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October 9, 2025
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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. Tamara Moores Todd, Chief Health Informatics Officer at Intermountain Health, about "what she learned about healthcare from a Near-Death Experience, sustaining informatics through ‘Gardening Mode’, how AI Agents will shape healthcare, and more..." Click the play button to listen or read the show notes below.
Audio:
Guest(s):
- Dr. Tamara Moores Todd, Chief Health Informatics Officer at Intermountain Health
- Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD
Episode 195 - Show Notes:
[00:00:07] Episode preview
[00:05:19] Why Dr. Moores Todd chose emergency medicine: the privilege of earning a patient’s trust within 60 seconds and being present during their most vulnerable moments.
[00:06:15] Her love for both learning and storytelling shaped her path in medicine and leadership.
[00:07:17] How an early EHR medication error revealed that healthcare outcomes depend more on system design than individual effort.
[00:08:09] Developing an app as a resident that synchronized critical clinical data and helped save a patient’s life—igniting her passion for informatics.
[00:11:40] A near-death experience after childbirth taught her new empathy as a patient and reshaped her leadership approach. [00:14:20] Encouraging teams to share experiences openly and focus on learning over blame to build empathy and continuous improvement.
[00:18:16] Her process for pursuing innovation: deep listening to frontline frustrations, identifying themes, and solving meaningful problems—not just chasing technology.
[00:19:27] How she led Intermountain’s rapid COVID-19 testing transformation—automating curbside workflows, QR code registration, and result routing.
[00:22:20] Building equity into digital health through representation, multilingual education, and culturally informed design.
[00:25:19] Using digital efficiency gains to reinvest in populations unable to access tech—reducing test wait times from two hours to five minutes.
[00:26:35] Why human connection and trust must remain central even as AI and virtual agents expand in healthcare.
[00:28:44] Intermountain’s AI journey: validating ambient documentation tools with Microsoft, prioritizing patient and caregiver benefit, and governing AI ethics rigorously.
[00:32:17] Observing generational trends in tech adoption—recognizing residency as a key window to shape workflows.
[00:33:10] Redefining success metrics for ambient documentation: beyond adoption rates to include patient experience and “pajama time.”
[00:34:11] Designing systems that restore joy to clinicians by fixing small friction points and maintaining robust feedback loops.
[00:36:31] Why “turning it on” isn’t success—true excellence requires continuous maintenance, iteration, and humility to retire what doesn’t work.
[00:38:09] Lessons from emergency medicine: trust in systemwide clinical protocols can save lives; clinicians will always find ways to fix gaps in service of patients.
Fast 5 Lightning Round:
- What is your favorite book or book you’ve gifted the most?
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership - If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be?
Cooking phenomenally well - Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people’s minds?
Super strength - What is something in healthcare you believe that others might find insane?
The amount of times we talk about poop. Everything comes down to poo. - What is the last movie or TV show you saw?
The Lost Bus (trailer) which is about her hometown Paradise, California. “Surreal and sad, but I’m proud of how the community rebuilt.”
The Digital Patient has been recognized as Feedspot's #1 Patient Engagement Podcast of 2025. Thank you to our listeners for making this happen!
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