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UnHack the Podcast

Hosted by Drex DeFord

In-depth conversations about cybersecurity strategy, risk management, and building resilient healthcare organizations in the face of evolving cyber threats.

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Episodes (235)

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UnHack the Podcast UnHack the News Executive Interview Solution Showcase Newsday 2 Minute Drill

May 4, 2026·Newsday

Nurses Week Special on Florence Nightingale and the Future of Nursing | Newsday with Lisbeth Votruba

May 4, 2026: Lisbeth Votruba , Chief Clinical Officer at AvaSure , joins Bill Russell and Drex DeFord on Newsday to celebrate Nurses Week with a fascinating look at where nursing has been, and where it's going. From Florence's data-driven legacy to today's AI-powered virtual care, Lisbeth shares why nursing turnover is declining, why certification rates are rising, and why she sees technology not as a threat but as a path back to old-fashioned, human-centered nursing care. Key Points: 02:3

Apr 27, 2026·Newsday

Healthcare IT Is Drowning in Projects, Here’s Why | Newsday

April 27, 2026: Drex DeFord and Bill Russell are back on Newsday, and fresh off the 229 Summit, they're not pulling punches. Healthcare IT has a demand problem. Too many projects, not enough capacity, and an industry that's chronically bad at saying no. From the 229 Summit's sharpest takeaways to the Salesforce headless CRM announcement, the vl.js hack, and why Bill thinks Claude Code's "genesis key" is about to change everything, this episode covers the stories that matter most right now. If yo

Apr 20, 2026·Newsday

Newsday: What Healthcare Gets Backwards - Building Better Care with Angel Mena

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

Apr 13, 2026·Newsday

Newsday: AI, EHRs, and the Fight Health Systems Can't Ignore with Jacob Hansen

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

Apr 6, 2026·Newsday

Newsday: Healthcare Caught in the Crossfire of Iran War with Drex and Sarah

April 6, 2026: The rules of warfare have changed, and health systems are caught in the middle. On this episode of Newsday, Sarah Richardson and Drex DeFord break down two stories that should be on every healthcare leader's radar: the IRGC's declaration that major tech companies are now legitimate combatants, and what the Stryker attack reveals about the fragility of the healthcare supply chain. From cloud co-location risk to vendor contract language, this conversation reframes what resilience pl

Apr 3, 2026·Solution Showcase

Solution Showcase Live at HIMSS 26’: Fixing Broken Scheduling with Kory and Lindsay Hudson

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

Apr 1, 2026·Solution Showcase

Solution Showcase: Exploring Private AI Live at HIMSS Tim McNamee and Mark Larochelle

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 envi

Mar 30, 2026·Newsday

Newsday: Hackers Outpace Healthcare Resilience and Surviving a Merger with Drex and Bill

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 25, 2026·Solution Showcase

Solution Showcase: Finding a Better Solution to Staffing with Joe Longo and Eric Utzinger

March 25, 2026: What happens when a health system is juggling over 100 active IT projects with a workforce that can never be 100% allocated to any single one? Joe Longo , SVP and CDIO at Parkland Health , and Eric Utzinger , Co-Founder and Chief Client Officer at Revuud , join Bill Russell to expose the hidden dysfunction inside traditional healthcare IT staffing — and what a transparent, direct-access platform model is doing to fix it. If your hiring managers are still waiting weeks for a resum

Mar 23, 2026·Newsday

Newsday: The Conference Nobody Can Afford to Skip with This Week Health

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 16, 2026·Newsday

Newsday LIVE at HIMSS '26: AI Agents, Workforce Reality, and the CIO Pressure Cooker

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 11, 2026·Solution Showcase

Solution Showcase: The Freeing Power of Testing Automation with Phillip Furukawa and Chris Paravate

March 11, 2026: What if you could reclaim thousands of hours of IT staff time, without cutting corners on quality? Chris Paravate , CDIO at Northeast Georgia Health System , joins Phillip Furukawa , CRO at SureTest , to reveal how they achieved a 98% reduction in manual testing time across their Epic environment. From 161 regression incidents down to 45, the numbers tell a compelling story. Discover how testing automation is reshaping Epic upgrade cycles, freeing up nearly 10 FTEs worth of capac