In this episode, I sit down with Tom Lawry, author of Hacking Healthcare and the just-released Healthcare Nation: The Future Is Calling. Tom brings decades of global leadership experience, from senior roles at GE and Microsoft to his current work advising healthcare leaders worldwide. But what sets Tom apart is how clearly and courageously he challenges us to think differently.

We cover everything from AI’s real-world promise (and hype) to the unsettling truth that a citizen in Mississippi may have a shorter life expectancy than someone in Bangladesh. He unpacks why the U.S. spends more on healthcare than any nation yet ranks last in performance, access, and outcomes, and what needs to change at both the system and leadership levels.

Tom also explains:

• Why AI isn’t a tech project. It’s a leadership and workflow revolution
• What C-suite leaders often get wrong in AI strategy
• How AI can reduce burnout by returning time to nurses and clinicians
• Why healthcare is America’s "largest escape room"—and how we start getting out

If you’re a nurse leader, physician manager, or frontline executive walking into the hospital today, this episode gives you something practical and powerful to think about. We dive deep into what must shift, how we fund healthcare, how we measure performance, and how we stop wounding the very people keeping the system afloat.

Tom’s call is clear: we need to stop waiting for someone else to fix healthcare. We need to find our voices, challenge the incentives that no longer serve us, and begin designing the system we all entered this field hoping to build.

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