Live From HIMSS 2026: The Future of Healthcare IT

In a special live episode recorded on the floor of HIMSS 2026 in Las Vegas, David Wright sits down with four healthcare technology leaders to capture a snapshot of where healthcare innovation stands right now. The guests are Benjiman Jennings, Assistant Program Manager of PEO DHMS; Dustin Hufford, Senior VP and CIO of Cooper University Health Care; Maria Sexton, Senior VP and CIO of UT Medical; and Michael Hasselberg, Chief Transformation and Digital Officer of Nebraska Medicine. KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00:00 Introduction. 00:06:30 Benjiman Jennings describes how cybersecurity requirements and budget instability compound inside government healthcare IT, creating a uniquely constrained environment for innovation. 00:14:00 Solving today’s problems creates tomorrow’s problems — and the real leverage is building for challenges five years out. 00:27:00 Dustin Hufford discusses foundational AI priorities: a cloud data lake, native AI development and a Chief AI Officer hire to coordinate maturation. 00:33:00 Consolidating patient data at health system level is impractical at scale, and there is a case for patient-held data with AI summarisation. 00:39:00 Maria Sexton reframes the ‘IT and the business’ language as a structural problem — one IT has largely created for itself by accepting a satellite role. 00:49:00 Maria shares what she learned when she arrived at UT Medical to find 430 listed projects, and what the CPO told her about running too far ahead of the organisation. 01:07:00 Michael Hasselberg explains how it has never been easier to build AI in-house. 01:09:30 An AI governance model, where use cases are voted on by the chiefs and CEO, ensures senior-level resource commitment before every build. 01:14:00 A clinician was convinced a vendor had the only solution, until process engineers scoped the problem and built it in five weeks. RESOURCES MENTIONED Benjiman Jennings http://linkedin.com/in/benjimanjennings PEO DHMS http://linkedin.com/company/peo-dhms Dustin Hufford http://linkedin.com/in/dustin-hufford-ba70352 Cooper University Health Care http://linkedin.com/company/cooperuniversityhealthcare Maria Sexton http://linkedin.com/in/mariasexton UT Medical http://linkedin.com/company/ut-medical Michael Hasselberg http://linkedin.com/in/michael-hasselberg-793a4111b Nebraska Medicine http://linkedin.com/company/nebraskamed HIMSS 2026 https://www.himss.org CMS Tech Ecosystem https://www.cms.gov PEO DHMS https://health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Technology/PEO-DHMS Cooper University Health Care https://www.cooperhealth.org/ Nebraska Medicine https://www.nebraskamed.com UT Medical https://www.utmedical.org/ Thanks for listening to the “Disruptive Innovators” podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, hit the subscribe button and never miss another insightful conversation. And be sure to leave a review to help get the word out about the Champions of Digital Business. #DisruptiveInnovation #Innovation #DisruptiveTech