Rockin' HIT Sales

David Hacker

Rockin' HIT Sales is the show for founders, sales leaders, and investors who care about selling Health IT the way hospitals actually buy. Host David Hacker, CPHIMS and MEDDPICC® Certified Trainer, sits down with the people on the other side of the deal table—CMIOs, CNIOs, CFOs, innovation leaders, GPO executives, and federal policy and standards leads—to unpack: How health systems really evaluate digital health and AI solutions What separates "interesting pilot" from scaled enterprise deployment How MEDDPICC®, AI risk, and interoperability policy show up in real deals What risk, finance, and clinical leaders listen for in vendor conversations Guests include health system executives, innovators, and policymakers such as: Chief Medical Innovation Officers, CFOs of major health systems, technology leaders from national GPOs, and federal Health IT and AI standards leaders. New episodes drop every other week, with short, practical conversations designed to help you qualify better, de-risk deals, and align your go-to-market with the way hospitals make decisions. If you're building or selling Health IT or healthcare AI—and you want fewer stalled pilots and more scalable wins—this is your front-row seat.

  1. Oct 27 ·  Video

    Community Hospital Buying Reality: How CIOs Balance Innovation, Operations, and Practical Adoption

    In this episode of Rockin' HIT Sales, David Hacker is joined by Nitin Agarwal, CIO at Wayne Memorial Hospital, for a practical look at how community hospitals evaluate, buy, implement, and scale Health IT. Much of Health IT go-to-market strategy is built around large academic medical centers and IDNs. Nitin explains why community and rural hospitals operate under a very different set of realities — tighter resources, smaller teams, competing priorities, limited implementation bandwidth, and little patience for technology that does not solve a real problem. They discuss: Why technology needs to solve a clearly defined problem before it ever becomes a buying conversation How limited staff, budget, and operational bandwidth shape technology decisions What vendors need to establish in the very first conversation Why product knowledge is not enough if the vendor does not understand the hospital's actual use case Where vendors underestimate the work required after the contract is signed Why financial impact and measurable outcomes still matter in community hospitals What "we integrate with your EHR" really needs to mean Why interoperability, implementation effort, security, and support should be addressed early What separates a true long-term partner from a vendor that disappears after go-live How community hospitals decide whether a pilot is ready to scale Why honesty about what a solution can — and cannot — do builds trust Why Health IT companies should never approach a community hospital the same way they approach a large academic medical center Nitin also explains why successful vendors understand that they are not simply selling technology. They are asking a hospital to commit staff time, workflow changes, integration resources, security review, implementation effort, and ongoing support — all within an environment where resources are already stretched. For Health IT founders, product leaders, GTM teams, and investors, this episode offers a direct provider-side view of what community hospitals actually need from technology companies — from the first conversation through implementation, go-live, and long-term partnership. Nitin is also available to advise Health IT companies seeking a better understanding of community-hospital operations, technology evaluation, implementation realities, and provider expectations.

  2. Sep 25 ·  Bonus Video

    Bonus Episode: Whose Lens Is Your Health IT Go-to-Market Strategy Built Through?

    Health IT companies naturally build go-to-market strategies around their products, sales processes, pipelines, and growth goals. Hospitals and health systems experience that same commercial process through a very different lens. In this bonus episode of Rockin' HIT Sales, David Hacker, CPHIMS, looks at 10 questions provider buyers need answered before they can evaluate, fund, adopt, and scale new technology. David explores questions including: Is the problem important enough for the provider to act? Does a successful pilot actually prove the solution can scale? When will the provider recover its investment? Can the technology be adopted into real clinical and operational workflows? Can the provider trust both the technology and the vendor? Who needs to become confident enough to approve the purchase? Can the organization actually procure and contract for the solution? Will the technology work inside the provider's environment? Does the vendor understand how health systems actually buy? Is the opportunity genuinely moving toward a decision? The episode is based on Elevate HIT Sales' new provider-informed Field Guide, Whose Lens Is Your Health IT Go-to-Market Strategy Built Through? The central premise is simple: The strongest Health IT go-to-market strategies are not built around how the vendor wants to sell. They are built around how the provider needs to buy. Explore the complete Field Guide: https://elevate-hit-sales.com/health-it-go-to-market-strategy/ Rockin' HIT Sales — where provider reality meets Health IT go-to-market.

    Bonus Episode: Whose Lens Is Your Health IT Go-to-Market Strategy Built Through?

  3. Sep 22 ·  Video

    Healthcare Cybersecurity, Vendor Trust & Security Review with Gary S. Chan

    In this episode of Rockin' HIT Sales, David Hacker is joined by Gary S. Chan, System Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at SSM Health, for a practical discussion on what Health IT companies need to understand about cybersecurity, vendor trust, and provider security review. Gary explains why security review is not simply a late-stage technical checkpoint. It is part of how health systems evaluate trust, patient safety, operational continuity, regulatory exposure, and whether a vendor is prepared to operate inside a provider environment. They discuss: When security should enter the Health IT sales process Why operational approval does not mean the deal is done What provider security teams are really evaluating What makes a vendor easier — or harder — to assess Why documentation, third-party validation, and dedicated security ownership matter How AI is changing security questionnaires and vendor assessments Why honesty and transparency build long-term provider trust Why vendors need to tailor their message to security, operations, clinical, financial, and executive audiences Gary also brings his unique perspective as the Security Mentalist, combining cybersecurity, psychology, and mentalism to make security lessons more memorable. He closes the episode with a live mentalism demonstration that reinforces one of the key themes of the conversation: information is only valuable if people remember it and act on it. For Health IT founders, product leaders, GTM teams, and investors, this episode offers a provider-side lens on why security readiness is part of product readiness, implementation readiness, and go-to-market readiness. Learn more about Gary's Security Mentalist work: https://www.securitymentalist.com/ Episode page: https://elevate-hit-sales.com/healthcare-cybersecurity-vendor-trust-gary-s-chan/ #HealthcareCybersecurity #HealthIT #SecurityMentalist #VendorRiskManagement #GarySChan

  4. Jul 7 ·  Video

    From Local Win to System Standard:: The Supply Chain Playbook for Scaling Change with Marisa Farabaugh

    In this episode of Rockin' HIT Sales, David Hacker speaks with Marisa Farabaugh, Executive Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer at AdventHealth, about what Health IT companies need to understand when selling into enterprise health systems. The conversation explores how health systems think about supply chain, value analysis, vendor trust, local versus system-level decision-making, pilot success, and what it really takes for a solution to move from a local win to a broader system standard. For Health IT founders, sales leaders, and GTM teams, this episode offers a provider-side perspective on why strong ROI claims are not enough, how internal decisions actually get made, and what vendors can do to build credibility before trying to scale across a complex healthcare organization.

    From Local Win to System Standard:: The Supply Chain Playbook for Scaling Change with Marisa Farabaugh

  5. Jun 16 ·  Video

    AI Governance in the Real World: What Vendors Need Before Provider Review with Dr. Yasir Tarabichi

    In this episode of Rockin' HIT Sales, David Hacker sits down with Dr. Yasir Tarabichi, Head of Digital & CMIO at Ovatient and Chief Health AI Officer at MetroHealth, for a practical conversation on AI governance in the real world. This episode focuses on the questions AI-enabled Health IT companies need to be ready for before they enter provider review: What does AI governance actually mean inside a health system? How does an AI product, internal use case, or vendor solution enter the "front door" for evaluation? How do health systems balance innovation speed with safety, discipline, and operational control? What separates a low-risk AI use case from one that requires deeper governance review? What do mature vendors do differently when explaining implementation, monitoring, risk, and workflow impact? At what point in the sales process should companies start addressing AI readiness, especially when early conversations may be with operational or clinical leaders rather than AI experts? And one of the most important questions from the episode: What is one thing AI companies should just stop saying or doing when talking to a health system? For founders, product leaders, GTM teams, and investors, this episode is a practical look at what provider organizations need to understand before AI-enabled solutions can be approved, trusted, implemented, monitored, and scaled.

    AI Governance in the Real World: What Vendors Need Before Provider Review with Dr. Yasir Tarabichi

  6. Jun 2 ·  Video

    Why Great Health IT Fails Without Great Change Management with Olga Maciejewski

    In this episode of Rockin' HIT Sales, David Hacker sits down with Olga Maciejewski, MBA, PMP, PROSCI CMP, CPHIMS-CA, for a practical conversation on why great Health IT can still fail without great change management. Olga explains why successful digital transformation is not just about the technology. It depends on people, process, sponsorship, governance, workflow readiness, stakeholder engagement, and reinforcement. The conversation also explores Olga's "three-legged stool" for transformation: project management, executive sponsorship, and change management. If one leg is missing, even a strong solution can struggle to gain traction after go-live. For Health IT companies and investors, this episode is a clear reminder: you are not just selling technology — you are selling change.

  7. May 19 ·  Video

    Why Clinical AI Dies in Pilot: From Impressive Demo to Hospital-Ready with Sam Morhaim

    In this episode of Rockin' HIT Sales, David Hacker sits down with Sam Morhaim, CEO of Vantage IO, to explore why clinical AI pilots often fail after a strong demo — and what separates an impressive prototype from a hospital-ready system. Sam explains why the problem is rarely the model alone. Clinical AI often breaks in the surrounding architecture: evidence grounding, audit trails, failure handling, PHI data flow, workflow fit, compliance, and the safeguards needed to survive real-world provider review. A major focus of the conversation is RAG — retrieval-augmented generation — and why HealthTech teams need to understand how data is indexed, retrieved, separated, and exposed before bringing AI into clinical environments. Sam highlights how poorly designed RAG workflows can create risks around PHI leakage, evidence grounding, patient-level separation, and trust. In this episode: Why clinical AI pilots fail after a strong demo What separates "works on GPT" from "hospital-ready" Why model accuracy alone is not enough for clinical trust How RAG / retrieval-augmented generation can create PHI and evidence-grounding risks What hospital reviewers look for around traceability, auditability, and failure handling Why clinical AI companies should stop saying "hallucination-free" How architecture has become part of go-to-market readiness for healthcare AI 3 Brief Takeaways: Clinical AI rarely fails because of the model alone. RAG is becoming a major clinical AI risk area. Architecture is now part of go-to-market readiness. Related Resource: Download the AI Risk Self-Assessment Toolkit: https://elevate-hit-sales.com/mc-ai-risk-toolkit/

    Why Clinical AI Dies in Pilot: From Impressive Demo to Hospital-Ready with Sam Morhaim

  8. May 12 ·  Bonus Video

    Bonus Episode: Connecting the MEDDPICC® Dots From Our Guests

    In this bonus episode of Rockin' HIT Sales, David Hacker connects the dots from several provider-side conversations and looks at how health systems really buy through a MEDDPICC® lens. This is not a methodology lecture. It is a practical look at how MEDDPICC® maps to what provider leaders have been telling us all season about why Health IT deals move, stall, or quietly disappear. David breaks down why strong demos and positive conversations are not enough, why buyer evidence matters more than seller confidence, and how health systems evaluate pain, metrics, finance, workflow fit, adoption risk, decision process, paper process, and internal champions. In this episode: Why Health IT deals stall even when the product is strong How MEDDPICC® maps to real provider buying behavior Why "good conversations" are not the same as buyer evidence How CFO, innovation, policy, GPO, workflow, and standards perspectives connect Why payback, workflow fit, and internal champions help move deals forward 3 Brief Takeaways: MEDDPICC® is not sales theater — it is buyer alignment strategy. Deals should advance on buyer evidence, not seller confidence. Payback, workflow fit, and internal champions are what move Health IT deals toward close. Questions, comments, or guest ideas? Email: podcast@elevate-hit-sales.com

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About

Rockin' HIT Sales is the show for founders, sales leaders, and investors who care about selling Health IT the way hospitals actually buy. Host David Hacker, CPHIMS and MEDDPICC® Certified Trainer, sits down with the people on the other side of the deal table—CMIOs, CNIOs, CFOs, innovation leaders, GPO executives, and federal policy and standards leads—to unpack: How health systems really evaluate digital health and AI solutions What separates "interesting pilot" from scaled enterprise deployment How MEDDPICC®, AI risk, and interoperability policy show up in real deals What risk, finance, and clinical leaders listen for in vendor conversations Guests include health system executives, innovators, and policymakers such as: Chief Medical Innovation Officers, CFOs of major health systems, technology leaders from national GPOs, and federal Health IT and AI standards leaders. New episodes drop every other week, with short, practical conversations designed to help you qualify better, de-risk deals, and align your go-to-market with the way hospitals make decisions. If you're building or selling Health IT or healthcare AI—and you want fewer stalled pilots and more scalable wins—this is your front-row seat.

Information

  • Creator
    David Hacker
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    Rockin' HIT Sales