unpack a stunning reality: 25-40% of health system calls are simple scheduling requests that could be automated today. Drawing from his experience having children in both Hong Kong and the US healthcare systems, Will reveals stark efficiency gaps costing patients time and money. The conversation explores why seniors spend three weeks yearly on healthcare logistics, how multiple portals create care coordination chaos, and practical automation strategies that could transform contact centers while improving patient access for vulnerable populations.

Key Points:

• 02:06 Healthcare Experiences Abroad vs. US
• 09:55 Technology in Healthcare Communication
• 16:44 Patient-Centric Healthcare Solutions
• 22:52 Thanksgiving Traditions 

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 December 4, 2025: Tanya Townsend, CIDO at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, didn't just receive a lifetime achievement award from CHIME—she pioneered the first all-digital hospital back in 2005. Now Tanya is navigating the ultimate healthcare paradox: how do you invest in AI and digital transformation while facing unprecedented budget pressures? In this conversation, she reveals how ambient listening got clinicians home for dinner, why their digital front door adoption jumped 36% practically overnight, and her surprising take on the AI hype cycle.

Key Points:

• 02:04 Career Highlights and Achievements
• 06:57 Digital Transformation Journey
• 14:57 Challenges in Pediatric Healthcare
• 23:35 The Role of AI in Healthcare
• 30:50 Future Outlook

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December 3, 2025: A nurse practitioner shows up for their first ED shift at the hospital where they've worked for years. But the system doesn't recognize them, their login doesn't work, and five different teams scramble to merge records while the manager burns hours just getting them access. Kristin Hoppe, Information System Manager at Baylor Scott & White, and Bill Willis, CTO and Head of Advisory at IDMWORKS, reveal how they solved healthcare's most persistent identity crisis—not with new technology, but by reimagining the data itself. The solution transforms onboarding from weeks to minutes while slashing costs across the board.

Key Points:

• 05:27 Baylor Scott & White's Solutions for IAM
• 08:04 Implementation and Challenges
• 15:06 ROI and Business Impact
• 22:23 Future Prospects and Patient Identity

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December 1, 2025: As AI tools rapidly transform healthcare IT workflows, leaders face an unexpected challenge: what happens when your team becomes dramatically more productive? Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson explore the productivity paradox hitting healthcare organizations—when AI enables staff to accomplish in hours what once took weeks, do you need fewer people or different approaches? From closing open positions to managing "cozy" employees who've mastered automation, they debate real strategies for navigating this shift. Whether you're a process-driven leader or innovation-focused builder, this discussion reveals how AI is forcing healthcare IT to rethink staffing, workflow waste, and organizational culture before it's too late.

Key Points:

• 02:56 AI in the Workplace: Efficiency and Challenges
• 17:15 Leadership Styles and AI Integration
• 20:33 Approaching the AI Wave
• 26:23 Balancing Leadership Styles
• 32:11 End-of-Year Reflections and Predictions

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November 27, 2025: Shane Thielman, Corporate SVP and CIO at Scripps Health, shares how a compliance auditor switched their primary care physician after reviewing ambient documentation—a surprising indicator of AI's real clinical impact. In this conversation, Shane reveals the seven-year journey to get 40% of appointments online, the command center approach that reduced admission wait times by 25%, and why Scripps runs quarterly clinical continuity exercises after their 2021 cyber event. He challenges the notion that technology is a strategy, instead demonstrating how Scripps attacks problems first with a disciplined approach to prioritization. Shane also discusses their internal ChatGPT "sharing economy" and why most AI features go undiscovered without intentional workflow integration.

Key Points:

• 04:17 City Tour Dinner Insights
• 09:37 Operationalizing a Command Center
• 11:23 Epic UGM Implementation
• 22:51 Leveraging AI for Improved Patient Care
• 30:35 Shared Governance and AI Integration

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