Search site
Find podcasts, news, articles, webinars, and contributors in one search.
Channel
Podcasts Hosted by Bill Russell, Sarah Richardson, and Drex DeFord
In-depth interviews with healthcare CIOs, CISOs, and technology leaders. Bill Russell explores the decisions, strategies, and innovations shaping healthcare transformation.
Mar 31, 2026·2 Minute Drill
Drex makes the case for a role that doesn't exist yet but probably should: VP of Non-Human Resources. As AI agents multiply across health system environments, often deployed by vendors without oversight, the management infrastructure simply isn't keeping up. Agents have access, make judgment calls, and operate inside frameworks that affect patients and business operations, yet most have no job description, no onboarding, and no performance review. Drawing on signals from Harvard Business Review,
Mar 30, 2026·Newsday
March 30, 2026: Bill Russell and Drex DeFord dig into three of the biggest stories shaping healthcare IT right now. From the seismic Sutter Health and Allina Health merger, the Stryker cyberattack carried out by an Iranian-linked group Handala, and the sobering reality that threat actors like Tycoon 2FA are back online within 15 days of being taken down, this episode covers the frontlines of healthcare IT. Key Points: 00:23 Sutter Allina Merger Realities 07:29 Advice for Staff During M&A 11:
Mar 27, 2026·2 Minute Drill
Drex revisits the FBI and DOJ takedown of HANDALA, the Iranian-backed hacking group behind the Stryker wiper attack—and surfaces an uncomfortable lesson. Within 24 hours, the group was back online with new domains, same operations, same message. That's not a footnote. That's a case study in resilience. While healthcare organizations ask "how do we prevent this from happening," adversaries are asking "how fast can we rebuild when we lose everything?" The real challenge isn't just stopping attacks
Mar 24, 2026·UnHack the Podcast
March 24, 2026: Steven Ramirez , VP, CTO and CISO at Renown Health , joins Drex DeFord to pull back the curtain on how a mid-large health system keeps security at the center of everything — without becoming the department of no. From board-level briefings and identity-first defenses to a Databricks cloud buildout and a governance framework that puts security review on every DocuSign, Steven breaks down why good relationships and strong intake processes beat politics every time. This is a candid,
Mar 23, 2026·Newsday
March 23, 2026: Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson are back with a packed Newsday covering three big conversations: the AI security crisis no one is talking loudly enough about, what HIMSS 2026 actually delivered for healthcare leaders, and the real question facing every CIO and CMIO right now: Is your time worth attending two major conferences each spring? Key Points: 01:03 AI Chatbot Security 04:25 MIT AI Strategy Class 06:55 HIMSS Takeaways and Trends 10:40 Conference Value
Mar 23, 2026·2 Minute Drill
Drex unpacks a signal hiding across several recent stories: we may be deploying AI well ahead of our ability to secure it. From an autonomous AI agent that breached a consulting firm's internal chatbot in two hours, gaining access to 46 million employee messages, to a multi-agent experiment where AI systems escalated privileges, forged credentials, and disabled antivirus software entirely on their own, the pattern is unsettling. Add a publicly available AI prescribing tool in Utah that researche
Mar 16, 2026·Newsday
March 16: What are healthcare leaders really talking about at HIMSS? Bill Russell sits down with Sarah Richardson and Drex DeFord to share insights from the executive and cybersecurity forums—and the hallway conversations in between. AI dominates the discussion, but not just in clinical care. The hosts highlight the overlooked opportunities in operational workflows, patient outreach, and administrative efficiency. They also confront uncomfortable realities around workforce displacement, escalati
Mar 12, 2026·2 Minute Drill
Drex shares the story of Allison Nixon, a cybersecurity researcher who spent years quietly tracking members of "the Comm" — a loose network of online criminals involved in sim swapping, account takeovers, and cryptocurrency theft. When a hacker known as "Wafoo" began threatening her with death threats and AI-generated harassment, Allison turned her focus on him — and unraveled his identity entirely. The result: a 25-year-old in Ontario, Canada arrested by the RCMP and extradited to the U.S. The
Mar 9, 2026·Newsday
March 9, 2026: What happens when well-meaning clinicians use AI tools that no one approved? Bill Russell and Drex Ford are joined by Dr. Holly Urban , Vice President of Business Development at Wolters Kluwer , to unpack a revealing new survey on shadow AI in healthcare. From radiologists sharing PHI over Dropbox to tumor board transcripts sent to unauthorized recipients, the risks are real and growing. With 57% of staff aware of unsanctioned AI use, the question isn't whether shadow AI exists in
Mar 4, 2026·2 Minute Drill
A curious engineer in Spain reverse-engineered his robot vacuum to control it with a PlayStation controller, and accidentally gained access to 7,000 vacuums worldwide. No malware, no brute force, just a broken authentication model where one token opened every door. Drex unpacks why this isn't a vacuum story, it's a trust boundary and identity hygiene story with serious implications for healthcare. Remember, Stay a Little Paranoid X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health
Mar 2, 2026·Newsday
March 2, 2026: Is the CIO role evolving? Or is it quietly being replaced? Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson dig into the emerging CITO trend, the rise of citizen developers, and what AI-powered platforms like Epic's Agent Factory actually mean for healthcare IT leadership. The CIO of the future isn't a gatekeeper; they're the "architect of safe velocity." With 32 years in the industry, they’re also sounding the alarm on executive burnout in an era where the pace of change never let
Feb 24, 2026·UnHack the Podcast
February 24, 2026: When Zach Lewis , CISO and CIO at the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis , received that 3 AM call about system outages, his first thought was tech debt, not threat actors. What followed was a masterclass in ransomware response that he's now captured in his new book "Locked Up." Despite A-minus security scores, board briefings, FBI connections, and all the right frameworks in place, LockBit still found its way in through a configuration gap during a firewa
Page 4 of 36