Highlights from 2026 TX HIMSS Regional Conference

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

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.

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

Why is American healthcare so expensive, and why doesn’t spending more necessarily translate into better outcomes?

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.