In an era when healthcare leaders are investing billions in EHR consolidation, digital front doors, and consumer engagement platforms, one foundational problem continues to erode performance across the board: the inability to accurately identify patients across systems. Despite having more data than ever, many organizations remain “data rich and insights poor,” trapped in silos that fragment care, undermine analytics, and fuel costly errors. Nick Orser, General Manager of Healthcare at Verato, breaks down why identity resolution is now central to clinical quality, patient experience, and even cybersecurity, and how healthcare organizations can reframe identity not as an IT concern, but as critical infrastructure.

Health systems are under intensifying pressure to reduce costs, streamline technology, and still deliver on innovation. For many CIOs and digital health leaders, this means confronting a tangled web of overlapping tools, sunk costs, and vendor fatigue, without losing the support of clinicians or derailing care delivery. In this exclusive HIT Leaders & News Q&A, Ryan Bengtson, CEO of Panda Health, shares grounded strategies for rationalizing the tech stack, managing tech debt, and preserving long-term digital health ROI. With insights spanning procurement, cybersecurity, and clinician change adoption, Bengtson draws on decades of experience to explain how health systems can cut wisely, consolidate meaningfully, and stay agile for the future.

In today’s health systems, the data is vast—but access remains scarce. Despite billions spent on digital infrastructure, many frontline clinicians, administrators, and researchers still face barriers when trying to turn data into actionable insight. In this exclusive Q&A with HIT Leaders & News, John Elliott, Vice President of Sales and Growth at MDClone, unpacks the structural bottlenecks holding healthcare back and explains how self-service analytics, AI readiness, and synthetic data are reshaping the path toward a truly data-driven culture. Whether you’re a hospital executive, health IT leader, or innovation strategist, Elliott’s insights offer a roadmap for making data not just available, but transformational.

At HIT Leaders & News, we’re tracking a new wave of automation that goes far beyond traditional AI overlays. In this Q&A, HSBlox CEO Rahul Sharma unpacks the rise of Agentic AI, autonomous software agents designed not just to analyze data, but to act on it. From orchestrating care transitions to resolving claim denials in real time, these multi-agent systems are poised to replace static SaaS tools with dynamic, decision-making infrastructure. Sharma outlines how Agentic AI can streamline operations, close care gaps, and reduce clinician burnout, while challenging core assumptions about how software should function in the healthcare enterprise.

The national push for interoperability is entering a pivotal phase, defined not just by technical standards but by trust, governance, and economic alignment. In this strategic Q&A, Steven Lane of Health Gorilla outlines why TEFCA and the emergence of QHINs are more than a compliance checkbox. They represent a reengineering of how health data moves across the ecosystem. Unlike previous efforts like Carequality that relied on narrow use cases and loosely enforced policies, TEFCA introduces enforceable rules, patient-directed data sharing, and the leverage of future CMS incentives. Lane addresses the sector’s uncomfortable truths: from legacy business models built on data hoarding to the cultural erosion of trust in HIE. But he also maps a path forward, grounded in regulatory pressure, market demand, and the inevitability of patient-centered control.

In this Q and A, Dr. Colin Banas, Chief Medical Officer at DrFirst, explains how health IT leaders can use automation, AI, and real time data to reduce failure points across the medication lifecycle. He makes a clear case that better infrastructure and smarter engagement are not just technology upgrades. They are strategic requirements for improving outcomes, controlling costs, and protecting clinical bandwidth.

To explore how forward-thinking organizations are redefining the patient experience—and how digital tools can drive both satisfaction and ROI—HIT Leaders & News sat down with Aaron Patzer, founder and CEO of Vital. Patzer, best known as the creator of Mint.com, is now transforming how patients engage with hospitals, from emergency rooms to inpatient floors. In this conversation, he shares candid insights on the barriers to better patient engagement, real-world results from health systems using Vital, and how emerging technologies like AI voice agents and real-time medical translators are reshaping the future of care.

But with the emergence of AI-powered automation and predictive analytics, a new era of intelligent RCM is taking shape. In this exclusive HIT Leaders & News Q&A, John Waters, Director of Revenue Cycle Product at CliniComp, shares how artificial intelligence is transforming this traditionally manual space. Waters discusses how machine learning can reduce denials, boost coding accuracy, and improve authorization workflows—while also calling out the real-world barriers that health systems must address to fully unlock AI’s potential in the revenue cycle.