The 229 Podcast

October 1, 2026: John McDaniel, CIO at Trinity Health in Minot, North Dakota, sits down with Sarah Richardson. Trinity is the first acute system on Epic Orchard. The region is rural, about a 120-mile radius, and recruiting and educating an implementation team was the hard part. Epic handles the third-party contracts and the upgrades. Discovery replaced an RFP. More than 300 people, about 10 percent of the organization, took part. John says 97.9 percent chose Epic. He also says undercoded care was about $36 million a year. He chairs the AI council and can say no.

Key Points:

0:00 The first acute system on Orchard

4:16 Luma Health

5:32 Epic handles the contracts and the upgrades

7:38 Clearsense

8:26 Discovery instead of an RFP

10:02 A 10-year case approaches a billion dollars

10:29 About $36 million a year undercoded

13:06 Data owners sign off

13:58 The AI council can say no

16:03 $5 to $10 per encounter

19:43 Use the enterprise as an extension of DTG

LinkedIn: 229Project

Donate: Alex's Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

September 30, 2026: Christopher Tyne, Chief Engineering Officer at Health Catalyst, sits with Bill Russell. Health systems are being sold AI that demos well and does not move an outcome. Chris puts $2.8 billion in validated outcomes on the table, then the test: do not just shine a flashlight at the fire. Hand them the extinguisher. Then check whether it is still burning.
Guest: Christopher Tyne (Health Catalyst)
Key Points:
0:00 $2.8 billion. Did it do anything

0:06 Chris Tyne, Health Catalyst

2:04 AI without the healthcare lexicon

4:03 Health Catalyst

4:34 100 million Americans without primary care

6:10 Mix of experts

7:44 Coumadin

10:00 The medical record starts giving back

12:08 Clients, exploration, trained models

13:48 Don't just shine a flashlight

15:52 Close

Donate: Alex's Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:
https://thisweekhealth.com/news/

September 24, 2026: Bill Russell sits down with Derek De Young of Epic, the research and development lead Judy named as owner of Agent Factory at UGM. What CIOs keep calling a low-code builder is still a development preview. Epic staff are building alongside the sites. Early adopter is a checklist at the end of October. GA is a Q1/Q2 goal. One webinar produced over 600 ideas in a week. Inova ran measles chart reviews 15 times faster and asked to share the agent. Two teams at the first build-a-thon built the same job: $1.10 a run vs 10 cents.

Key Points:

0:00 Agent Factory is still early

7:45 What's actually available

11:18 A code-status agent in production

20:13 Chart reviews 15 times faster

22:17 Take it, shape it, make it

24:14 Who should build

26:49 Cost, traces, kill switches

45:29 600 ideas in a week

48:53 What to do in the next 90 days

LinkedIn: 229Project

Donate: Alex's Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

September 23, 2026: Christian Boucher (Healthcare CTO, Island) sits down with Sarah Richardson. He came into healthcare because his wife is a nurse. He watched clinical systems move to the browser while security got bolted on around them, and the workflows broke. One customer said they had 25 AI tools locked down. Island looked at every browser in the shop. 250. A remote clinical analyst team was waiting a minute to reach a usable EHR. On Island: 20 seconds.
Guest: Christian Boucher (Island)
Key Points:
0:00 They thought they had 25 AI tools

0:06 Welcome

0:56 Why the browser had to be rethought

5:09 Island

6:31 Browser as a control point

11:53 A minute became 20 seconds

16:21 25 tools were 250

20:17 What to ask an enterprise browser

21:20 Security that improves the experience

25:08 Close

Donate: Alex's Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer
Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:
https://thisweekhealth.com/news/

September 22, 2026: Sarah Richardson sits down with Drex DeFord for a special UnHack. No CISO guest this month. Drex is 24 hours off the Black Rock Desert and into the New Orleans regional staff roundtable, where three people told him they were there for the Burning Man stories. He answers how the city actually works. Then the picture he sent Sarah: a tardigrade on the playa. Heather Costa made that microscopic survivor the mascot for healthcare IT resilience. Same question the RSR afternoon is built on: what do you do when the bad thing happens, so patients, families, and staff still get care.
Key Points:
00:06 A Special UnHack

02:56 Fortified Health

03:30 How the City Works

08:38 Art, the Man, and the Temple

12:42 The Tardigrade

15:03 When the Bad Thing Happens

Keep up to date on the latest in health IT:
https://thisweekhealth.com/news/
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LinkedIn: This Week Health
Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer