The Signal Room with Chris Hutchins

By Christopher (Chris) Hutchins

The Signal Room is a healthcare AI podcast hosted by Christopher (Chris) Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Each episode brings healthcare executives, clinicians, and

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FAQs about The Signal Room with Chris Hutchins:

How many episodes does The Signal Room with Chris Hutchins have?

The podcast currently has 47 episodes available.

The Signal Room with Chris Hutchins episodes:

September 30, 2026 The signal room: AI Agents in Healthcare: Why the Best AI Knows When to Stop | Kaled Alhanafi
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AI agents in healthcare only work if they know when to stop. Basata CEO Kaled Alhanafi explains how his team builds agentic AI for hospital and practice operations, and why trust and governance matter more than the algorithm.

Kaled Alhanafi left Lyft and Cruise to build a healthcare company after his family's experiences with the healthcare system. He now leads Basata, a healthcare AI startup whose agents read referrals, call and text patients, and handle scheduling. In this episode of The Signal Room, he explains how they decide what to automate and what a human has to own.

In this episode:

Why capacity in healthcare is trapped in administrative work, not only in a shortage of doctors
How healthcare AI agents handle referrals, patient calls, and scheduling
Why "a really good AI is the AI that knows when to stop"
Why he says 70% of AI transformation is change management
How agentic AI in healthcare earns autonomy one task at a time
How to be transparent with patients when they are talking to an AI agent
Why point solutions fail and holistic approaches work
What hospital administrators should do first when adopting AI

Key numbers from the conversation:

10 to 30% of physician effort goes to administrative work
About $150 billion a year is wasted on patient no-shows in the US
By 2030, about one in five Americans will be over 65
Basata has raised a little under $25 million and recently completed its Series A

Chapters:
0:00 Welcome and Beneath the Signal
0:45 Why Kaled left Lyft and Cruise for healthcare
1:34 A personal path into healthcare
3:36 Shadowing practices and the start of Basata
6:16 The healthcare capacity problem
7:19 How Basata's AI agents work
8:52 The AI that knows when to stop
11:16 70% of AI is change management
13:26 Trust as the differentiator
14:14 Scaling at the speed of trust
16:41 The 2030 demand problem
18:36 Why point solutions fail
21:28 AI patient scheduling and no-shows
23:54 Would patients rather talk to a human or an AI agent?
25:15 When an AI agent should reach out, and when it shouldn't
27:54 Earning autonomy task by task
29:45 Regulators and healthcare AI governance
31:47 Why start with back-office operations
35:57 Where hidden capacity lives (the Lyft parallel)
39:00 Advice for hospital administrators
41:50 New roles and shared responsibility

About the guest: Kaled Alhanafi is the CEO of Basata, a healthcare AI company. "Basata" comes from the Arabic word for simplicity. He previously worked at Lyft and Cruise.
Basata website: https://www.basata.ai/
Kaled on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaled

About the host: Chris Hutchins is the author of Beneath the Signal, about the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare.
The Signal Room is a podcast for healthcare AI practitioners.
Listen on your favorite podcast app: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-signal-room-with-chris-hutchins/id1850988366 | Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3zUsHNLvnGE90gUaNULucZ
Full episode page and transcript: https://signalroompodcast.com/episodes/ai-agents-know-when-to-stop

#HealthcareAI #AIAgents #SignalRoom

Guest: Kaled Alhanafi
Company: Basata
Website: basata.ai
———
🎧 Listen on Apple, Spotify and more: https://signalroompodcast.com
📨 The AI Health Pulse newsletter: https://aihealthpulse.beehiiv.com/?modal=signup
📘 Beneath the Signal (my book): https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Signal-Replace-Leadership-Healthcare/dp/B0GZPNVRCX?maas=maas_adg_6A599874CB2DA12E1ADF3BD5E6DB8463_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas
💼 Hutchins Data Strategy: https://hutchinsdatastrategy.com
Support the show
About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.

Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi
Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
...more
50min
September 11, 2026 Ethical governance: Why AI Governance Is a Human Problem | Arnaud Saint-Paul
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Chapters
0:00 The claim: the human side of leadership beats the tech
2:31 Why AI multiplies a leader's existing challenges (×10)
5:20 Running the Heart Leadership Index on ChatGPT vs. Claude
10:03 What "coherence" really means (the orchestra before the conductor)
12:42 The fragmented-leader problem: your rollout inherits your chaos
18:02 The research: measuring coherence across 700+ tests
28:06 Defining "fragmentation" — order out of chaos
30:01 How fragmentation compounds and hits the bottom line
33:33 Why the downside can dwarf the upside in healthcare
35:17 Where to start: measure your team's coherence (free)
38:45 The next 3–5 years of AI + human coherence
42:16 The takeaway: coherence decides whether AI helps or scales the mess
Support the show
About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.

Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi
Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
...more
44min
September 11, 2026 Healthcare scaling strategies: Can AI Actually Make Healthcare More Human? With Dr. Sarah Matt
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Dr. Sarah Matt joins Chris Hutchins to examine pilotitis, the cycle of healthcare projects that struggle to move beyond testing. This episode of The Signal Room focuses on the practical challenges of scaling healthcare AI and bringing clinical voices into technology decisions.
Sarah shares her path from medicine into health technology leadership and discusses the concept of borderless healthcare. Chris and Sarah consider how patient trust and digital literacy affect adoption, and why design needs to account for diverse patient populations.
The conversation also covers the work around implementation, from clinical and operational buy-in to procurement and vendor relationships. They discuss change management and the future of healthcare governance as AI use expands.
For healthcare leaders and digital health teams, this episode offers a closer look at the decisions surrounding a pilot and the people who need to be part of them.
About the guest
Dr. Sarah Matt is a physician-executive and author of The Borderless Healthcare Revolution. Her background spans clinical medicine and enterprise health technology.
Guest and book links
Dr. Sarah Matt: https://drsarahmatt.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmattmd/
The Borderless Healthcare Revolution: https://drsarahmatt.com/book

Connect with the show
The Signal Room: https://signalroompodcast.com/
The AI Health Pulse: https://aihealthpulse.beehiiv.com/
Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants: https://hutchinsdatastrategy.com/

Subscribe to The Signal Room for more conversations about AI in healthcare. What has kept a pilot from becoming part of everyday work in your organization? Share your experience in the comments.
Support the show
About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.

Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi
Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
...more
55min
August 30, 2026Healthcare ai responsibility: Can We Actually Trust AI With Our Health? | The Signal Room
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AI can make a business more efficient, but the harder question is whether the system deserves trust.
Chris Hutchins sits down with Chris Bruner, founder and CEO of Simple AI Solutions, for a practical conversation about what “done-for-you AI” actually looks like for business owners. They examine how to identify the right problems to automate, why poor data and technical debt can quietly sink an AI initiative, and what organizations need from a partner when the technology touches real workflows and decisions.
The conversation also moves beyond tools. Chris Bruner explains why training, judgment, communication, responsibility, and integrity become more valuable as automation expands. He shares how those principles shape his work, his leadership, and the legacy he hopes to build through his business and family.
In this episode:
What a done-for-you AI system should deliver
How to choose useful automation opportunities
Why data quality and technical debt matter
The human skills AI cannot supply
Trust, accountability, stewardship, and legacy
Connect with Chris Bruner:
Simple AI Solutions: https://simpleai.solutions/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrunersimpleaisolutions/
The Business Leader’s Legacy Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-business-leaders-legacy-podcast/id1882853210
Chris’s business and podcast links are current. Simple AI Solutions, The Business Leader’s Legacy Podcast.
Support the show
About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.

Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi
Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
...more
35min
August 30, 2026Ai cybersecurity healthcare: What They Won’t Tell You About AI in Healthcare
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Cybersecurity failures do not begin and end with technical controls. They often begin with normal human behavior under pressure: urgency, trust, distraction, and the desire to help.
Chris Hutchins talks with Craig Taylor, co-founder of CyberHoot and a cybersecurity leader with decades of experience, about why punishment-based awareness programs fail and how positive reinforcement can build stronger security habits. Craig walks through the anatomy of modern social-engineering attacks, the ways AI is making those attacks more believable and more damaging, and the difference between checking a compliance box and building a culture that can respond.
They also discuss AI governance, approved tools, faster patching, data reduction, password managers, virtual CISO support, and the practical fundamentals healthcare leaders can act on now.
In this episode:
Why fear and punishment do not create durable security habits
How social engineering exploits ordinary human behavior
What AI changes about phishing and cyberattacks
The relationship between cybersecurity and AI governance
Why positive reinforcement and psychological safety matter
Practical steps for leaders, teams, and individuals
Connect with Craig and CyberHoot:
CyberHoot: https://cyberhoot.com/
Free individual training: https://cyberhoot.com/individuals/
CyberHoot blog: https://cyberhoot.com/blog/
Newsletter: https://cyberhoot.com/newsletters/
Email: [email protected]
Offer mentioned during the episode: listeners who mention The Signal Room may receive 20% off their first year after converting from a free trial.
Craig’s CyberHoot role and approach are confirmed on the company’s official site. About CyberHoot.
Support the show
About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.

Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi
Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
...more
59min
August 30, 2026The AI Front Desk: Patient Access, Escalation, and Practice Readiness with Jakub Grajcar
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Patient access problems are often invisible until calls go unanswered, staff become overwhelmed, and patients start looking elsewhere for care.
Chris Hutchins talks with Jakub Grajcar, Head of Marketing at Talkie.ai and host of Scaling Practice Management, about where an AI medical receptionist can help and where human judgment must take over. Their conversation covers routine scheduling and appointment questions, after-hours coverage, escalation pathways, EHR integration, least-privilege access, and the operational preparation required before a voice agent goes live.
Jakub also explains what practice leaders should ask during a vendor demonstration, how to tell whether automation is actually removing work instead of moving it somewhere else, and why clear communication with both staff and patients matters during implementation.
In this episode:
The patient calls practices may not realize they missed
When an AI receptionist should resolve, route, or escalate
After-hours coverage and emergency boundaries
EHR integration, privacy, and access controls
How to evaluate a voice AI demonstration
Preparing staff and patients for a new front-door experience
Connect with Jakub and Talkie.ai:
Talkie.ai: https://talkie.ai/
Jakub on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakub-grajcar/
Scaling Practice Management: https://talkie.ai/podcast-scaling-practice-management/
Jakub’s current role and podcast are confirmed on Talkie.ai’s official site. Scaling Practice Management.
Support the show
About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.

Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi
Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
...more
53min
August 21, 2026 Healthcare data strategy: The Broken State of Healthcare Data Management: What's Going Wrong? | Ted Lindsley
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Healthcare organizations continue to invest in data platforms, integration tools, and AI initiatives, yet many still cannot move trusted information across the enterprise or turn it into timely decisions. Ted Lindsley, CEO of CognomIQ, joins Chris Hutchins in Dallas to examine why healthcare data integration keeps breaking down — and what leaders should demand from the systems and vendors responsible for fixing it.
Chapters:
00:00 – The Signal Room opening and welcome from Dallas
01:06 – How Ted Lindsley arrived in healthcare
01:51 – Why he avoided healthcare for 30 years
03:49 – The payroll test for broken business processes
07:06 – EHR constraints, bolt-on tools, and vendor lock-in
08:49 – How organizations become accustomed to a broken system
11:44 – Predictive analytics before the AI conversation
13:48 – Buy results, not hopes and promises
14:31 – Guarantees, architecture, and vendor sprawl
19:58 – Relationships, trust, and long health-technology sales cycles
21:14 – What happens the first time a clinician touches a tool
22:42 – The standard for near-real-time healthcare data
27:37 – The cost and consequences of legacy decisions
31:11 – Why proofs of concept do not become operational capabilities
34:36 – Acquisitions, standardization, and governance
35:50 – Accountability when technology fails to deliver
37:56 – What finance teams can teach healthcare about standardization
40:59 – Dashboard sprawl and the burden placed on physicians
42:53 – The closing test: doing it because it is the right thing
🎧 Listen on Apple/Spotify: signalroompodcast.com
📨 The AI Health Pulse newsletter: signalroompodcast.com/newsletter
💼 Hutchins Data Strategy: hutchinsdatastrategy.com
Guest: Ted Lindsley — linkedin.com/in/tedlindsleydfw
Host: Christopher Hutchins — calendly.com/chris-hutchinsdatastrategy
📘 Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon
Support the show
About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.

Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi
Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
...more
45min
August 12, 2026Ai ethical leadership: His Own AI Agents Leaked Patient Data — Here's What He Built Next! | Travis Garland
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Travis Garland spent two decades in healthcare operations running data analytics for one of the largest health payers in the world before going all-in on AI agents. As CEO of Kickstand AI, he builds agents for medical practices. But during a routine scheduling project, his team discovered something alarming: front-office staff were pulling patient schedules, containing protected health information, and dropping them straight into a public AI prompt to save time.
That moment became the origin story for My Compliance Citadel, the governance layer Travis co-founded with Thomas McShane to keep AI agents in check in healthcare and beyond. In this episode, Chris Hutchins and Travis get into how agents drift from their training over time, why you can't simply prompt your way into better-behaved AI, and the "trusted agent score" (TAC score) that functions like a FICO score for AI performance. They also cover the tangled state of AI regulation in the U.S., 151 different compliance standards and counting and who actually carries the liability when an agent gets it wrong.
In this episode:
The real story behind the patient data leak that led to My Compliance Citadel
Why AI agents "want to make you happy", and why that's a problem
The TAC score: scoring AI agents like a credit score
Why EHRs shouldn't be the customization layer for AI
Navigating HIPAA, the EU AI Act, and dozens of overlapping compliance standards
Why trust, not technology, is the real challenge of the AI era
Chapters:
00:00 – Cold Open: A Rare Vantage Point
01:39 – From Psychology to Healthcare Operations to AI
04:53 – What Real Practices Feel When AI Enters the Room
11:56 – The Ambient Scribe Problem: Three Documents, One Public Prompt
16:59 – Why AI Gives You Choice, Not Just Time
19:06 – The Payer vs. Small Provider AI Arms Race
22:32 – Where AI Actually Earns Its Keep
26:59 – Should AI Live Inside the EHR — Or Above It?
29:13 – The Leak: How a Scheduling Project Exposed Patient Data
30:52 – Building My Compliance Citadel: The Hallway Monitor Model
35:26 – The TAC Score: A FICO Score for AI Agents
41:03 – Why You Can't Prompt Your Way Into a Better-Behaved Agent
46:42 – Navigating HIPAA, the EU AI Act, and 151 Compliance Standards
53:23 – Who's Really Liable When AI Goes Wrong
58:47 – The Bigger Problem: Eroding Trust in Leadership
1:02:43 – The 60/40 Knowledge Gap Facing Junior Staff
1:09:32 – Where to Find Travis and Kickstand AI

📘 Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon
Support the show
About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.

Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi
Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
...more
1h 6min
August 05, 2026Medical governance: ChatGPT Medical Advice: Why You Shouldn't Upload Your Records | Dr. Terry Adirim
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Only 12% of people are fully health literate, a statistic Dr. Terry Adirim calls "astounding." As patients increasingly turn to ChatGPT and Claude before their appointments, she has one clear rule: never upload your full medical record into a general LLM.
In this episode, Chris Hutchins sits down with Dr. Adirim, pediatric emergency physician, former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, and author of the upcoming book "The Prepared Patient" to unpack what happens when AI enters the exam room. They cover the accountability question when AI shapes a diagnosis or flags a coverage denial, why she believes AI should be designed with clinicians and not around them, the informed consent gap around ambient AI scribes, and why patients researching symptoms on AI should treat it as the start of a conversation with their doctor not the final word.
In this episode:
Why only 12% of patients are fully health literate, and what that costs them
The one thing you should never upload into a general AI chatbot
Who's accountable when AI shapes a clinical decision
What informed consent should actually look like with ambient AI scribes
Why the most successful health startups have physicians as founders
Chapters
00:00 – Cold Open: Three Seats at the Table
01:14 – Dr. Adirim's Path: From Pediatric ER to the Pentagon
02:34 – The Gap Between AI Policy and What's Happening on the Floor
04:55 – What Individuals, States, and Industry Each Need to Do
08:45 – Introducing "The Prepared Patient"
11:20 – The Interoperability Problem Nobody's Fixed
17:20 – Layering AI Above the Electronic Health Record
21:21 – Patients Arriving With Their Own AI Research
24:46 – Who's Accountable When AI Shapes a Diagnosis
26:16 – Designing AI With Physicians, Not Around Them
34:56 – Why Board Exams Still Ban AI Use
38:34 – Should Medical Students Use AI Early in Training?
39:34 – Informed Consent and Ambient AI Scribes
43:13 – Getting Test Results Faster — At What Cost?
47:07 – The One Thing to Never Upload Into AI
49:40 – Where to Find Dr. Adirim and Pre-Order the Book

📘 Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon
Support the show
About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.

Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi
Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
...more
50min
July 29, 2026Ethical leadership in business: The Unsupervised AI Problem Nobody's Talking About
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The 2 AM AI Mistake That Can Destroy Your Business Overnight
There's a version of AI that quietly grows your business while you sleep, and a version that sends the wrong message to the wrong client at 2 a.m., and nobody catches it for a week. Same tools. Different outcome. The difference is what you keep a human on.
In this episode, Chris Hutchins sits down with Ethan, founder of Overclocked AI, to talk about building AI-powered growth systems for consulting firms and small businesses, and where those systems quietly break. Ethan walks through the three-part "AI growth engine" his company builds (outbound research, AI sales response, 24/7 booking), why most AI failures trace back to messy human processes rather than the AI itself, and the exact line between what an agent should handle and what still needs a real person: judgment calls, objections, negotiation, anything with relationship risk.
They also get into the governance side most agencies skip entirely — the inflated growth promises floating around AI marketing right now, why "we'll grow your business to $800K" means nothing without a real diagnostic first, and Ethan's blunt rule for any founder deploying AI: you built the system, so you're responsible for what it does in your name.
In this episode:
Why agentic AI isn't the risk, ungoverned AI is
The 90-day rollout most AI implementations skip
How to spot inflated promises from AI agencies
Where human judgment can't be automated, no matter how good the system is
What actually breaks first when a business removes the human in the loop
📘 Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon
Support the show
About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.

Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi
Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
...more
42min

FAQs about The Signal Room with Chris Hutchins:

How many episodes does The Signal Room with Chris Hutchins have?

The podcast currently has 47 episodes available.