March 18, 2025: Today on TownHall, Sue Schade, Principal at StarBridge Advisors, talks with Sonney Sapra, SVP and CIO at Samaritan Health Services. Sonney discusses his nearly four-year journey at Samaritan Health, detailing the organization's focus on technological innovation, financial sustainability, and population health. Why move to a fully cloud-based infrastructure? How can AI and ambient listening technologies transform healthcare? Sonny shares insights into these questions and more, including integrating health plan data to improve patient outcomes. He also delves into workforce management in a remote and hybrid environment, and emphasizes the importance of understanding organizational needs in vendor partnerships. Finally, Sonny discusses his future role as a TownHall moderator in 2025 and his passion for sharing knowledge within the CIO community.

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March 17, 2025: Dr. Donita Brown, Business Professor and Host of The Management Minute podcast, explores the fascinating shifts in workplace motivation across generations. Donita shares powerful insights on the demographic cliff affecting higher education and the potential rise of micro-learning formats like "micro MBAs." Through stories about family vacations, workplace dynamics, and lessons from her father, Dr. Brown offers listeners quick insights into generational leadership and career development.

Key Points:

• 03:50 The Power of Listening
• 09:29 The Future of Higher Education
• 20:48 Mastering Mutual Gains Negotiation
• 29:35 Lessons from Writing a Book
• 33:29 Staying Relevant and Thriving

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March 14, 2025: This is the sixth episode of the Zero Trust Hospital Series. Tamer Baker, Healthcare CTO at Zscaler, explores the critical aspects of promoting a zero-trust culture in healthcare organizations. How can healthcare leaders effectively communicate the strategic value of zero trust to their boards? What approaches yield the best results when tailoring messages to different stakeholders like CNOs and CMOs? The conversation delves into the transformative impact of zero trust on mergers and acquisitions, potentially reducing integration time while enhancing security. 

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Key Points:

• 01:03 Communicating Zero Trust to the Board
• 03:34 Engaging Internal Stakeholders
• 09:32 The Avalanche Effect of Zero Trust

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March 13, 2025: Tracy Donegan, Chief Information and Innovation Officer at MLK Community Healthcare, shares her approach to solving seemingly insurmountable problems through creative thinking and scrappiness, pushing beyond conventional limitations. The conversation explores MLK's commitment to health equity through innovative programs like their street medicine team and the upcoming empath unit for psychiatric patients. Tracy offers insights into the importance of fostering partnerships built on shared mission and reducing clinician burnout, all while maintaining a deeply personal connection to the community she serves.

Key Points:

• 01:48 Tracy's Professional Journey
• 07:08 Digital Innovation and Patient Engagement
• 10:11 Community Impact and Health Equity
• 16:50 Lessons from the Pandemic
• 23:49 Speed Round: Personal Insights

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March 12, 2025: From the floor of HIMSS 2025 in Vegas Colin Banas, CMO of DrFirst, and Thomas Wells, Medical director of Piedmont, explore the evolving landscape of healthcare technology. How might AI transform physician-patient relationships rather than diminishing them? What would need to change for true interoperability to become reality instead of remaining an endless talking point? The physicians discuss Piedmont's vast Georgia network and their innovative approaches to telehealth, virtual specialists, and the pressing need to address behavioral health through technology. 

Key Points:

1. 03:52 Interoperability and EHR Systems
2. 05:55 AI in Medication Management
3. 10:01 Telemedicine and Behavioral Health
4. 11:24 Closing Thoughts and Fun Question

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March 11: In this episode of TownHall, Karla Arzola, Chief Information Officer at Campbell County Health speaks with Jay Millar, Client Director at World Wide Technology and author of 'Be a Hero in Your Home’. Jay shares his compelling journey from a challenging upbringing to becoming a mentor and leader dedicated to helping others succeed. How does one turn personal struggles into strengths? Why is mentorship crucial, especially for men facing unique societal pressures? Jay discusses the importance of finding mentors, being vulnerable, and taking intentional actions to improve one's life. He also highlights the significance of creating  spaces for open, honest dialogue. This episode is perfect for anyone looking to understand the transformative power of mentorship and the steps to cultivate meaningful, supportive relationships both personally and professionally.

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March 7, 2025: In this Interview in Action live from ViVE ‘25, Bill talks with Patience Phillips, Senior Director Information Technology at St. Luke’s University Health System. They dive into Patience’s role overseeing IT physician services, various service lines, access centers, and project management offices. They discuss St. Luke’s transformation of their call centers, highlighting the shift to remote agents and standardizing processes. How does a healthcare network prioritize and execute strategic initiatives such as EPIC modules and ERP implementations? Patience explains her project management approach, including the use of hybrid agile methodologies. Patience also touches on her robust process for construction, mergers, and acquisitions, emphasizing rapid deployment, security, and standardization. How do they integrate new facilities effectively?

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March 7, 2025: Dr. Andrew Gostine, CEO of Artisight, to discuss how Artisight is revolutionizing patient care with their integrated hardware and AI solutions. The interview focuses on their easy-to-implement hardware innovations. Shifting to software, Andrew highlights their AI’s ability to understand ambient video and audio, learning across thousands of hospital and operating rooms. 

Key Points:

1. 00:52 Artisight's Hardware Innovations
2. 06:11 Artisight’s Software Innovation
3. 08:07 Ambient Nursing Documentation

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March 6, 2025: Eric Smith, SVP and CDO at Memorial Hermann Health System, discusses how their health system successfully transitioned to Epic's EHR while maintaining patient satisfaction. Eric reveals the strategic approach that led to nearly 500,000 patient activations and details Memorial Hermann's innovative AI governance structure with specialized working groups. From expanding services into new communities to addressing healthcare affordability through standardization, Eric offers a compelling perspective on building a digital healthcare ecosystem that truly serves the patient.

Key Points:

1. 01:23 Memorial Hermann's EPIC EHR Transition
2. 15:41 Innovation and Pilot Programs
3. 17:39 Value-Based Care and Cost Management
4. 23:08 Future of Healthcare Technology
5. 30:30 Speed Round: Personal Insights

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March 5, 2025: Scott D'Entremont, CRO from Parlance, explores how Parlance's conversational AI technology is transforming the often overlooked healthcare voice channel. D'Entremont reveals how their AI solutions handle everything from appointment inquiries to complex routing across thousands of destinations.

Key Points:

1. 01:18 Conversational AI in the Call Center
2. 04:11 Challenges and Solutions in Call Management
3. 07:01 Standardizing Healthcare Workflows

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