The 229 Podcast: 20 Years, Zero Paper, One Vision: Pioneering on a Budget with Tanya Townsend
December 4, 2025: Tanya Townsend, CIDO at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, didn't just receive a lifetime achievement award from CHIME—she pioneered the first all-digital hospital back in 2005. Now Tanya is navigating the ultimate healthcare paradox: how do you invest in AI and digital transformation while facing unprecedented budget pressures? In this conversation, she reveals how ambient listening got clinicians home for dinner, why their digital front door adoption jumped 36% practically overnight, and her surprising take on the AI hype cycle.Key Points:02:04 Career Highlights and Achievements06:57 Digital Transformation Journey14:57 Challenges in Pediatric Healthcare23:35 The Role of AI in Healthcare30:50 Future OutlookX: This Week HealthLinkedIn: This Week HealthDonate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
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Solution Showcase: Tackling Identity Management at Scale with Bill Willis and Kristin Hoppe
December 3, 2025: A nurse practitioner shows up for their first ED shift at the hospital where they've worked for years. But the system doesn't recognize them, their login doesn't work, and five different teams scramble to merge records while the manager burns hours just getting them access. Kristin Hoppe, Information System Manager at Baylor Scott & White, and Bill Willis, CTO and Head of Advisory at IDMWORKS, reveal how they solved healthcare's most persistent identity crisis—not with new technology, but by reimagining the data itself. The solution transforms onboarding from weeks to minutes while slashing costs across the board.Key Points:05:27 Baylor Scott & White's Solutions for IAM08:04 Implementation and Challenges15:06 ROI and Business Impact22:23 Future Prospects and Patient IdentityX: This Week HealthLinkedIn: This Week HealthDonate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
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Newsday: The AI Staffing Dilemma - The Productivity Paradox with This Week Health
December 1, 2025: As AI tools rapidly transform healthcare IT workflows, leaders face an unexpected challenge: what happens when your team becomes dramatically more productive? Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson explore the productivity paradox hitting healthcare organizations—when AI enables staff to accomplish in hours what once took weeks, do you need fewer people or different approaches? From closing open positions to managing "cozy" employees who've mastered automation, they debate real strategies for navigating this shift. Whether you're a process-driven leader or innovation-focused builder, this discussion reveals how AI is forcing healthcare IT to rethink staffing, workflow waste, and organizational culture before it's too late.Key Points:02:56 AI in the Workplace: Efficiency and Challenges17:15 Leadership Styles and AI Integration20:33 Approaching the AI Wave26:23 Balancing Leadership Styles32:11 End-of-Year Reflections and PredictionsX: This Week HealthLinkedIn: This Week HealthDonate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
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The 229 Podcast: Technology Is Not a Strategy - the Problem-First Approach with Shane Thielman
November 27, 2025: Shane Thielman, Corporate SVP and CIO at Scripps Health, shares how a compliance auditor switched their primary care physician after reviewing ambient documentation—a surprising indicator of AI's real clinical impact. In this conversation, Shane reveals the seven-year journey to get 40% of appointments online, the command center approach that reduced admission wait times by 25%, and why Scripps runs quarterly clinical continuity exercises after their 2021 cyber event. He challenges the notion that technology is a strategy, instead demonstrating how Scripps attacks problems first with a disciplined approach to prioritization. Shane also discusses their internal ChatGPT "sharing economy" and why most AI features go undiscovered without intentional workflow integration.Key Points:04:17 City Tour Dinner Insights09:37 Operationalizing a Command Center11:23 Epic UGM Implementation22:51 Leveraging AI for Improved Patient Care30:35 Shared Governance and AI IntegrationX: This Week HealthLinkedIn: This Week HealthDonate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
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Newsday: Merger Madness and Why Hospitals are Moving Back to On-Prem Data with Dave Dyell
November 24, 2025: Healthcare organizations are drowning in applications they can't even inventory, especially after mergers and acquisitions. But the real shock comes when they try to access archived data years later. Dave Dyell, Managing Partner at Innovative Consulting Group, reveals why cloud storage fees are forcing health systems to rethink their entire archiving strategy, particularly for medical imaging. With AI initiatives on the horizon, the way you archive data today determines whether you can afford to use it tomorrow. Learn why strategic planning for data archiving isn't optional anymore—it's the difference between controlling costs and watching them spiral out of control.Key Points:03:12 Archiving and Data Management09:30 On-Prem vs Cloud Storage18:33 Future Strategies and ConclusionX: This Week HealthLinkedIn: This Week HealthDonate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
Some conversations are too important to stay in the room. The 229 Podcast, hosted by Bill Russell, continues the dynamic discussions from our community events, bringing together healthcare leaders who are actively transforming the industry.
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