This Week Health: Conference

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

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

July 16, 2025: Aaron Neinstein, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Notable Health, explores breaking down the barriers to the patient experience with AI. The conversation examines the human side of AI implementation and how leaders can address workforce fears while ensuring automation enhances rather than replaces care delivery. How do you shift from thinking about AI as labor replacement to embracing what Neinstein calls "scalable privilege"—democratizing access to high-quality healthcare for everyone? This episode unpacks the operational friction driving healthcare worker burnout and presents a practical vision for how intelligent automation can bridge the gap between what care providers want to deliver and what the current system allows. Key Points: 05:57 Customer Innovations and Success Stories 13:12 Enterprise-Level Transformation  16:05 Organizational Change Management 25:11 Speed Round Questions\ X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

July 11, 2025: Mick Coady, CTO at Armis, tackles a problem that has been haunting healthcare IT for decades: you can't protect what you don't know you have. The conversation reveals how hospitals still rely on manual processes to track everything from IV pumps to imaging equipment, often discovering critical vulnerabilities only when it's too late. What's the real cost when imaging machines sit idle, losing over $26,000 per hour, or when "good" IV pumps hide in closets while staff struggle with failing equipment? The discussion explores how healthcare teams can finally move beyond overwhelming alert fatigue to focus on what truly threatens patient care. Key Points: 02:55 Challenges in Medical Device Security 08:53 Business Context and Risk Management 11:16 Asset Lifecycle and Utilization 13:51 Real-World Examples and Stories X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

July 10, 2025: Christopher Scanzera, Interim CIO at Lurie Children's Hospital, and Judy Kirby, Executive Recruiter at Kirby Partners, join Bill for a discussion around interim roles. With 53% of sitting healthcare CIOs having been in their roles for only three years, what Bill dubs “the great CIO musical chairs,” the conversation dives into the critical differences between interim and permanent leadership roles. What unique qualities does an interim leader need to succeed when they have just weeks, not months, to build relationships and drive results? The conversation explores what it really takes to transition from interim to permanent leadership in today's rapidly evolving technology landscape.   Key Points: 01:21 The Interim Leadership Landscape 07:24 Building Organizational Alignment 25:11 Compensation and Workload for Interim CIOs 28:40 Preparing for Full-Time CIO Role   X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

July 9, 2025: Todd Barton, AVP, Enterprise Sales Engineering at Rubrik, and PV SubbaRao, SVP of Global Healthcare and Life Sciences from Rackspace, reveal how they're revolutionizing healthcare's approach to cyber resilience through their groundbreaking partnership. The conversation delves deep into the concept of Isolated Recovery Environments (IRE) and the "Minimum Viable Hospital" - but what exactly does it mean to operate at bare minimum while maintaining patient care, and how do you determine what systems are truly essential when every second counts? As healthcare organizations grapple with doing more with less, these experts explore how proper cyber recovery planning can actually unlock 20-25% cost savings that can be reinvested into the innovations hospitals need.  Key Points: 05:04 Preemptive Recovery  10:21 Minimum Viable Hospital and IRE 20:21 Cost and Productivity Optimization X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

July 3, 2025: Alan Smith, SVP and CIO of Lifepoint Health, joins Bill for a discussion on the top challenges facing CIOs. How do you balance immediate system stability when your organization is built through constant acquisitions? Al discusses his approach to the "CIO escape room" scenarios that define modern healthcare IT, from major partner outages to the ongoing tension between cloud-first strategies and financial realities. As healthcare organizations grapple with cost pressures while demanding more from their IT departments, Alan reveals how LifePoint navigates these competing forces and what it takes to build resilient systems in an industry where failure isn't an option. Key Points: 04:57 CIO Escape Room 14:14 The Importance of Inquisitiveness 17:31 Strategies in Virtual Leadership 26:12 Advice for Future Healthcare IT Leaders X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

July 1, 2025: Sue Schade, Principal at StarBridge Advisors, sits down with Brian Sterud, VP of IT, CIO, and CISO of Faith Regional Health Services. Brian tackles a pressing question facing healthcare leaders today: how do we regulate AI without killing innovation? His perspective on finding the right balance between safety and progress offers valuable insights as the industry navigates uncharted territory. The conversation reveals how rural health systems face unique operational challenges, from patients driving three hours for care to IT staff covering vast geographic territories. Brian shares details about an innovative college partnership program designed to address workforce shortages by combining education with hands-on experience.  Key Points: 01:38 Challenges of a Rural Health System 06:11 Balancing CIO and CISO Roles 08:02 Addressing Workforce Challenges 13:05 Navigating Regulatory Challenges X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

June 26, 2025: Michael Han, MD, Enterprise CMIO and VP of MultiCare Health System, discusses his transition from the operating room to the boardroom. He argues that the path forward isn't through automating clinical decisions, but through revolutionizing call centers, scheduling, prior authorizations, and referrals. Michael reveals how ambient clinical documentation must evolve beyond simple note-taking into a treasure trove of unstructured data that can drive actions across the entire care continuum—from pre-visit chart preparation to post-visit care coordination. The conversation explores how leaders establish credibility as they transition from the operating room to the boardroom. Key Points: 02:43 Impact of Ambient Clinical Documentation 05:51 AI and Large Language Models in Healthcare 10:27 The Role of CMIO in Digital Transformation 15:05 Leadership and Credibility in Healthcare 24:51 Speed Round: Personal Insights X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer  

June 24, 2025: Mathew Moss, SVP and CIO at New England Donor Services, joins Sarah to discuss the amazing stories and stubborn challenges in the world of organ donation. When hospitals process over 100,000 death referrals annually, how do cutting-edge systems determine which cases have life-saving potential? The conversation delves into the sobering reality that less than 50% of organ donors are registered, leading to hundreds of preventable deaths on waiting lists, while exploring how machine learning and real-time data streaming are revolutionizing a field where every minute counts. As Mathew shares the emotional weight of working with families on the worst day of their lives and the rush of innovating with technology that enables organs to be pumped outside the body for extended viability, listeners gain insight into a world where compassion meets precision engineering. Key Points: 03:13 Technology Integration in Organ Donation 08:30 The Emotional and Logistical Side of Donating 12:06 Community Outreach and Education 17:46 Future Innovations and Standout Stories 23:37 Lightning Round X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer