Episodes

  • Can You Trust Clinical AI When No One Is Asking the Right Questions?

    Can You Trust Clinical AI When No One Is Asking the Right Questions?
    28 Oct 2026

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    Clinical AI accuracy depends on more than just the model itself. Learn how to verify your systems through human oversight.

    Many organizations focus entirely on the math behind machine learning, but the real challenge lies in the preparation of training data. In this conversation, we discuss the essential work required to ensure intelligent tools function reliably in high-stakes medical settings. We examine why technical performance often fails when decoupled from the actual workflows of healthcare professionals.

    Drawing from my book Beneath the Signal, we address the common pitfalls in deploying clinical AI without proper human-led data strategy. By focusing on the back-office environment first, leaders can establish the transparency necessary to build lasting trust. We look at how to maintain data integrity and why the most successful implementations prioritize human intervention over simple automation.

    Subscribe for weekly healthcare strategy breakdowns, and comment on whether you believe clinical or back-office tasks will see the fastest adoption of agentic AI.

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    About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.


    Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi

    Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
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    49 min
  • AI Takes Work. What Comes Next? | Michael Johns

    AI Takes Work. What Comes Next? | Michael Johns
    26 Oct 2026

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    When AI takes on more work, leaders still have to decide what people do next.

    Michael Johns joins Chris Hutchins to discuss automation in healthcare operations, the access given to persistent AI agents and the trust employees need to suggest changes. His argument about workforce pressure leads to a practical conversation about the work people keep.

    IN THIS CONVERSATION
    - Where automation starts in healthcare finance and the back office
    - Michael’s view of workforce pressure and what people should do next
    - Least-privilege access and audit trails for persistent AI agents
    - Testing real data and the ways automation can quietly fail
    - Building an ongoing program with employee trust and useful measures

    CHAPTERS
    00:00 The Signal Room opening and Beneath the Signal
    0:19 Agentic AI and Michael Johns
    1:35 Where automation starts in a health system
    2:47 Why the back office comes first
    3:55 Jobs, capacity and higher-value work
    7:25 Aging demand and a shrinking workforce
    8:59 What people do with the time freed up
    11:00 What should stay with people
    12:25 Defensible access and audit trails
    14:54 Tenancy, embedded AI and shadow AI
    16:42 When an agent looks beyond the intended dataset
    18:05 How automation quietly fails
    19:49 Build a program that outlasts a project
    21:55 Employee trust and safe participation
    24:31 Keep score and reward the people
    25:41 Connect with Michael Johns

    GUEST RESOURCES
    https://lydonia.ai/
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljohns3

    The Signal Room: https://signalroompodcast.com/

    Support the show

    About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.


    Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi

    Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
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    26 min
  • Your staff already use AI. Who owns the risk? | Aaron Bach

    Your staff already use AI. Who owns the risk? | Aaron Bach
    21 Oct 2026

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    Aaron Bach is co-founder and CTO of Liminal. He joins Chris Hutchins to examine the controls, responsibilities and workforce habits that determine how AI is used in healthcare. The conversation moves from shadow AI and waiting for perfect controls to model choice, human judgment and incident accountability. Aaron offers two practical tests: observe how an existing AI touchpoint responds to a control, and ask who would answer for a harmful outcome.


    ## Guest resources - [Aaron Bach](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronbach) - [Guest website](https://liminal.ai/)

    Support the show

    About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.


    Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi

    Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
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    49 min
  • Your practice needs a clearer view of its money | Tomer & Erez Lankri

    Your practice needs a clearer view of its money | Tomer & Erez Lankri
    21 Oct 2026

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    Erez Lankri, co-founder and CEO, and Tomer Lankri, co-founder and CTO of Lucid Financials, join Chris Hutchins to discuss financial visibility, grounded AI and accountable support for medical practices. The discussion connects delayed books and fragmented information to the decisions practice owners make every day. Tomer and Erez describe tracing an AI answer to its source record and retaining professional responsibility as more financial work is automated. ## Chapters 00:00:00,000 Welcome to The Signal Room 00:00:05,000 Beneath the Signal 00:00:19,083 Meet Tomer and Erez 00:00:55,057 Why medical-practice finances? 00:05:02,137 Four financial blind spots 00:08:11,696 Connect operations to the books 00:11:24,249 A practice-sale warning 00:12:28,879 Regulation and human accountability 00:15:15,065 Rules and AI in the financial workflow 00:17:31,994 Helping the finance team adopt the tools 00:21:42,302 Ground the answer in the record 00:26:25,957 Finding overlooked opportunities 00:31:09,536 People remain accountable 00:32:11,764 Data architecture and adoption 00:33:07,812 Practical next steps 00:34:47,472 Closing ## Guest resources - [Tomer](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomer-lankri) - [Erez](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lankrierez) - [Guest website](https://www.lucid.now/)


    Support the show

    About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.


    Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi

    Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
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    35 min
  • Who Gets Counted in Health Data? | Lisa Marceau | The Signal Room

    Who Gets Counted in Health Data? | Lisa Marceau | The Signal Room
    19 Oct 2026

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    A model can look convincing and still leave people out. Who was included in the research? What never made it into the record? And what happens when AI treats those gaps as a complete picture? Lisa Marceau, founder of Alpha Millennial Health and co-founder of Joyuus, joins Chris Hutchins to discuss the questions behind trustworthy health data. Drawing on her work in clinical research and digital health, Lisa explains why the first decision is what problem to solve, followed by whether the evidence can actually answer it. They discuss women's health research, postpartum support, mental health and social connection, and the role of NIH small business funding in helping an idea become a viable company. Lisa also makes the case for treating AI as infrastructure: define its purpose and test its value before adding it to a product. In this episode: - Who gets represented in clinical and claims data - Why data quality and governance belong at the start - What mothers told Joyuus was missing from postpartum care - How mental, physical, social and real-world health connect - Questions leaders should ask before investing in AI - Lisa's book, Breaking the System ## Chapters 00:00 Welcome and meet Lisa Marceau 01:02 From clinical research to entrepreneurship 03:28 Who is represented in health data? 07:13 The research gaps behind clinical outcomes 09:45 Ask the question before collecting the data 11:30 Data quality, governance and equity 13:49 Geography, culture and access to care 16:29 Women's health across the lifespan 19:29 AI and the problem of outdated evidence 24:09 Joyuus and the postpartum care gap 27:29 Earlier support beyond the clinic 29:41 Mental health as whole-person care 34:43 Social connection and new data 36:34 NIH funding and building a viable company 39:23 When AI starts referring to AI 42:56 Treat AI as infrastructure 46:54 The cost of building without a clear purpose 48:55 Questions leaders should ask before investing 51:27 Breaking the System and connecting with Lisa ## Guest resources Alpha Millennial Health / Lisa Marceau: https://www.alphamhealth.com/about Joyuus: https://www.joyuus.com/ Lisa Marceau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamarceau Breaking the System: How Digital Innovators Shape the Future of Health Care: https://www.amazon.com/dp/163489829X NIH SEED / small business funding: https://seed.nih.gov/


    Support the show

    About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.


    Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi

    Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
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    53 min
  • AI Leadership, Polymathy and Collective Intelligence with Dr. Angela C. Meyers

    AI Leadership, Polymathy and Collective Intelligence with Dr. Angela C. Meyers
    16 Oct 2026

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    What does AI leadership require when the technology is available to everyone? Dr. Angela C. Meyers joins Chris Hutchins to explore the human work of learning, listening and connecting knowledge across an organization.

    Angela, founder of The Polymathic Method and author of Versatile: Human Intelligence in an Artificial Age, explains polymathy and collective intelligence. Her doctorate is in human and organizational learning. The conversation covers skill decay, cognitive burden, employee participation, premature certainty and the difference between technical expertise and people leadership.

    Listen for practical questions about change: Are people resisting, or are they overloaded? What does frontline experience reveal? How can leaders learn before a deadline forces a decision? Angela closes by connecting organizational adaptability with the choices people make about their own learning.

    IN THIS CONVERSATION
    - Polymathy and learning across disciplines
    - Using AI to reduce workload and support human capacity
    - Collective intelligence and the risk of premature certainty
    - Participation, trust and the people skills of leadership
    - Connecting knowledge across silos while technology changes

    CHAPTERS
    00:00 Welcome and Beneath the Signal
    00:19 Meet Dr. Angela C. Meyers
    01:19 What polymathy means
    03:29 When automation weakens or frees human capacity
    06:27 AI should reduce the burden
    08:43 Leaders who listen
    10:08 Learning through AI and data uncertainty
    14:52 Keeping the capacity to learn
    21:37 Collective intelligence and decision making
    24:21 The warning sign: early certainty
    29:15 Bottlenecks, human capacity and creative thinking
    38:37 Participation in organizational change
    44:13 Expertise and the people skills of leadership
    49:54 Premature launches and realistic expectations
    53:43 Rebuilding trust
    58:49 Connecting knowledge across silos
    01:02:48 Resources and closing

    GUEST & RESOURCES
    Books: Versatile and In Pursuit of Polymaths: https://www.drangelameyers.com/books
    The Polymathic Method: https://www.drangelameyers.com/
    Knower-Learner Assessment: https://www.drangelameyers.com/knowerlearner
    Collective Intelligence Labs: https://www.drangelameyers.com/collectiveintelligencelab
    Versatile Leadership Training: https://www.drangelameyers.com/versatileleadershiptraining
    Angela on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drangelacmeyers

    THE SIGNAL ROOM
    Hosted by Chris Hutchins
    https://signalroompodcast.com/

    Support the show

    About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.


    Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi

    Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
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    1 hr and 3 min
  • AI Clinical Trial Screening: Evidence, Recruitment and Workflow with Dr. AJ Blood

    AI Clinical Trial Screening: Evidence, Recruitment and Workflow with Dr. AJ Blood
    15 Oct 2026
    Send us Fan Mail This episode looks at AI clinical trial screening through the evidence, the recruitment problem it targets and the workflow needed to make it work. Dr. AJ Blood is a cardiologist and intensivist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he leads a research group in implementation science, and the co-founder and CEO of AIwithCare. He joins Chris Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, to discuss RECTIFIER, the tool his team built to support eligibility screening. Together they examine how a research tool was tested to the same evidence standard expected of medicine. What We Cover Trial protocols that once had five or ten inclusion and exclusion criteria now often carry forty or fifty. About nine in ten charts his study staff opened belonged to ineligible patients, making chart review the largest cost in AJ's trials. RECTIFIER reads structured and unstructured EHR data, judges eligibility against each criterion and cites its sources so trained staff can confirm or reject every determination. Chris and AJ discuss what the NEJM AI and JAMA studies measured and why careful design matters for AI in clinical trials. Their conversation also covers how the tool spread to other uses inside Mass General Brigham. Key Takeaways Every eligibility decision stays with a human, and the model surfaces evidence without making medical decisions. Both published studies looked for bias across age, sex, race, ethnicity and primary language, and AJ argues that monitoring should run continuously across sites. In the JAMA trial, enrollment rose substantially, though the primary outcome was time to eligibility determination and enrollment was exploratory. Pilots work better with discrete go or no-go metrics, short timelines and frontline staff involved in design from the start. Frameworks and Tools The conversation centers on RECTIFIER, the 2024 NEJM AI study and the 2025 JAMA randomized prescreening trial. AJ also references implementation science, the TIMI Study Group, human-in-the-loop review and a pediatric GI referral triage use at Mass General Brigham. He recommends forward-deployed engineers and user testing every few weeks across wireframe, prototype and pilot. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and episode introduction00:19 Evidence over promises00:41 From clinical research to implementation03:42 Why effective care struggles to reach patients09:04 AI-assisted chart review12:28 Who gets access to clinical trials?16:55 Building and testing the screening tool23:10 What the evidence shows27:35 Faster enrollment and shorter timelines30:51 Monitoring bias across sites34:57 Workflow determines adoption42:41 Set clear measures for a pilot47:25 Design beside the people doing the work51:46 Connect with AJ About Dr. AJ Blood Dr. AJ Blood trained at Johns Hopkins, the National Institutes of Health, the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine and Duke University before his fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He also earned a master's degree at the Harvard School of Public Health. Today he practices cardiology, runs an implementation science research group and leads AIwithCare, which licensed RECTIFIER from Mass General Brigham. Related Resources Episode page: https://signalroompodcast.com/episodes/ai-clinical-trial-screening AIwithCare: https://aiwithcare.com/ AJ Blood on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-blood-md-msc-facc-abom-a8654a23/ 2025 JAMA randomized prescreening study: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2830514 2024 NEJM AI study: https://ai.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/AIoa2400181 Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon The Signal Room is featured in Feedspot's Best AI in Healthcare Podcasts, 2026: https://podcast.feedspot.com/ai_health_podcasts/Support the showAbout The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAiBook Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
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    52 min
  • Retiring “We Caught It Too Late” | Dr. Bharat Tewarie

    Retiring “We Caught It Too Late” | Dr. Bharat Tewarie
    15 Oct 2026

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    harat Tewarie, MD, MBA, is CEO of Helio Genomics. A physician executive with more than two decades of global healthcare leadership, he has held senior roles at UCB and Merck Serono, founded Boston BioPharma Consultants, and mentors life-science and digital-health CEOs through NYU Stern’s Endless Frontier Labs. A test can only help when the patient can reach it and the care team acts on the result. Bharat Tewarie joins Chris Hutchins to discuss liver cancer surveillance, the HelioLiver blood test, the CLiMB study and the practical work of reaching people before the opportunity for treatment narrows. They explore rural access, follow-up, research validation and the proposed October 15 awareness resolution, then return to the sentence Bharat wants fewer families to hear: “We caught it too late.” ## Chapters 00:00 Welcome to The Signal Room 00:05 Dr. Bharat Tewarie and the purpose of early detection 00:50 Why liver cancer can develop quietly 02:47 The surveillance gap 07:14 What HelioLiver measures 08:55 The clinical workflow and follow-up 11:10 What the CLiMB study tested 15:00 Who the test is for 16:47 Validation and real-world evidence 21:13 Rural access and the practical barriers 23:23 Awareness, policy and action 30:35 The sentence Bharat wants to retire 31:53 A message for researchers and founders 33:15 Resources and next steps 34:10 Closing ## Guest resources - [Bharat Tewarie](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bharattewarie/) - [Guest website](https://heliogenomics.com/) - [HelioLiver and clinical evidence](https://heliogenomics.com/providers/climb) - [Patient information](https://heliogenomics.com/for-patients) - [H.Res. 1591 introduced text](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119hres1591ih/pdf/BILLS-119hres1591ih.pdf) Clinical context: HelioLiver is a laboratory-developed test for an at-risk surveillance population; it has not been FDA cleared or approved. Bharat describes CLiMB trial results and implementation experience. The manufacturer reports 1,968 enrolled and 1,268 evaluable participants; trial sensitivity is not a guarantee of detection or proof of a mortality benefit. [Clinical evidence](https://heliogenomics.com/providers/climb). Policy context: H.Res. 1591 was introduced on October 1, 2026, expressing support for October 15, 2026 as Liver Cancer Awareness Day. This package does not state that it has passed. [Introduced resolution](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119hres1591ih/pdf/BILLS-119hres1591ih.pdf). Recheck the time-sensitive references before public release.


    Support the show

    About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified.


    Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi

    Book Chris to speak: https://www.chrisjhutchins.com
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    34 min