Healthcare is Hard: A Podcast for Insiders
Healthcare is Hard: A Podcast for Insiders views healthcare transformation through the lens of prominent leaders across the industry. Through intimate one-on-one discussions with executives, policy advisors, and other “insiders,” each episode dives deep into the pressing challenges that come with changing how we care for people. Hear the unique perspectives of these industry leaders to get a better understanding of what is happening today, the challenges across the healthcare ecosystem, and how innovation is really shaping the future of healthcare delivery.
Episodes
70 episodes
Election Implications (Part 1): Angst, Uncertainty and an Urge for Calm from Maverick Health Policy’s Julie Barnes
Julie Barnes has made a career helping health plans, tech vendors, investors and others in the healthcare space decipher health policy. She’s a former Hill staffer who earned her law degree and spent a decade in corporate law serving healthcare...
•
Episode 70
•
45:42
What’s the Difference Between Innovation and Performance Improvement?
OSF HealthCare stands as a model health system for those who want to do innovation right. One of the defining characteristics of the Peoria, Illinois-based system is how it aligns innovation with operations for everyone – all 24,000 employees a...
•
Episode 69
•
38:00
Help or Harm? How CHAI is Mitigating the Risk of AI in Healthcare
With great power comes great responsibility and in healthcare, those words may have never held more meaning than they do with the advent of artificial intelligence. AI most certainly has the power to transform healthcare, and those in the indus...
•
Episode 68
•
54:30
Live from DHIS East: Mass General Brigham CIO, Christopher Coburn
Chris Coburn has been driving health system innovation for decades. He is currently chief innovation officer at Mass General Brigham (MGB), the nation’s largest academic research enterprise with over $16 billion in annual revenue, 1.5 million p...
•
Episode 67
•
44:17
Reinventing Pharmacy (Part 3): Optum Rx CEO, Dr. Patrick Conway, Brings the PBM, Provider and Payer POV
Optum Rx serves more than 62 million people, processes 1.6 billion prescriptions and generates more than $110 billion of revenue annually. Dr. Patrick Conway, CEO of Optum Rx, is the third and final guest in a series of Healthcare is Hard episo...
•
Episode 66
•
40:32
Reinventing Pharmacy (Part 2): Dr. Troyen Brennan Disputes the False Narrative of Good vs. Bad Actors
In the first of a series of episodes exploring opportunities for innovation in the pharmacy space, Mark Cuban offered perspective from an outsider...
•
Episode 65
•
42:49
Reinventing Pharmacy: Mark Cuban Says Trust Is Missing Across Healthcare. Here’s What He’s Doing About It
Mark Cuban built a career disrupting industries and creating new ones. Now, his sights are set on healthcare. There’s no secret ingredient to Mark’s success. As the world sees very publicly on Shark Tank, his style is the opposite of ke...
•
Episode 64
•
43:34
Is Innovation Stuck in Healthcare? Two Brothers Get to The Bottom of It
In most industries, innovation leads to an improved product or service while ultimately helping to lower cost. Healthcare is the exception. Despite a constant pursuit of new science, technology, operational efficiencies, business models and mor...
•
Episode 63
•
46:21
Putting Trust at the Center of Healthcare Transformation: Press Ganey CEO, Pat Ryan
Through its work with more than 41,000 healthcare facilities and the industry’s largest database of patient feedback, Press Ganey gives organizations the data and insights they need to put the human experience at the center of healthcare.
•
Episode 62
•
36:20
Deciphering the New Normal (Part 4): Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ Chief Strategy Officer, Sukanya Soderland
This is the final episode in a four part series with heads of strategy at providers and payers from across the healthcare ecosystem to explore “the new normal” in a post-COVID operating environment. For this episode Keith Figlioli welcomed Suka...
•
Episode 61
•
37:02
Deciphering the New Normal (Part 3): Humana’s Chief Strategy & Corporate Development Officer, Dr. Vishal Agrawal
The previous two episodes of Healthcare is Hard explored the “new normal” from the provider perspective with heads of strategy at an innovative regional health system,
•
Episode 60
•
38:16
Deciphering the New Normal (Part 2): CommonSpirit’s Chief Strategy Officer, Sheri Shapiro
CommonSpirit Health is one of the nation’s largest integrated health systems comprising 142 hospitals and 2,200 care sites across 24 states. Three years ago, at the height of the pandemic,
•
Episode 59
•
41:11
Deciphering The New Normal With OhioHealth’s Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, Michael Krouse
There are many reasons why central Ohio is a fertile ground for innovation and why the areas surrounding Columbus are ideal for testing new approaches to consumer behavior. It’s a diverse city with five Fortune 500 companies and 19 Fortune 1,00...
•
Episode 58
•
40:28
Not Just a Side Gig: Government Contracting Takes Commitment, Says Booz Allen Hamilton COO, Kristine Martin Anderson
Before taking responsibility for operational performance of Booz Allen Hamilton – the $9+ billion technology and consulting leader with 32,000+ employees worldwide – Kristine Martin Anderson built a career pioneering healthcare IT. Most notably...
•
Episode 57
•
40:10
Is AI Policy a Bigger Undertaking Than Meaningful Use? Kristen McGovern Thinks So
Earning a Presidential Management Fellowship after law school gave Kristen McGovern firsthand experience working inside many of the agencies and offices that drive U.S. healthcare policy. Over a two year period with the Department of Health and...
•
Episode 56
•
38:07
AI Hype vs. Reality: A Conversation With Nuance (Microsoft) CSO, Peter Durlach
Peter Durlach grew up around computers and was exposed to innovative technology at an early age by his father, who helped run a lab in the electronics department at MIT. After graduating college in the 1980s, Peter caught the entrepreneurial bu...
•
Episode 55
•
48:21
Scaling Up (Part 2). How Dr. Rasu Shrestha is Steering AI & Innovation After the Megamerger that Created Advocate Health
Many physicians today choose to pivot their careers and apply their clinical knowledge to the innovation and digital transformation side of healthcare. Dr. Rasu Shrestha was an early pioneer of this trend and as he explains, went from “the dark...
•
Episode 54
•
49:39
Follow the Money: Harvard Professor & MedPAC Chair, Michael Chernew, Illuminates the Causes & Consequences of Healthcare Spending
Understanding healthcare spending growth in America is a critical component of any initiative attempting to improve care quality and affordability. This holds true for every person or organization focused on improving healthcare – from policy m...
•
Episode 53
•
41:57
The Healthcare Data Goldrush (Part 2): Chief Information & Digital Officer at Hartford Healthcare, Joel Vengco
When Joel Vengco started his thesis during the third year of a MD-PhD program, it was the beginning of the end of his time in medical school. It changed his career path and kicked-off what he says is a love for data.The field of Big Dat...
•
Episode 52
•
39:11
Scaling up. Scott Powder Talks About the Merger of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health to Build One of the Nation’s Largest Health Systems
Advocate Health is the nation’s fifth largest nonprofit health system, operating 67 hospitals and more than 1,000 sites of care to generate revenues topping $27 billion.This new entity was formed by combining two like-minded, not-for-pr...
•
Episode 51
•
48:39
The Healthcare Data Goldrush: Leavitt Partners’ Ryan Howells & IMO’s Dale Sanders Lay Out A Guide for Prospectors
The digital transformation of healthcare has been a long and winding road, but one that is starting to open new possibilities in every aspect of business operations, care delivery and consumer experiences. The critical aspect to all of this is ...
•
Episode 50
•
48:53
Why Health Systems with Data-Driven Strategies will be the Ones to Survive Turbulent Times: A Conversation with Vizient’s John Becker
As the world emerges from the pandemic and U.S. health systems navigate a unique set of challenges they’ve never faced before, they’re fighting a battle on two fronts. They don’t have the luxury of dedicating all their resources towards the sig...
•
Episode 49
•
39:32
Providence’s Sara Vaezy Tells the Tale of Two Health Systems: Fixing Fundamentals While Focusing on Innovation
It’s a difficult time for health systems who are struggling with financial pressures brought on by rising costs, patient volumes that continue to remain below pre-pandemic levels, and a host of other issues putting their balance sheets in the r...
•
Episode 48
•
33:23
Former Department of Defense Leader Interprets the Real Cyber Risks in Healthcare
Tim Kosiba was first exposed to the healthcare industry while working at the FBI in the 1990s as part of its Computer Analysis Response Team (CART). For more than 30 years, he worked at the highest levels of government driving the cybersecurity...
•
Episode 47
•
40:12
Amazon, One Medical and the Acquisitions Moving Healthcare: Walmart’s Former SVP of Health, Marcus Osborne, Weighs In
Marcus Osborne started his professional life as a White House intern and never intended to pursue a career in healthcare. In fact, he says he has a phobia of needles and doesn’t find much pleasure in daily work dealing with issues like insuranc...
•
Episode 46
•
40:46