TDP 189: HonorHealth’s CMIO Dr. Craig Norquist: What the Healthcare C-Suite can learn from the Navy, Where AI Agents best fit in Healthcare, and How being a Clinician-Patient Exposes Healthcare Inequities

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On this episode of The Digital Patient, Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO of SeamlessMD, and colleague, Alan Sardana, chat with Dr. Craig Norquist, CMIO at HonorHealth, about "What the Healthcare C-Suite can learn from the Navy, where AI Agents best fit in Healthcare, How being a Clinician-Patient exposes Healthcare Inequities, and more..." Click the play button to listen or read the show notes below.
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Audio:

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Guest(s):

• Dr. Craig Norquist, Chief Medical Information Officer at HonorHealth
• Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD

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‍Episode 189 - Show Notes:

[00:00:07] Episode preview

[00:05:55] Lessons from operating a nuclear power plant on an aircraft carrier

[00:06:56] From nutrition major to pre-med: Dr. Norquist's academic pivot

[00:07:53] Why emergency medicine fit Dr. Norquist's desire to “know a little bit about a lot of things”

[00:08:53] Discovering health IT at HIMSS and the path into informatics

[00:10:20] Safety culture lessons from the Navy applied to patient care

[00:12:39] Teamwork values shaped by military service and Harvard small-group learning

[00:13:52] Training for the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning and an unexpected cancer diagnosis

[00:16:49] Continuing ultrarunning during “watch and wait” for lymphoma

[00:20:02] The privilege of being a physician-patient and the need for faster, clearer communication

[00:27:38] Why patients deserve quicker access and tools to interpret results

[00:28:35] A NICU parent using ChatGPT to interpret monitor readings

[00:32:10] The importance of clinicians as the “source of truth” despite AI and social media noise

[00:37:02] Being treated like a doctor instead of a patient

[00:40:17] Use cases Dr. Norquist believes are ideal for AI agents

[00:46:55] Balancing EHR alerts, wearables, and clinical judgment

[00:53:32] Why waiting for the “perfect AI system” risks missing immediate improvements

[00:56:41] Empowering frontline staff through autonomy, agency, and mastery in informatics

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Fast 5 Lightning Round:

1. What is your favorite book or book you’ve gifted the most?
   How Minds Change by David McRaney
2. If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be?
   Cooking.
3. Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people’s minds?
   Speed.
4. What is something in healthcare you believe that others might find insane?
   “Not all of us know as much as we think we know… not every doctor is as smart as another doctor.”
5. What is the last movie or TV show you saw?
   The Daily Show

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