Straight Outta Health IT

Hosted by Straight Outta Health IT

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115

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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EN-US

About the show

This is Straight Outta Health IT, produced by GrowCo, is an unfiltered dialogue of healthcare leaders and influencers covering a wide variety of issues affecting healthcare & the health tech industry. Host Christopher Kunney covers tech in a fresh and candid way you won’t want to miss.

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October 13, 202629 min

92% of Surgery Patients Face Anxiety. Are We Preparing Them? | Heather Campbell

Surgery doesn't start in the operating room. It starts the moment you hear the words, “You need surgery.” In this episode of Straight Outta Health IT , Christopher Kunney sits down with Heather Campbell, Founder & CEO of Ready Set Recover , to explore the emotional, behavioral, and practical sides of surgical preparation and recovery. Inspired by her own surgical experience, Heather created Ready Set Recover to help patients manage anxiety, prepare for decisions, build healthy habits, and become active partners in their care. In this conversation, we discuss: 🔹 Preoperative anxiety: Why the emotional journey begins long before surgery. 🔹 Ready Set Recover: How its 24-day framework supports patients before, during, and after surgery. 🔹 Mindfulness and CBT: Evidence-based approaches to managing stress and unhelpful thought patterns. 🔹 Patient engagement: Why actively participating in preparation can help patients feel more confident and informed. 🔹 Community and support: How family, friends, and practical help can make the recovery journey easier. 🔹 The provider perspective: How patient preparation can support healthcare teams and the overall surgical experience. 🔹 The recovery myth: Why surgery isn't over when you leave the hospital. Christopher also shares his personal experience recovering from brain surgery and the lessons he learned about recovery, expectations, and listening to your body. The big question: What if preparing patients for surgery became as important as preparing for the procedure itself? 🎙️ Guest: Heather Campbell, Founder & CEO, Ready Set Recover 🎙️ Host: Christopher Kunney, FHIMSS, eFACHDM, CPHIMS, MSMOT 🌐 Explore Ready Set Recover: https://readysetrecover.com

October 8, 202647 min

45% of People With Severe Mental Illness Get NO Treatment. What Happens Next?

Nearly half of people living with severe mental illness in the U.S. are receiving zero treatment. So what happens when the people who need care the most are also facing the biggest barriers to accessing it? On this episode of Straight Outta Health IT , Christopher Kunney sits down with Josh Schoeller, CEO of Qualifacts , for a candid conversation about behavioral health, AI, health equity, interoperability, neurodiversity, Medicaid, and the future of mental healthcare. We get real about: 🔹 The 45% treatment gap and why so many people still can't access behavioral healthcare 🔹 Trust, stigma, social determinants of health, and the connection between physical and mental health 🔹 AI that actually solves problems — including ambient listening, clinical documentation, and reducing clinician workload 🔹 Neurodiversity, rural behavioral health, telehealth, and language access 🔹 Interoperability, FHIR, the Da Vinci Project, Medicaid, and the policy challenges facing behavioral health And the bigger question: Are we actually using technology to solve healthcare's hardest problems — or are we just adding technology to problems we haven't solved? 🎙️ Guest: Josh Schoeller, CEO, Qualifacts 🎙️ Host: Christopher Kunney, FHIMSS, eFACHDM, CPHIMS, MSMOT This is Straight Outta Health IT — where we keep it real about health policy, innovation, technology, and equity.

October 2, 202641 min

Accessible for Whom? The AI & Healthcare Technology Gap | Julia Franklin, MS CCC-SLP

What does it really mean when we call healthcare technology “accessible”? And perhaps the more important question is: Accessible for whom? On this episode of Straight Outta Health IT , Christopher Kunney sits down with Julia Franklin, MS CCC-SLP, Chief Learning Officer at Cephable , for a conversation about accessibility, disability inclusion, AI, and the future of healthcare technology. AI is everywhere. Digital transformation is everywhere. New technologies are being introduced into healthcare and enterprise environments at an incredible pace. But are we designing these technologies for the people who actually need them? Julia brings an important perspective to the conversation: people with disabilities should not have to rely exclusively on “special technology.” They should be able to use the same great emerging technologies everyone else is using — and have those technologies work for them. That raises a bigger challenge for healthcare leaders, technology companies, and organizations: When we say something is accessible, are we actually asking who it is accessible for? Because accessibility isn't one-size-fits-all. A technology that works for someone with an upper mobility disability may not work for someone with low vision. And technology designed with one group in mind can still create barriers for another. In this episode, Christopher and Julia get real about what accessibility needs to look like as healthcare continues to adopt AI and emerging technology. We get real about: 🔹 What AI could mean for the disability community 🔹 Why people shouldn't have to depend on “special tech” to participate in the digital world 🔹 The difference between calling technology accessible and actually making it accessible 🔹 Why accessibility has to include the question: “Accessible for whom?” 🔹 How different disabilities can create very different technology needs 🔹 The accessibility gap across healthcare and enterprise technology 🔹 What healthcare systems should be thinking about when making technology decisions 🔹 Why building technology for everyone requires us to think beyond a single definition of accessibility The future of healthcare technology is not just about how advanced the technology becomes. It's about who gets to use it. If we're building the next generation of healthcare technology, AI, and digital experiences, accessibility can't be an afterthought. It has to be part of the conversation from the beginning. 🎙️ Guest: Julia Franklin, MS CCC-SLP Chief Learning Officer, Cephable 🎙️ Host: Christopher Kunney Podcast: Straight Outta Health IT Subscribe to Straight Outta Health IT for conversations at the intersection of healthcare, technology, leadership, AI, accessibility, innovation, and the future of healthcare. #StraightOuttaHealthIT #SOHIT #HealthcareTechnology #HealthIT #Accessibility #DisabilityInclusion #AI #HealthcareAI #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #HealthEquity #AssistiveTechnology

September 10, 202643 min

Why Is American Healthcare So Expensive? | Malgorzata Guyot, PhD

Why is American healthcare so expensive, and why doesn’t spending more necessarily translate into better outcomes? In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, Christopher Kunney sits down with Malgorzata Guyot, PhD, an Independent Board & C-Suite Advisor with extensive experience across pharma, manufacturing, finance & audit, and international business. Having worked across the United States and Europe, Malgorzata brings a unique perspective to one of healthcare’s most complicated questions: why do different healthcare systems produce such different economic and clinical realities? This conversation goes beyond EHRs, AI, and technology to examine the underlying financial, governance, regulatory, and incentive structures that shape healthcare. 🎙️ Straight Out of Health IT is hosted by Christopher Kunney, bringing raw, unfiltered conversations about the people, policies, economics, and innovations reshaping healthcare. If you found this conversation valuable, like, subscribe, and share the episode with someone working in healthcare, health IT, pharma, finance, policy, or healthcare leadership. -- 🔗 CONNECT WITH THE GUESTMalgorzata Guyot on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malgorzata-guyot-phd/ 🎙️ CONNECT WITH THE HOST About Christopher Kunney: https://sohit.host/your-host Christopher Kunney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherkunney/ Christopher Kunney on X: https://x.com/HealthITProf IOTech Consulting: https://iotechconsulting.com/ --#Healthcare #HealthIT #HealthcareLeadership #HealthEquity #HealthcareInnovation #HealthTech

September 3, 2026Episode 243 min

Healthcare Has a Knowledge Crisis | Dr. Ido Zamberg on AI, Clinical Care & the Future of Health IT

Healthcare has a knowledge management crisis. The evidence exists, clinical guidelines exist, and best practices exist, but too often that knowledge never reaches clinicians when they need it most. In this episode of Straight Outta Health IT, host Christopher Kunney sits down with Dr. Ido Zamberg, physician, anesthesiologist, technologist and Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer of C8 Health, to explore how healthcare can close the gap between what medicine knows and what actually happens at the point of care. Dr. Zamberg brings a unique perspective from both technology and clinical medicine. He began his career as a computer scientist and technology executive before moving into medicine and becoming an anesthesiologist. Today, he is focused on using technology and AI to help healthcare organizations implement evidence-based best practices.The conversation covers healthcare AI, generative AI, clinical knowledge management, healthcare IT, digital health, evidence-based medicine, clinical decision support and the future of healthcare technology. Christopher and Dr. Zamberg discuss: • Why healthcare struggles to implement best practices • The growing clinical knowledge management crisis • Why publishing clinical guidelines does not mean they are actually implemented • The gap between medical evidence and care at the point of practice • How generative AI can help clinicians find the information they need • How AI can support clinical decision-making without replacing physicians • AI governance and responsible AI in healthcare • Healthcare alert fatigue and how to make clinical notifications more effective • The relationship between clinical knowledge management and physician burnout • How better access to clinical knowledge can improve patient outcomes • How AI can help identify gaps and potential bias in clinical best practices • Why healthcare systems should rethink how they work with healthcare startups One of the most striking points in the conversation is the idea that healthcare does not necessarily have a knowledge problem. It has a knowledge-to-practice problem. Dr. Zamberg also shares the story that inspired his work: while treating a complex patient, a critical clinical protocol was eventually found on paper inside a binder dating back to 2002. In a healthcare system surrounded by modern technology, clinicians were still struggling to find the information they needed. The episode also tackles a major question surrounding AI in medicine:Will AI replace doctors? Dr. Zamberg argues that AI is a tool to help clinicians work more efficiently, improve accuracy and make decisions based on current best practices, while human clinical judgment and accountability remain essential. If you work in healthcare IT, health technology, clinical informatics, digital health, healthcare leadership, AI or healthcare innovation, this conversation offers an important perspective on where healthcare AI can create real-world impact. #HealthcareAI #HealthcareIT #HealthTech #DigitalHealth #ClinicalAI #ArtificialIntelligence

August 27, 202646 min

The Man Who Helped Digitize American Healthcare Says We Digitized the Wrong Thing | Jonathan Bush

What happens when healthcare spends decades and hundreds of billions of dollars digitizing medical records — but clinicians still can't see the whole patient?On this episode of Straight Outta Health IT, Christopher Kunney sits down with healthcare technology veteran Jonathan Bush, Founder & CEO of Zus Health and co-founder of athenahealth, for an unfiltered conversation about the problem hiding in plain sight: healthcare has plenty of data but too much of it is trapped in silos.Jonathan doesn't mince words.He calls out “data defensiveness” the instinct across health systems, vendors and physician organizations to treat healthcare data as something to control rather than something to share for the benefit of the patient.And then there's the bigger problem:The EHR was built to store data. It wasn't built to orchestrate care.So what happens when we stop treating the medical record like a filing cabinet and start treating it like a living, shared picture of the patient?Christopher and Jonathan go deep on:- Why today's EHR infrastructure wasn't designed for value-based care- Data defensiveness and why it can work against better outcomes- The shift from fee-for-service to value-based care- Federated medical records and the idea of a common patient record- Why healthcare organizations can be reluctant to share data- Why the “fourth D” may be data- How AI can turn buried clinical information into actionable intelligence- Why AI may finally unlock the value sitting inside the medical record- What happens when AI agents become part of always-on care- The future of always-on, coordinated healthcare- Why the patient — not the claim, encounter or health system — needs to become the center of the record--Jonathan also shares lessons from his journey from EMT on the streets of New Orleans and U.S. Army combat medic to co-founding athenahealth and ultimately building Zus Health around a vision for a more connected healthcare ecosystem. The episode traces that journey directly into the problem he's trying to solve today.One of the most striking moments comes when Jonathan points out that even organizations using the same system were once faxing medical records to one another illustrating just how fragmented healthcare data has remained.And then there's AI.Jonathan explains how AI can go beyond simply surfacing structured data by actually reading attachments and identifying clinically relevant information buried in the narrative creating a much richer picture of the patient.This isn't just a conversation about technology.It's about who controls healthcare data, who gets access to it, how healthcare gets paid, how AI changes clinical work, and whether the infrastructure underneath American healthcare is finally ready for what comes next.--🎙️ Hosted by Christopher KunneyFounder, healthcare technology strategist, digital transformation leader & host of Straight Outta Health IT.👤 Guest: Jonathan BushFounder & CEO, Zus HealthCo-Founder, athenahealthIf you're working in healthcare IT, digital health, AI, interoperability, value-based care, EHR strategy, health data, population health, care coordination or healthcare transformation, this conversation is for you.Stay curious. Stay disruptive.And this is Straight Outta Health IT.---🔗 CONNECT WITH THE GUESTJonathan Bush on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbushjr/🎙️ CONNECT WITH THE HOSTAbout Christopher Kunney: https://sohit.host/your-hostChristopher Kunney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherkunney/Christopher Kunney on X: https://x.com/HealthITProfIOTech Consulting: https://iotechconsulting.com/--#straightouttahealthit #healthit #healthtech #digitalhealth #healthcareai #ehr #healthdata #interoperability #valuebasedcare #jonathanbush #zushealth #christopherkunney #healthcareinnovation

August 4, 202643 min

Maximizing Your Personal Brand

Your personal brand is not just your resume; it is the story people experience before you ever enter the room. In this episode of Straight Outta Health IT, Christopher Kunney sits down with Dorothea Bozicolona-Volpe, Social Media Marketing and Execution Consultant at Social Espionage, to explore why personal branding has become essential for healthcare IT leaders, clinicians, consultants, vendors, and anyone looking to grow their influence in a competitive industry. Dorothea explains that building a strong personal brand starts with building a community and that being "open for business" means approaching others with an open mind, an open heart, and a genuine willingness to connect. She also challenges the belief that good work alone is enough to create new opportunities. In today's digital and AI-driven world, visibility matters, and professionals need to be intentional about how they present themselves both online and offline. Dorothea shares practical strategies for identifying your audience, selecting the right platforms, engaging with niche communities, and creating content that educates, engages, entertains, emotes, shows empathy, or empowers. Drawing from her global background, intelligence work, marketing expertise, and personal journey, Dorothea offers a thoughtful perspective on what it takes to stand out while remaining authentic. She reminds listeners that personal branding is not about vanity but about creating clarity, fostering meaningful connections, and communicating purpose. Tune in to learn how healthcare professionals can build a personal brand that reflects who they are, opens doors, and helps them stand out with intention! Resources: Connect with and follow Dorothea Bozicolona-Volpe on LinkedIn . Follow Social Espionage on LinkedIn and explore their website ! Watch Dorothea Bozicolona-Volpe’s TEDxNYIT talk here !

July 28, 20261 hr 4 min

Meharry Health Equity Moonshot Summit

Key Takeaways AI can either help reduce healthcare inequities or magnify existing bias, depending on how it is designed, trained, governed, and used. Responsible AI requires transparency, representative data, community participation, and clear accountability when tools fail or cause harm. Health equity work cannot be treated as philanthropy; it requires shared ownership across health systems, government, industry, nonprofits, and communities. Health systems must address existing bias in clinical language, protocols, and care delivery before expecting AI to fix systemic problems. Trust is built through transparency, shared power, community partnership, and honest conversations about the harms patients still experience today. Resources Connect with Tanisha Sullivan on LinkedIn . Follow Sanofi on LinkedIn and explore their website . Connect with Dr. Chris Pernell on LinkedIn . Follow the NAACP on LinkedIn and explore the website . Connect with Kimberly Wells on LinkedIn . Follow Ascension on LinkedIn and explore their website .

July 21, 202649 min

One Platform to Rule Them All — The AI Governance Reckoning in Medical Imaging

Healthcare AI is moving faster than many health systems can govern it. In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, David Hilderbrand, Chief Commercial Officer at Ferrum Health, joins Christopher Kunney to discuss the rapid rise of clinical AI, medical imaging AI consolidation, and the growing need for enterprise-level governance. He explains why health systems are no longer just asking which AI tools to buy, but how to monitor, manage, and understand the tools already running across their organizations. As AI enters through devices, platforms, service lines, and vendor relationships, CIOs and clinical leaders are facing a new kind of operational complexity. The conversation explores why effective AI oversight has become essential as adoption accelerates across healthcare. David breaks down the difference between AI committees, analytics, telemetry, and true governance. He explains that governance is not simply about knowing whether an algorithm is turned on, but about understanding how it behaves in clinical care and how it performs across different patient populations. Without that level of visibility, health systems risk overlooking issues such as bias, model drift, inconsistent performance, and patient impact. He argues that meaningful governance is critical to ensuring AI delivers safe, reliable, and measurable clinical value. David also shares how Ferrum Health approaches clinical AI through platforming, observability, and neutral model monitoring. Rather than recommending which AI tools organizations should adopt, Ferrum helps health systems gain visibility into their entire AI portfolio so they can make informed decisions about expanding, replacing, or retiring algorithms. The discussion also covers measuring ROI, recognizing the costs of underperforming AI models, and the importance of early disease detection. Hilderbrand concludes by explaining why AI governance should remain independent from vendor bias to support better long-term clinical and operational outcomes. Tune in to hear why clinical AI governance is becoming essential infrastructure for health systems, and why the future of healthcare AI depends on visibility, accountability, and trust. Key Takeaways Clinical AI is expanding quickly, but many health systems lack the tools to understand what is actually running across their environments. Vendor sprawl is creating new operational, financial, and clinical risks as AI tools enter through devices, platforms, and service lines. True AI governance goes beyond telemetry and analytics; it requires visibility into how algorithms interact with patients and clinical workflows. Health systems need unbiased observability to determine whether clinical AI tools are performing as promised. AI governance can help organizations reduce the cost of failed algorithms and improve the value of their AI investments. Early detection through clinical AI can improve patient outcomes while also reducing downstream care costs. Governance must remain separate from vendor bias so health systems can make clear decisions about which tools to keep, expand, replace, or remove. The next phase of clinical AI will require stronger infrastructure, especially as agentic AI and cloud-based workflow solutions grow. Resources Connect with David Hilderbrand on LinkedIn . Follow Ferrum Health on LinkedIn and visit their website .

July 14, 202645 min

PHI De-Identification, AI Data Privacy & the Future of Clinical AI

Healthcare AI can only be as strong as the data behind it, but patient privacy cannot be treated as collateral damage. In this episode of Straight Outta Health IT, Dr. Julia Komissarchik, CEO and Founder of Glendor, Inc., joins Christopher Kunney to explore one of the most pressing challenges in healthcare AI today: how to responsibly use patient data while ensuring that protected health information (PHI) is not exposed. Julia breaks down why de-identification is far more complex than simply stripping a patient’s name from a record. She explains that PHI can be embedded in many different forms beyond structured fields, including clinical text, medical images, voice recordings, video, metadata, and even indirect contextual signals such as hospital names, locations, or physician specialties. Because of this, ensuring true privacy protection requires a much more nuanced and multi-layered approach than many assume. She also highlights the importance of diversity in healthcare data when building AI systems. According to Julia, robust models depend on exposure to a wide range of populations and care settings, including rural, urban, tribal, and underserved communities, to ensure that AI performs reliably and equitably across different real-world environments. Tune in to learn why privacy, trust, and responsible data infrastructure are foundational to the future of AI in healthcare. Resources Connect with Dr. Julia Komissarchik on LinkedIn here or reach out via email here . Follow Glendor, Inc on LinkedIn here and visit their website here.