CTO at Healthcare IT Leaders: Reliability Beats Cutting Edge | Scaling Healthcare Engineering

Reliability Beats “Cutting Edge” — Scaling Healthcare Engineering w/ Paul Cannon, CTO @ Healthcare IT Leaders

What does engineering leadership look like when uptime matters more than hype?
In this episode, Paul Cannon (CTO, Healthcare IT Leaders) breaks down how he’s scaling a high-growth services org supporting EHR and ERP platforms (Epic, Oracle/Cerner, Workday, UKG)—and why reliability often beats “cutting edge” in healthcare.

We cover building a Kansas City Center of Excellence, hiring senior-heavy teams at speed, AI’s impact on interviews and code quality, and why transparency matters more in hybrid organizations.

What you’ll learn

Building a services engine: from staff augmentation to “continuous services” with a tech layer on top

Reliability beats novelty: why customers reward stability over bleeding edge tech

Hiring at pace: networks, senior talent density, and when to introduce junior devs

AI in the funnel: separating signal from noise when candidates use AI on take-homes

Trust and AI: where copilots help (tests, docs) and where human judgment stays critical

Leadership shifts: transparency in hybrid teams and the IC→leader transition

Key takeaways

Stability wins in regulated, mission-critical environments

Speed and quality can coexist—if you set standards and shorten the “prove it” loop

Evaluate fundamentals, not just output—AI can mask real gaps

Train for smart AI use; don’t outsource understanding

Hiring strategy evolves: start senior-heavy, then layer in juniors with intent

About our guest

Paul Cannon is CTO at Healthcare IT Leaders, where he leads engineering for managed/continuous services across major EHR and ERP ecosystems.

About the show