The 229 Podcast

June 1, 2026: Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson bring back the highlights from three simultaneous healthcare summits in Destin, Florida, covering imaging leaders, CTOs, and children's CIOs. The conversations were connected by a few uncomfortable truths: four in ten health systems cannot measure the AI they have already deployed, most organizations have dozens of agents running on their networks without anyone knowing, and budgets are getting squeezed by rising RAM costs and what leaders are calling the AI tax. From data literacy gaps and ungoverned agents to the idea of onboarding AI like a new hire, this episode captures what healthcare's sharpest leaders are actually wrestling with right now.

Key Points:

• 00:46 Summit Takeaways Setup

• 09:55 Agents and Governance Gaps

• 18:18 Proving AI ROI

• 22:31 Budgets, Vendors, and Wrap

Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:

https://thisweekhealth.com/news/

X: This Week Health

LinkedIn: This Week Health

Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

May 29, 2026: Asim Malik, VP of Health System Partnerships at DispatchHealth, joins Sarah to explore how high-acuity care is moving beyond traditional hospital walls. From pneumonia to COPD exacerbations, discover why this isn't just about convenience; it's about solving capacity constraints, improving margins, and giving patients back control. Asim breaks down the technology infrastructure, command center requirements, and clinical buy-in needed to make these programs succeed at scale.

Key Points:

• 02:01 Challenges and Solutions in Home-Based Care

• 06:53 Technological and Operational Requirements

• 09:46 Overcoming Barriers and Misconceptions

Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:

https://thisweekhealth.com/news/

X: This Week Health

LinkedIn: This Week Health

Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

May 25, 2026: Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson turn the episode into an informal review of Sarah's MIT AI Strategy and Leadership course, and the insights are worth the homework. From the surprisingly perfect parallel between today's AI resistance and the original Luddites, to the counterintuitive finding that the organizations succeeding with AI are the most operationally aligned, not the most technically advanced, this conversation cuts straight to what healthcare leaders actually need to know right now. Lead with curiosity, start with clean data and aligned people, and remember that the real AI differentiator is not automation. It is velocity.

Key Points:

• 02:27 Inside the MIT AI Class

• 08:42 Trust and Leading Through Change

• 18:41 Operational Alignment Wins

• 22:52 Curiosity and X Teams

• 26:17 Courage and Closing

Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:

https://thisweekhealth.com/news/

X: This Week Health

LinkedIn: This Week Health

Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

May 26, 2026: Krista Arndt, Associate CISO at St. Luke's University Health Network, and Anahi Santiago, CISO at ChristianaCare, join Drex DeFord for an unfiltered conversation about what it actually takes to lead healthcare security in 2026. From saving nearly 200 hours a month with Microsoft Security Copilot to building a team culture so strong that people rarely leave, Krista and Anahi pull back the curtain on AI adoption, mental health advocacy, and the intentional choices that separate thriving security leaders from burned-out ones.

Key Points:

• 03:27 Saving Time with Security Copilot
• 12:15 Partners, Vendors, and AI Value
• 15:09 Work Life Harmony and Community
• 24:38 Lightning Round Hype Songs Wrap

Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:

https://thisweekhealth.com/news/

X: This Week Health

LinkedIn: This Week Health

Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

May 22, 2026:  Laurie Wheeler, COO - IS&T of MultiCare Health System, is a leader whose philosophy centers on curiosity, humility, and genuine human connection. Laurie shares about her 26 years at MultiCare through listening tours, transforming employee engagement, and leading without ego. From teaching high-reliability courses to creating clinical super user groups, Laurie demonstrates how operational excellence and compassionate leadership create workplaces where people want to build careers they're proud of.=

Key Points:

• 02:18 Mentorship and Trust

• 09:57 Healthcare and Hospitality

• 13:00 Leadership and Humility

• 20:15 Speed Round and Final Thoughts

X: This Week Health

LinkedIn: This Week Health

Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

May 20, 2026: Mark Ferrari, VP of Advisory Services at Fortified Health Security, joins Drex DeFord on UnHack for a candid conversation about the threat landscape keeping healthcare security leaders up at night. From asset inventory gaps to the explosion of identity-based attacks, Mark brings a rare perspective shaped by military service, 30 years as an EMT, and deep healthcare IT experience. He pulls no punches on why healthcare keeps buying tools before defining the problem, and what it actually takes to reduce risk rather than just measure it.

Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:

https://thisweekhealth.com/news/

Key Points:

• 01:16 Mark Ferrari Background

• 05:21 Hot Topics: Basics and IAM

• 12:40 Incident Response Patient Safety

• 14:46 EMT Mindset Closing

X: This Week Health

LinkedIn: This Week Health

Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

Ransomware attacks don't always start with a ransomware gang. They start with someone who gets paid to find the door.

Aleksey Volkov, known online as ChewbaccaCore, was an initial access broker. His job was identifying vulnerable companies, exploiting their networks, establishing a foothold, and selling that access on dark web marketplaces. Over 16 months in 2021-2022, his work enabled attacks on seven confirmed US businesses, resulting in $9M in confirmed losses and $24M in intended ransom demands. In March 2026, he was sentenced to 81 months in federal prison.

For healthcare leaders, the takeaway is uncomfortable: healthcare organizations are premium listings on these dark web markets. Legacy systems, large vendor and contractor ecosystems, high-value data, massive operational disruption risk, and historically thin security investment relative to exposure all show up in the listing price.

Someone may have already found a way into your network. They may be holding it. It may have already been sold. Stopping a ransomware gang when they arrive is one problem. Knowing whether someone has already been paid to find the door is a different one.

Remember, Stay a Little Paranoid

X: This Week Health

LinkedIn: This Week Health

Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

May 19, 2026: Three powerhouse executives tackle healthcare's most complex sourcing decisions in this essential conversation. Lisa Davis, Former CIO and Founder/CEO of Lisa Davis Advisory; Janet Malzone, Former CEO and Board Member; and Kristine Jarvis, Organizational Transformation Leader, reveal what leaders get wrong about offshore, nearshore, and automation strategies. From the pre-mortem technique that prevents million-dollar failures to the cultural metrics most organizations ignore, they expose why technical fluency without leadership maturity creates chaos. Discover how to rebuild trust after transformation missteps and why projects with the highest team disagreement deliver the strongest ROI.

Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:

https://thisweekhealth.com/news/

Key Points:

• 03:59 Challenges of Offshoring and Automation
• 09:41 Preparing for AI and Future Technologies
• 25:36 Leadership and Technical Capabilities
• 31:58 Holistic Transformation and Systems Thinking
• 43:06 Global Workforce and AI Myths

May 18, 2026: Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson dig into Stanford Health Care's bold agentic AI strategy, and what it means for every healthcare IT team right now. From naming the fear of job loss head-on to redefining what innovation actually means, the trio breaks down why standing still is the bigger risk. Drex reports from Utah on the Great Trust Recession and the deepfake dangers reshaping how we verify everything. Sarah brings leadership lessons from Nashville on EQ, distributed thinking, and leading through uncertainty. The analyst of the future is a workflow architect.

Key Points:

• 01:46 Fear and Job Security Reframe

• 08:20 Tech Debt as AI Opportunity

• 12:50 Cutting Anchors with Five Whys

• 16:33 Measuring Success and Burnout

• 19:49 Conference Takeaways and Wrap

Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:

https://thisweekhealth.com/news/

X: This Week Health

LinkedIn: This Week Health

Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

May 18, 2026: Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson dig into Stanford Health Care's bold agentic AI strategy, and what it means for every healthcare IT team right now. From naming the fear of job loss head-on to redefining what innovation actually means, the trio breaks down why standing still is the bigger risk. Drex reports from Utah on the Great Trust Recession and the deepfake dangers reshaping how we verify everything. Sarah brings leadership lessons from Nashville on EQ, distributed thinking, and leading through uncertainty. The analyst of the future is a workflow architect.

Key Points:

• 01:46 Fear and Job Security Reframe
• 08:20 Tech Debt as AI Opportunity
• 12:50 Cutting Anchors with Five Whys
• 16:33 Measuring Success and Burnout
• 19:49 Conference Takeaways and Wrap

Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:

https://thisweekhealth.com/news/

X: This Week Health

LinkedIn: This Week Health

Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer