The 229 Podcast

By 229ProjectBusiness Medicine Health & Fitness Technology

The 229 Podcast episodes

August 06, 2025Interview In Action: Protecting Nurses From Violence Through Ambient Tech with Lisbeth Votruba
August 6, 2025: Lisbeth Votruba, Chief Clinical Officer at AvaSure and a third-generation nurse, discusses how virtual care technology is transforming healthcare delivery. How can AI-powered platforms help nurses return to more personalized, joyful patient care while addressing the growing crisis of workplace violence in hospitals? Lisbeth shares her journey from ICU nurse to tech executive, discussing innovative solutions such as ambient monitoring and wake word technology that protect both patients and staff. What role should nurses play in shaping healthcare's digital future, and how can the profession leverage its trusted status to drive meaningful change? The conversation also touches on the emotional toll of caregiving and Lisbeth’s advocacy work supporting healthcare workers in recovery.
Key Points:
03:45 Innovations in Nursing Technology

08:12 Challenges in Nursing Violence

11:49 Emotional Well-being of Nurses

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
15 min
July 31, 2025Keynote: The Future of This Week Health Shows with Drex, Sarah, and Bill
July 31, 2025: Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson preview their upcoming show changes while tackling critical CIO challenges. They discuss "CIO escape rooms"—high-pressure scenarios such as your EHR vendor going out of business or handling a 3 AM security breach. How do healthcare IT leaders navigate the treacherous waters of CEO transitions, and what's the real difference between a wartime and peacetime CIO? The conversation turns to compensation strategy for a hospital system, examining whether geography or specific leadership "phenotype" should drive salary decisions. They explore what CIOs would prioritize with unlimited budgets, from infrastructure overhauls to real-time data platforms, while questioning who truly deserves the CIDO title in an industry where keeping the lights on battles against driving transformation.

Key Points:
03:45 CIO Challenges and Escape Room Scenarios
06:52 New Podcast Channels and Formats
14:03 Real-Time Data Governance and ROI
15:51 Automation and Patching in Health Systems
17:47 Hiring and Compensation for Health System CIOs
20:56 The Role and Value of a good CIDOs

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
29 min
July 31, 2025Solution Showcase: Building a Foundation Leaders Can Trust with Andrew Morris and Sebastian Estades
June 25, 2025: Sebastian Estades, Healthcare Lead of Google Chrome, and Andrew Morris, CTO and Executive Director of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, explore the shift in healthcare to working on secure browsers. What makes Chrome OS particularly suited for healthcare environments transitioning to web-based applications? The conversation reveals how CHLA's strategic shift to Chrome OS devices not only improved clinical workflows and reduced support burdens but also positioned them for future technology needs with a 10-year support cycle. As healthcare IT leaders face mounting financial pressures, how might this approach to endpoint management help address both operational and capital expenditure challenges?
Key Points:
05:10 Roadblocks and Future Plans

09:04 Technical and Operational Benefits

18:06 Deployment Experience and Lessons

22:48 Final Thoughts

X: This Week Health
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Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
25 min
July 30, 2025Solution Showcase: A Peek Behind the Interoperability Curtain with Marco Casale and Drew Ivan
July 30, 2025: Marco Casale, Systems Integration Architect at the University of Rochester, and Drew Ivan, Chief Architect at Rhapsody, join Bill to discuss healthcare interoperability. What would happen if these critical integration platforms suddenly went down, and why does even Epic need hundreds of external connections to keep hospitals running? The discussion covers the evolution from HL7 V2 to FHIR standards, how the pandemic necessitated the massive scaling of data exchanges, and the ongoing challenge of integrating disparate healthcare systems to communicate.
Key Points:
03:10 Interoperability and Integration Solutions

10:27 Automation in Healthcare

11:07 Integration During the Pandemic

18:57 Future of Healthcare Integration

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
29 min
July 28, 2025UnHack (the Podcast): Agentic Anxieties and Rural Connectivity with Aaron Heath and Brian Zegers
Even cyber pros have technical issues sometimes – our camera caught a bug, but the audio is clean and packed with security insights!
July 28, 2025: Aaron Heath, CISO and Cybersecurity Counsel at the Medical University of South Carolina, and Brian Zegers, Information Security Officer at Lee Health, discuss a variety of security topics. The conversation takes a turn when both leaders address their growing concerns about AI's rapid evolution from helpful tools to autonomous agents with privileged network access. How do you prepare for ransomware recovery when your backup strategies have blind spots? And what happens when AI agents start operating independently within healthcare networks? As these security leaders balance innovation with protection, they ask: Are we moving too fast with AI automation, and how do we secure technologies that are changing faster than our security frameworks can keep pace?
Key Points:
03:08 Brian's Ransomware Recovery Initiative

08:41 The Role of AI in Cybersecurity

13:47 Talent Recruitment Strategies

17:48 Career Journeys in Cybersecurity

21:32 Fun and Personal Insights

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
28 min
July 24, 2025Keynote: Billion-Dollar Mergers and Cutting Turnover in Half with Theresa McDonnell
July 24, 2025: Theresa McDonnell, Chief Nursing Executive and SVP at Duke University Health System, discusses how she maintains her clinical practice while leading strategic transformation across a billion-dollar organization. What specific changes helped Duke reduce nurse turnover from 21% to 11%? Theresa discusses her role in orchestrating the complex $1.7 billion merger that created the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and shares how Duke's innovation hackathons have engaged over 10,000 frontline staff. As healthcare faces mounting workforce shortages and an aging population, what role should AI play in enhancing rather than replacing human care? The conversation explores practical approaches to empowering healthcare workers and how the future of care is centered on preventing sickness rather than just treating illness.
Key Points:
05:03 Nurse-Led Innovation at Duke

11:03 Strategic Transformation and Mergers

19:04 Balancing Patient Care and Innovation

24:22 Advice for Early Career Clinicians

27:08 Speed Round and Closing Remarks

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
30 min
July 23, 2025Interview In Action: Understanding Agentic AI and Quick Wins with Michael Vipond
July 23, 2025: Michael Vipond, Head of Healthcare Provider GTM at ServiceNow, discusses everything from the basics to the cutting edge of AI. As health systems face mounting pressure from Medicare cuts and operational costs, how do leaders navigate the difference between traditional automation and the emerging world of agentic AI? Michael reveals how AI agents are already handling IT incidents and care team requests, but warns that simply layering AI onto broken processes won't deliver transformation. With healthcare drowning in spreadsheets and administrative tasks, what are the practical steps CIOs can take today while building toward a long-term AI strategy? The conversation uncovers specific examples of AI reducing administrative burden and explores the critical foundation work—from data quality to governance—that health systems need to get right before AI can truly amplify human connection in patient care.
Key Points:
02:54 Understanding Agentic AI

07:04 AI Use Cases and Benefits

11:01 Governance and Implementation of AI

20:33 Future of AI in Healthcare

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
26 min
July 22, 2025TownHall: Keeping Up With Washington and Building an Innovation Lab with Charles Christian
July 22, 2025: Charles Christian, VP of Technology and CTO at Franciscan Health, joins Nayan Patel, SVP of FinThrive, to discuss their healthcare innovation lab and supporting clinicians. What happens when a tech giant realizes it can't just provide a platform but must become a true partner in life-safety systems? Charles reveals how Franciscan's tech innovation lab uses donated equipment and a "fail fast" approach to test everything from ambient listening to virtual care solutions before rolling them out. How do you balance innovation with the reality that clinical staff expect technology to work seamlessly? The conversation explores application rationalization strategies that eliminated over 150 redundant systems and the ongoing challenge of measuring ROI when reimbursement rules constantly shift.
Key Points:
03:49 Challenges and Solutions in Cloud Migration

07:17 Tech Innovation Lab and Pilot Projects

17:23 Application Rationalization and Cost Management

23:14 Final Thoughts and Fun Questions

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
26 min
July 21, 2025Flourish: The New Sales Playbook - Why Sales Veterans Are Going Solo with Amie Teske
July 21, 2025: Amie Teske, Founder and CEO of Echelon, joins Sarah to discuss how she is shifting the landscape of sales. Amie discusses the realities of solo practitioner work, from pricing your expertise to maintaining sanity without a traditional corporate structure. How has institutional investment reshaped the sales landscape, and what does it take to create genuine peer communities for high-performing salespeople? The conversation explores the challenges of monetizing networks authentically, the art of matching experienced professionals with startups, and why accountability becomes both harder and more critical when you're on your own.
Key Points:
05:14 Navigating the Gig Economy and Solo Practitionership

12:19 Valuing Your Time and Setting Rates as a Consultant

17:58 Challenges and Solutions in Sales Leadership

23:56 Building Confidence in Sales

31:02 Speed Round: Fun and Personal Questions

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
35 min
July 17, 2025Keynote: Don’t be the Hero, Be a Pro - AI and Tech Governance with Chris Harper
July 17, 2025: Chris Harper, CIO and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor of AI at the University of Kansas Medical Center, discusses the nuances of AI governance. Chris discusses why he'd rather be "a pro than a hero" and how this philosophy shapes his collaborative leadership style in implementing AI solutions. They explore his organization's strategic technology bets over two decades, from meaningful use to data analytics to AI automation, and reveal how building trust with clinical partners has become the foundation for successful innovation. Through insights on governance across multiple organizational structures and his "move fast and be responsible" methodology, Chris offers practical wisdom for healthcare leaders preparing for what he sees as a paradigm shift in how technology will reshape the industry.
Key Points:
03:55 Governance and Decision Making

10:33 Leadership and Team Collaboration

21:37 Disparities in Rural Areas

27:01 Challenges for Healthcare CIOs

30:01 Speed Round and Closing Remarks

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
33 min

About The 229 Podcast

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Some conversations are too important to stay in the room. The 229 Podcast, hosted by Bill Russell, Sarah Richardson, and Drex DeFord, continues the dynamic discussions from our community events,…

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The 229 Podcast

The 229 Podcast episodes

About The 229 Podcast