Tomorrow's Medicine, Ep. 13: Silver Tsunami Explained - Christopher Kunney

With Christopher Kunney, Healthcare Technology Strategist. Hosted by Arseniy Arsentyev. Published April 12, 2026.

https://aarsentyev.com/podcast/ep13-christopher-kunney

Machine-transcribed and lightly edited: filler words and false starts are removed, and the wording is otherwise as spoken. Where the two differ, the recording is the record. Times are minutes into the recording. Not medical advice.

[0:00] Arseniy Arsentyev: Welcome everyone. It's the 13th episode of Tomorrow's Medicine podcast. I'm delighted to feature Christopher Kunney. Christopher, can you tell us more about your background?

[0:11] Christopher Kunney: Sure. Well, thank you so much for inviting me to be a part of the program. I'm excited to be here and have this conversation today. As you mentioned, my name is Christopher Kunney. I serve as managing partner for IOTech Consulting. I also serve as the CTO for a virtual care urgent care platform called Ask Me Your MD or Amy MD. And I have stopped counting at 30, 30 plus years of technology leadership experience, having worked in the public sector and then also in health care. Cut my teeth in technology, having worked for companies like Hewlett Packard, Versal Technologies and others. And then I came into the health care space in the early 2000s after the first dot-com bubble had burst.

[0:58] And I was looking for kind of the next job opportunity, quite honestly, and was starting to look at health care as an emerging market, especially as it related to technology. The adoption of electronic health record systems and some of the telemedicine and some of the other technologies were starting to emerge. And it was really interesting to me. So I was fortunate enough to secure a position at a local hospital system here in Atlanta where I'm based. And through a series of promotions and opportunities, I eventually rose to the level of CIO for that organization and had an opportunity to now drive technology transformations across that health system, which included, again, implementing electronic health record systems, telemedicine platforms. We were the first hospital in the country to go through a HIPAA audit as well, too.

[1:55] And also, we've had the opportunity to grow some specialty practices like our Heart Institute as well. I left there around 2009 or so and started working on the consulting and advisory side. I was recruited by an advisory firm and I helped them grow their practice. And one of our clients at the time was AT&T. I was actually serving as one of the advisors on AT&T's health care advisory board and also doing some consulting work for them. They approached me about coming on board and serving as their executive director for emerging health care technologies. They were expanding their health care practice as well. So I joined AT&T and helped launch the AT&T health care arm of their business.

[2:49] A few years later, I went out and launched my own company, IOTech Consulting or Infinite Options Technology Consulting. We shortened it down to IOTech and since then have been working in a wide variety of areas, helping to drive transformation and health care. Working with companies like Samsung and Ricoh and QTS, startups, government agencies, health systems, long-term care, FQHCs, a wide variety of stakeholders in the health care ecosystem, either providing interim leadership or serving as an advisor or strategist or helping lead the development and launch of innovative technology in this space.

[3:35] And so I've got quite a bit of a purview of how health care operates, both on the provider side, on the vendor side, on the emerging tech side. And now having spent a number of years into this space, really looking at some of the, again, some of the emerging technologies and trends that are happening. One we'll be talking about here in a few minutes, which is the silver tsunami and how these technologies will start impacting folks who are moving into their senior years. So I've had a long journey and an exciting journey. I've also been a patient as well, too. I'm a brain tumor survivor as well, too. So I've experienced healthcare as a patient and also as a technologist as well, too.

[4:25] Arseniy Arsentyev: It seems that you have many projects going at the same time. And which one would you say is your main goal? Not your main goal, like your main aim. And on which of them are you focusing primarily?

[4:40] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, it's funny you say that. Yeah, I do have a lot of different balls in the air. All of it seems to still kind of work together. It's all around healthcare and health technology transformation and health equity. But there are a few things that I'm really excited about that I'm working on right now. One is I'm working with a team of people who are developing an electronic health record for the country of Liberia and for the African diaspora. Africa being one of the largest continents in the world and one of the largest populations of individuals in the world, healthcare still seems to be a challenge there on the continent.

[5:24] And we are looking to find ways to try to close those gaps. And so by bringing emerging technologies that are really centric to how healthcare is delivered in those communities is something I'm excited to be a part of and building this technology that's really going to focus on providing care for people within the African diaspora. The other project I'm working on that's really exciting as well, too, which is interesting enough, not necessarily IT related, but it is technology and transformational as well. I'm working with a leading scientist who's developed a therapeutic for arresting some of the symptoms of sickle cell anemia.

[6:10] And sickle cell anemia is, again, another one of those diseases that has a huge impact on large populations in Africa and Asia and Middle East. We have a relatively small number of people in conjunction to our population in the United States, but it still is a disease that is often mistreated or ignored by our healthcare professionals. And I'm excited to work on a project where we're going to be able to provide an affordable therapeutic to the continent and hopefully around the globe as well, too.

[6:48] And then I've had the opportunity to serve on various different industry panels, boards, and I've got a couple of other initiatives that are going to have a real impact on the delivery of care for underserved communities. And, oh, I forgot. I just completed my first book as well, too.

[7:10] Arseniy Arsentyev: Congratulations.

[7:11] Christopher Kunney: Thank you.

[7:12] Arseniy Arsentyev: What's the name of it?

[7:12] Christopher Kunney: Yes, it's called Diagnosing Distrust, and I know we'll talk a little bit about trust later in the conversation as well. Diagnosing Distrust: why people of color don't trust the U.S. healthcare system, and how we can use a concept I coined as health equity to be its cure, or really to close the gaps. And so we take the readers through a journey of how we got to a place of distrusting the U.S. health system as communities of color, but also how do we have the promise of technology, policy, people to help to start to close those gaps.

[7:47] And so I'm excited to have that book scheduled to be released in Q3 of this year. And it's been a year-long labor of love and blood, sweat, and tears to come to the production of what I hope will be a meaningful piece of literature.

[8:09] Arseniy Arsentyev: Okay, so as I've said, you have many things that you're working on and let's start to uncover them step by step. The first part I want to talk to you about is this silver tsunami because first that I got acquainted with your work was through the TED talk that you gave about the silver tsunami. And I've heard this concept from so many people in healthcare. However, it seems that the patients and the general populations does not put so much attention into it and many people do not know what is that. So let's start. What is the silver tsunami?

[8:49] Christopher Kunney: Absolutely. Well, and I think it's a great way to set up the conversation and that is like a tsunami, it's something that occurs very slowly and gradually. But when it hits you with all this major force that can be very disruptive. And that's what you're seeing happening here in this lifetime we're living around the aging of our population. So the baby boomers, individuals who were born at the beginning of 1960, I'm sorry, 1946, right after World War II through 1964, represented one of the largest populations of human beings that were born during that period of time. And they really dictated almost every major economic shift since that period.

[9:42] And so after the soldiers came home from World War II and they got married and started having kids, they created the middle class here in the United States and across the globe. They also started having kids. And so industries like Barbie dolls and rock and roll music and soul music, R&B music, the civil rights movement, television started to emerge and became dominant forces. And then fast forward, after 1964, you had the next major population called Gen Xs who were born. And then they started to dictate some of the technology transformations we started seeing. So we started seeing things like computers in the home, video games, cell phones, and now AI being some of the emerging technologies that have transformed how we live and how we do business to the Internet.

[10:49] All of that came through those two major groups. And so what's happening now: last year, the first generation of Gen Xers turned 60. The year before, the last generation of baby boomers turned 60 themselves. And so now what was considered the cool populations or the transformational populations, they're now moving into their senior years. Every day, 10,000 people are turning 65 for the next 25 years plus. By just 2030, just four years from now, here in the United States in particular, there'll be more people over 60 years old than under five years of age. We literally are seeing the aging of a major part of our population occur. And those who drove every major economic shift and those will have a major economic impact on our economy as they age themselves.

[11:57] And as they leave the workforce, as they start to have to deal with health related issues. And unfortunately, we have a youth crisis. We don't have people your generation who are having as many kids as we did, in my generation. And so we've got a shortage of human beings on this planet to be able to take care of that large population of individuals who are moving into their senior years. And also fill some of the positions that those individuals held, doctors, nurses, health care professionals, technologists, et cetera. We've got a gap, a huge gap. And so how are we going to start to address it, in an effective way? Well, one of the ways that we can do that is through the use of technology.

[12:42] And so you have this emerging industry that is occurring called age tech or silver tech or granny tech, technology that's really geared towards assisting and supporting individuals who are moving into their senior years. And so that could be anything from wearable devices that are tracking your health to telecommunication technologies like the ones we're on, where seniors can have ongoing communication with their loved ones and family members, grandkids, or even health care professionals. Their doctors and nurses, live, in a way where they're not having to travel to the clinic or to the hospital or to the doctor's office. They can actually receive treatment in their homes.

[13:31] We have smart devices now in our homes that can monitor us, that can tell if a person is moving around in their house or if they're still in bed or if they're wandering because they may have some cognitive issues that are taking place. Or again, those wearable devices and monitoring devices, monitoring a person's condition and reacting to it before something episodic happens. And then we've got the emergence of robotics now, too. And so you've got what they're terming as care bots, these robotic technologies that'll be in your home that'll be able to provide some basic types of care, basic cleaning of the home, basic maintenance, maybe even some basic cooking and being an assistant to those individuals who are moving into their senior years as well, too.

[14:25] So the opportunities in this space are tremendous. It's a multi-trillion dollar industry that is emerging just to focus on taking care of individuals as they move into their senior years. But I know I said a lot there in a short period of time.

[14:40] Arseniy Arsentyev: That's great. It's absolutely great. You covered many things that I want to ask you. But I want to just summarize quickly for the listeners. So silver tsunami is this phenomenon of the recent years that aging populations, the percentage of aging population to the percentage of young people is accelerating. And the current systems are under a huge attack because, as I understood, the U.S. healthcare system is not ready. Am I correct?

[15:11] Christopher Kunney: Well, I wouldn't say it's just unique to the U.S. healthcare system. I would say it's globally a challenge as well. You've got countries like India, countries like China who have a billion people, and they're projected to have one-fourth, if not close to one-third of their population over 65. And so that's a huge impact on their economy. It's going to be a huge impact on the workforce in and of itself and those folks as they age and move out of the workforce. And then a huge impact on the healthcare and delivery model there as well, too. And even a huge impact on the tax base when you think about that large population of people moving out of the day-to-day workforce and not contributing to the tax base.

[15:57] What is that going to mean, long term for governments who are trying to fund programs and support their economy if a good portion of those individuals are no longer working as well? So it's huge implications that are going to reverberate not just here in the United States, but literally across the globe.

[16:18] Arseniy Arsentyev: Do you know, do you have the data whether in the United States it's more severe than in other parts of the world or is it more of the same rate?

[16:29] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, it's really more of the same. Again, when you think about that whole Gen X and baby boomer generations that were born, that wasn't unique to the United States. That was across the globe. And so, again, you're seeing all these countries try to figure out what they're going to do to try to manage this aging population. One thing some of the countries are doing are they're raising the retirement age. And so they're not letting people retire as early as they were in the past so that they can continue to stay in the workforce, continue to provide taxes and support to the economy. And then just slow down the process of now having to support them through government programs like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid because they're now still actively in the workforce.

[17:27] The second thing, most countries are doing is asking themselves, do we have if we're going to have a shortage of individuals in our country as a result? Can we recruit people from other countries to come and be a part of our economy as well? So unlike some countries who may be a little resistant to immigration and immigrants, there are others who are actively encouraging people to move to their countries because they know they're going to need that workforce in the future as well.

[18:00] And then I think, what you're also going to see or you're also seeing is many countries asking themselves, what types of jobs can we create for people who are aging as well too? Are there things that they can do work from home? Are there jobs that may not require as much physical demand or based on their own experience? Can we leverage that in some form or fashion because we still need that work group available to us? So you're looking at a lot of creative ways that different countries are considering leveraging that population. And then, of course, we talked about it earlier, technology is going to play a big role in that as well too.

[18:45] And how do we continue to provide scalable, affordable technologies to a wide variety of individuals that are moving into their senior years so that they can age as independently as they can. We can keep them out of high cost health systems and they can have a quality of life that is really productive and happy as they move into those senior years as well.

[19:09] Arseniy Arsentyev: And the biggest problem that I see in a health tech solution is that we're talking about an elderly population and many of the people are not that tech savvy. They're not familiar with modern technology. And I'm curious, are there initiatives and what are you seeing as an expert in this field of something emerging that will help to educate basically, yes, to educate our grandmas and grandpas?

[19:39] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, yeah. It's a great question. I had the privilege a few years ago to be a keynote speaker for a conference in Alberta, Canada. And it was sponsored by AGE-WELL. And it was a conference that brought the aging community. It brought the technology community, government, academic groups, a really very well-rounded group of individuals from those communities to come together to reimagine how do we start to develop innovative technologies with everyone's involvement. So these technologies around age tech shouldn't be developed in silos, with again, quite honestly, not to be disrespectful, but people your age and not have someone my age being beside you talking about how this technology is going to impact us.

[20:31] The UI, the UX on those technologies need to be driven from the perspective of other people who are going to be ultimately the users of it and not, making the assumptions that they know how to navigate these tools as effectively as people like yourself who are digital natives. You were born, in a society that these tools were already available to you. You grew up with them. People like myself and older ones did not grow up with these technologies. They had to adopt them as a part of their journey in life. And so are we building those tools based on the perspectives of the people who are aging? Are they a part of your advisory groups? Are they a part of your development teams?

[21:13] Are you actually testing them on them as well when you're looking at, validating the impact of the technology? You have to make sure you're including the folks who are ultimately going to be impacted by the technology to ensure its efficacy and value to those communities.

[21:33] Arseniy Arsentyev: And we're talking about this systemic shift. Many people just think government will give money and everything will go as it always does. But as you outlined and your example with UI and UX is so profound, I just keep thinking of it. And we need designers who are acquainted with the needs of elderly. We need development teams. We need management teams, testing teams. And there are so many different aspects in which we need to evolve. And given this variety, which one or two of them do you think is the most critical right now? And what is the first step to take?

[22:16] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, well, I think they're all critical. It's like a three-legged stool, right? If you don't have one of the legs, it won't be, a very effective instrument as well, too. So I think you have to have them all. You have to have very smart, creative, out-of-the-box thinkers and innovators at the table. You have to have the end user themselves, the seniors at the table as well, offering perspective and insights around that. And then you have to have a support system, government, to support the development of these technologies so that they're allowed to thrive.

[22:55] And you're not going to be stifled by some of the shortcomings of the lack of innovation in this area as well, too. So we have to encourage it. We have to foster it. We have to create mechanisms that help entrepreneurs, potentially like yourself, who are wanting to develop the next generation of technologies in this space. But they're hampered by finances and resources or government regulations that might limit them from being able to bring something truly viable to the marketplace. So I think it's a three-legged stool, and I don't think any one leg of the stool is less valuable than the other. I think you've got to have them all to be successful.

[23:37] Arseniy Arsentyev: And who are the people who are, that are designing this three-legged stool? Who are the main players that should start this transition? Is it policymaker? Is it CEO? Is it startup founder? What do you think?

[23:53] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, I think yes to all three. Yeah, exactly. When you think about government has to be involved for establishing policies and guidance and governance around the use of these technologies and the efficacy of the technologies. So you got to have those stipulations and rules in place to support that. Two, you have to have stakeholders who are going to be the recipient of the technologies, whether it's the patient or end user themselves, or that, for example, in healthcare, the health systems who are going to ultimately deliver care to those individuals. They need to be knowledgeable about the use of these technologies.

[24:37] And then, as I mentioned before, the patient has to be able to intuitively use those technologies in a way that allows them to see a better quality of life as well. So I don't think you can separate the three. They're all, I think, equally important. And if you don't have one, the others most likely are not going to be successful without all three in place.

[25:03] Arseniy Arsentyev: And you've championed health equity throughout your whole career. And do you see that minority groups got struck in a worse way by this silver tsunami?

[25:15] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, it's a good question as well, too. I think in healthcare in general, whether it's the aging community, young adults, women's health, mental health, when it comes to the efficacy and quality of that, we do see, not just anecdotally, but through actual research and experiences that people have had, that black and brown communities often are not treated with the same level of efficacy as maybe some other groups as well, too. And so it has fostered this concept of distrust in the system.

[26:01] And so many will probably, in many cases, will wait until if they're experiencing an illness or issue, they'll wait until it's so severe that they have to go to the doctor versus, going early on when they feel the cough or the sneeze or the fever or whatever to try to get in front of it. And part of that's because they are afraid of the system itself and whether or not the system is going to do more harm than good. So I think that's a part of the challenge we have. I think there's what they call the political determinants of health. I think there's still policies that don't effectively address the efficacy of certain medical devices and equipment that clearly have shown biases in its use on darker skin tones and different communities as well.

[26:56] And then I think we have to fundamentally have a hard conversation, and specifically in this country, about the history of racism and the institutionalized systems that are in place that marginalize these communities, whether it's through redlining of communities and limiting their access to things like health care or food or education, to research that's being done that's not always inclusive of underserved communities like our Native Americans, for example, our Asian or African-American community. So I think it's a multifaceted issue around that. But at the end of the day, you can have the best technology possible. But if people don't trust it and have a sense that it's going to be in their benefit to use it, then it's just a smart piece of technology that's sitting on the shelf.

[27:56] And so we do have to spend time and energy trying to address the challenges and issues around racism and inequities in health care and see if we can put the guardrails in place to hold folks accountable. But also see how we can leverage technology to be part of the governance process as well. Can we use AI machine learning to evaluate us as human beings and decide, help us determine whether or not one person was treated differently than another. And what's the reasons behind that and then holding us accountable if there aren't any valid reasons for that as well.

[28:32] Arseniy Arsentyev: Thank you, Christopher. I will speak for myself. I feel that I got more mature in the topic of silver tsunami. Not an expert, but I'm getting where I'm supposed to be.

[28:44] Christopher Kunney: Good. You're going to be the future. You're going to be one of the folks that are helping to develop design and manage, this massive amount of individuals who are going to be moving into their years. So we definitely need your generation to be knowledgeable about it, to help us not make the same mistakes we may have made in our journey in life, but also learn from those things and help us improve it through the use of technology, but policy and people, so that we are committed to improving the condition of all of us, no matter what we look like.

[29:23] Arseniy Arsentyev: Hope so, hope so. And putting it all together in, say, 10 to 20 years, if you do every other step in the correct order and in the correct way, what is the utopian healthcare system that you can describe in which we solve the silver tsunami?

[29:43] Christopher Kunney: Wow. Wow. That's a pretty loaded question. I can't even, it's hard to imagine what 20 years from now, what our healthcare delivery model will look like.

[29:56] Arseniy Arsentyev: Especially with AI, yeah.

[29:57] Christopher Kunney: Especially with AI, agentic AI, and especially with quantum computing that we'll be able to eventually, commoditize as well, too. It will be a game changer. My hope, though, is that that 68-year-old grandmother in rural Mississippi will be able to receive the same level and quality of care as that 68-year-old Italian mom in Boston as well that's going to an academic medical center in her community. And the 68-year-old grandmother in Mississippi is going to the small rural hospital. My hope is that they can both receive the same level and quality of healthcare no matter what zip code they're in.

[30:52] Arseniy Arsentyev: So we're talking 20 years from now?

[30:55] Christopher Kunney: Right.

[30:55] Arseniy Arsentyev: Maybe. I'm not sure that it's possible in 5 to 10 years.

[31:00] Christopher Kunney: Yeah. And, again, it's hard. Who would have thought just 5 years ago the impact of what AI would be looking like in healthcare in general? We're seeing such a massive acceleration in adoption of these technologies that it's hard to even predict beyond 2 or 3 years at this point anymore. So, again, my hope is that we will, as a society, move away from the need to put fences up around different communities as a protectionist strategy. But we're open in embracing all communities because we see the richness of power and diversity and inclusion. That's my hope.

[31:48] And then if we're able to do that, then I think we're much stronger as a society and we can solve and tackle these issues around health care and other hunger and other society issues in a much more effective way because we are looking at each other as our brother and not our adversary.

[32:09] Arseniy Arsentyev: Okay, and before we proceed to the next sections of this episode, I want to frame a little better your background because I'm a true believer in the fact that background and our experience shapes the way we see the world. And you've said in the beginning that you've got a brain tumor and you're a patient yourself. And as I've known from many people, being a patient themselves changes it completely. Like you see the healthcare world in the other colors, from the other direction. And can you tell me, my audience, this experience of surviving brain tumor and what you learn from it?

[32:52] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, good question. Much longer story than we actually have time to tell on the program. But the short version of it is I was, it was the best of times, the worst of times in my life at that time. I was actively growing my business. I was traveling all over the country, building a business and being very successful at that. And then on a flight on the way to the West Coast, I contracted some hiccups, literally hiccups. And they didn't go away for the entire four and a half hour flight, which led to a host of other challenges that I experienced as well too. And forced me to literally get back on the plane and go back home and start to receive tests from one of the major institutions here in Atlanta.

[33:49] And they couldn't figure out what was going on with me. And I ended up going to Mayo Clinic as well. And they couldn't figure out what was going on with me. And what happened was my illness was going in cycles. So literally every 30 days I would go through these episodes that would affect my health. And I would then run back to the doctor and have tests done. And they could never really figure out what was going on. Until six months later, when I had my neurologist checkup. And that's when they discovered after probably the fifth MRI or so, that tumor. Actually, not one tumor, but two. Two brain tumors. And so that is when we decided to plan for the surgery, which we didn't have until the following year.

[34:44] And how that affected me personally in so many different ways. I lost vision in my left eye. So I'm really legally blind in my left eye. I decided to put my business on hiatus for about five years, quite honestly. As I tried to figure out if I wanted to continue down this path as an entrepreneur. I think it affected my family as well, too, as I went through this journey of recovery. And I definitely think it's shifted my perspective on what's important in life as well, too. And it's not necessarily the other material things you gain, but how you impact people.

[35:34] And so it drove me to get involved in some nonprofit organizations and allowed me to do medical missions to places like West Africa and also be very passionate about leading effort around health equity for all. So I don't know if that answered your question, but...

[35:53] Arseniy Arsentyev: It absolutely did. And I think, first of all, I'm glad that everything is fine.

[35:59] Christopher Kunney: Thank you.

[36:00] Arseniy Arsentyev: Being a patient is always horrible, especially... I think it's especially horrible when you're acquainted with healthcare and you know it's dark sides. And I have a question about five MRIs. Was it that they haven't discovered it? Or what was the problem? Why it took so long?

[36:21] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, well, a good question. And you probably have to ask the series of doctors I saw from multiple organizations. And I think one of the things that probably stood out for me is back when this was happening, the lack of collaboration amongst not only the folks internally in the health system that I was a part of, ultimately, that ultimately discovered the tumors and removed them. But I went to another organization as well, too. And I don't know if they ever collaborated and got results from them.

[36:57] So I think this lack of collaboration is a big challenge that still exists to a certain degree in healthcare. How do you get doctors and healthcare professionals to come together and discuss a patient's situation from different organizations. It's still, I think, we have a long way to go in that area. And then the fact that it took six months to finally diagnose the disease tells me that maybe people who were looking at radiology studies at the time didn't have the same level of proficiency in the analysis of those MRI reports as maybe AI might have had. Because we do know in digital imaging, AI tends to perform better than the human eye.

[37:51] Arseniy Arsentyev: And especially the human eye that is not like top-level specialists of the country. And this gap is so huge. It's literally so huge. And what I'm thinking that this experience with brain tumor definitely led you to maybe reconsider and slow down a business career, as you said. But also to increase your efforts fighting for equity in healthcare. And this topic of trust around AI is next on our schedule. And I want to dive into it. So, yeah.

[38:27] Christopher Kunney: Let's do it. Yeah, and I think before we go there, I would also comment about the comment you just made. I think the thing that, in hindsight, that I realized after going through that surgery is I don't think I got really good mental health services. It was a pretty traumatic thing to deal with. And the recovery process wasn't easy either. Regaining some of the skills, the motor skills, mental health skills that I needed because of this surgery. I think it would have been better to have had someone on the behavioral side, talking to them about what I was going through. Because a lot of the things I think I dealt with personally and didn't have conversations with friends or family about it.

[39:28] And so I think we need to be very holistic when we think about health care these days. It is definitely mind, spirit and body and they all directly affect each other. And so I would like to see more of the mind and spirit part baked into the recovery part of individual's health.

[39:51] Arseniy Arsentyev: Thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing, Christopher. It's an important information and I know it will help our listeners to get a better perspective on your experiences and to better understand why you're such a proponent of this fight for equity. Because I know that many people in healthcare prioritize innovation over equity. And many people feel and many people have this kind of FOMO, if we can say so, fear of missing out. That if we are not innovating constantly, that will diminish our lifespans, our health spans. However, I also feel that it's important to put emphasis on the bottom side of the economy and help people to have meaningful amount of support.

[40:44] Christopher Kunney: Absolutely. And I think the health systems are just often not equipped to do those other pieces. They'll deliver care for your health, but the recovery process and the mind, body and spirit part of that, I don't know if they do as good of a job. And making sure you have resources available to you to address it all from a holistic perspective as well.

[41:12] Arseniy Arsentyev: Okay. And can you tell us about your campaign to push for trust around AI? What can you say about it?

[41:19] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, I know we spoke a little bit about it earlier. And as I talked about releasing a book that's focused on all, it's all about trust. My 93-year-old grand-aunt just celebrated her birthday today. And she's on her smartphone all the time playing video games. And so she's developed a certain amount of trust, even as a senior, in that this game is not going to create any issues for me. Big Brother's not spying on me. And I can enjoy this as a tool for recreation along with communication as well, too. And I don't know too many 93-year-old women who are sitting there playing video games on their phone.

[42:12] But that says a lot about where we've come as a society and where these tools have come. The cell phone in and of itself is more than just a cell phone now. So it's an integral part of our lives. How many of us have walked out of the door and got half a block down the street and realized you didn't have your cell phone? And instead of saying, oh, I'll just deal without it, you immediately turn around and you go back and you get it because you can't imagine not being able to conduct your day without it. That's just how important it's become as a tool for us. It's almost a symbiotic, well, not even a symbiotic relationship. It's a relationship where we depend heavily on the phone as a part of our day-to-day lives.

[42:57] Then the phone probably depends on us.

[43:01] Arseniy Arsentyev: Is this a work you do at your consulting firm, IOTech? Is it related to enforcing this, to helping other companies to enforce this trust and to develop such instruments? Can you outline in like five to ten sentences what IOTech stands for and why is it different from the other consulting companies?

[43:25] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, real simple. IOTech is actually a play on the original name of the company, which is Infinite Options. So the legal name of the company is called Infinite Options, LLC. And IOTech stands for the Infinite Option portion of it. And we are a technology advisory and solutions firm. I like to think of why we're, what differentiates us. I call us the Ronins of healthcare or health tech. We are samurais, people who are seasoned, experienced healthcare leaders, but we don't have masters. We are all individuals who have done the rodeo as a C-suite person, led transformation efforts.

[44:12] And now we don't want to necessarily be behind the desk full time. We do want to continue to contribute and help disrupt what's happening in the industry, but we want to do it from the lens of the advisor, the influencer, and the transformational leader that organizations can call upon to assist them in that effort. And so it's a collective group of former executives and senior level experts who can provide strategy solutions and lead transformation efforts with their clients. I'm not sure if that was 10 sentences or 20, but that's who we are.

[44:55] Arseniy Arsentyev: It's okay. And I think that it takes so many meetings to do the job of consulting firm, right? And I'm curious, what is the biggest misconceptions that you see that other people have? I'm sure you are talking to executives all around the country and all around the healthcare space. And what are some things that you notice that they're misunderstanding, that they're constantly assuming in the wrong direction?

[45:28] Christopher Kunney: Yeah. Yeah. I think one of the biggest things I see and have seen throughout my career is where the IT decisions within the organization are left solely to IT to make, versus creating a governance structure that defines what your needs are and how you're going to enable technology to solve those problems. And then engaging the CIO and his team to assist in identifying and evaluating and securing the technologies once you've identified what the gap is. I think too much emphasis is put on the CIO to be the person that decides what the IT direction is going to be for the company. And really, it's just a tool.

[46:17] It's an enabler. We should be driving our efforts based on the overall business strategy of the organization and then putting in what I call a discipline governance model that makes sure that any of the decisions we're making about IT directly align with the overall strategy. And so these aren't just pet projects or nice things to do or cool technologies, but they have a direct alignment with a specific initiative that the organization's attempting to. And with that, the technology then can be identified, adopted and then leveraged. And then we can measure the success of it through KPIs, key performance indicators to show the value of the technology that has been selected and implemented as well. So it's just not kind of a nice to have cool thing, but we can quantitatively and qualitatively determine its impact.

[47:12] Arseniy Arsentyev: What are the best people that comprises high-performing IT teams that work on healthcare projects? Should they be from purely technical backgrounds, as I am, for example, or should they have some exposure into natural sciences or anything else?

[47:31] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, good question. I think this should come from a wide variety of areas. I think you need to have clinical leadership on, if you're working on a technology transformation initiative to try to figure out what technology you're going to purchase and how it's going to impact your organization. I think you have to have stakeholders from all parts of the organization that will be affected by it, including the patient themselves. And I don't think a lot of health systems take the time to get the feedback from the patient about how this technology is going to impact them if, God forbid, they're admitted to this hospital or if they're in the ED.

[48:08] So I think having a broad perspective of individuals on your team makes you a much stronger group for innovation than having the same, IT leaders or IT professionals in a room making decisions about the use of technology that they'll never actually have to use. And so if you talk about electronic health record system, for example, the average IT person is not going to actually use it. They may use it from the standpoint of being an end user. They may use it from the standpoint of being a patient.

[48:45] And then you need to take those things into account as well, too. But they'll never be the ultimate users of it. And so I think we give IT, and I'm speaking as an IT professional, I think we give IT too much power and too much credit on the decision making that takes place about these technologies. They need to be right there at the forefront. And it's my job as a CIO to demystify those technologies for the decision maker. So if you don't understand what blockchain is, well, let me break it down for you and help you understand what it really means and how it's going to impact our organization if we decide to adopt a blockchain strategy.

[49:28] Just an example of many that I could probably cite. But the bottom line is we have to make sure the decision makers are educated consumers and stewards. And that many of these technology projects, unless they're specifically around infrastructure and security and business continuity, are really department-led, should be department-led projects. Where you have a leader in the organization partner with an IT person to drive that transformation collectively.

[50:00] Arseniy Arsentyev: Okay. And what are the qualities of the leaders of this transformation? Should it be the people who take enormous responsibility on themselves? Or should it be the people that, as you said, create these government, semi-government structures inside the company that will decide ultimately?

[50:21] Christopher Kunney: I think it's both, actually. I think you've got to have transformational leaders who are comfortable in their own skin, comfortable with having built a really solid, smart team around them that will challenge them and challenge the status quo. I think that's more than appropriate. And then I think, again, having the customer at the table is always a validation to what you're doing as well, too. Does it make sense? How is it going to harm or help the customer? How, am I willing to pay a price point for something like this? Because we ultimately have to get back to the ultimate end users of our process, which are our patients.

[51:03] And if the patients aren't involved in the decision-making process, how do you expect them to be happy about how the healthcare system is delivered to them if they weren't a part of helping to create it?

[51:18] Arseniy Arsentyev: Thank you. Thank you. I finally understood. And the last question on the show is the same for everyone. If we look through the healthcare system as a process, as a structure of people, of material things, of systems, how do you think it will evolve? And what do you wish it to evolve to? You've said about equity, when we were talking about in 10 years, how do you see this silver tsunami solution implemented? But it's a little different questions. Just let's forget about IT consulting. Let's forget about silver tsunamis. Just general, as a healthcare system, what are the changes you perceive will happen? Will hospitals change? Will the healthcare providers change? Will the payments, the Medicare system change? What are you feeling, what are you noticing around you?

[52:17] Christopher Kunney: Yeah, I think that's a good question. Final question as well, too. I think the possibilities are endless in terms of what AI and these emerging technologies will be able to do. However, I do think that most immediate, you'll see more of the administrative parts of a health system impacted more. I won't say good or bad. It all depends on the organization. But I do think you'll see them impacting more because it's easier and less intrusive to integrate AI into those systems than it might be for you to try to integrate it into the clinical care side. So I see greater adoption on the administrative side initially with these technologies.

[53:11] And then as we get the proof of the concepts on those ends, you'll see more and more clinicians want to adopt this type of automation to reduce, again, some of the cognitive workload that they experience as well.

[53:24] Arseniy Arsentyev: Thank you very much, Christopher Kunney. It was a great episode.

[53:29] Christopher Kunney: Thank you.

[53:29] Arseniy Arsentyev: We learned a lot, much information, and I hope you'll be a patient in the system as infrequent as possible, and more the person who transforms it and who drives it forward. Thank you very much.

[53:43] Christopher Kunney: Thank you so much. It was a pleasure being on your program and I wish you continued success with your podcast. As I mentioned, I have my own as well too. It's called Straight Outta Health IT. This month, we'll be celebrating our 100th episode as well too. So it's definitely been an amazing journey for us as well.

[54:00] Arseniy Arsentyev: We'll talk about it in the next episode with you after some time. And I hope you have great success on your book.

[54:08] Christopher Kunney: Thank you.

[54:08] Arseniy Arsentyev: Let everyone once again know its name and when it gets released.

[54:12] Christopher Kunney: Sure. It's called Diagnosing Distrust: Why People of Color Don't Trust the U.S. Healthcare System and How Health Equity Is the Promise of the Cure. It's the working title of the book right now. And it's scheduled to come out in Q3 of this year. So stay tuned, and I'm happy to come back on and talk about the book or share it with your audience in some form or fashion.

[54:31] Arseniy Arsentyev: Thank you.