The 229 Podcast

April 20, 2026: What happens when you layer AI onto broken processes without fixing them first? Angel Mena, MD, CMO of Symplr, joins Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson on Newsday to answer that question with the kind of clinical candor only a practicing physician can bring. From ambient documentation to quality metrics to the credentialing chaos hiding inside every health system, this conversation exposes the gap between AI's promise and what healthcare leaders must do to close it before the opportunity slips away.
Key Points:
00:37 Clinicians and Tech Today
07:44 Beyond the AI Hype
14:49 Admin Burden Credentialing
18:44 Governance Change 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

April 16, 2026: Something big is changing at This Week Health, and it starts with this episode. Bill Russell sits down with Sarah Richardson to announce that Flourish, the beloved show Sarah has helmed since joining TWH, is joining the 229 Podcast. But this isn't a step back; it's a consolidation of purpose. Bill and Sarah unpack why simplifying to a single channel better serves the healthcare IT community, what listeners can expect going forward, and why the conversations that happened on Flourish aren't going away, just coming home.
Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:
https://thisweekhealth.com/news/
Key Points:
02:30 Flourish Joins 229
08:06 Signal Reports And AI
16:52 City Tour Plans
21:55 Fundraising Rides Events

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

April 13, 2026: Jacob Hansen, Chief Product and Technology Officer at AvaSure, joins Bill, Drex, and Sarah on Newsday for a conversation about the data governance battles quietly reshaping AI. From who owns AI model improvements derived from a health system's environment to whether EHRs should have control over how that data is used, Jacob pulls no punches. The conversation also tackles the evolving CIO title, the future of computer science careers in an AI-driven world, and why nursing may be one of the most AI-resilient roles in healthcare.
Key Points:
01:07 CIO to CTDO Shift
06:52 Data Ownership and Governance
13:24 AI Transparency and Governance
21:00 Careers and AI Future

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

April 3, 2026: Kory Hudson, Deputy CIO at University Health in San Antonio, Texas, and Lindsay Hudson, SVP of Client Partnerships at Nordic, join Bill Russell live from HIMSS to share how a candid assessment, a governance overhaul, and a return to scheduling best practice transformed patient access and unlocked millions in net revenue.
Key Points:
02:57 Back to Best Practice Scheduling
04:08 Nordic Assessment and Key Gaps
06:30 Foundation Rebuild and Change
09:53 Early Results and CIO Advice

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

April 1, 2026: Healthcare fraud is a $300 billion problem, and the old rules-based approach isn't stopping it. In this Solution Showcase from the HIMSS floor, Tim McNamee, Enterprise Account Manager, and Mark Larochelle, Strategic Public Sector Account Executive, of Cloudera explore how agentic AI is transforming fraud detection, clinical decision support, and data governance in healthcare. From enabling human-in-the-loop workflows to bringing AI directly to protected data inside your own environment, Cloudera is redefining what private AI looks like at scale.
Key Points:
01:12 Cloudera Origins And AI Shift
03:30 Fraud Detection With Agentic AI
07:17 Explainability, Private AI, And Governance
11:26 Surprises, Cost Benefits, and Wrap Up

X: This Week Health
LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer