You Can’t Innovate in a House on Fire: Oliver Galicki on Healthcare IT Chaos

What happens when your most critical imaging system is held together by workarounds and tip sheets? Oliver Galicki, VP of Information Services at Memorial Hermann, reveals how he led a 12-month enterprise imaging overhaul — from eight vendors to a signed contract — while balancing technical debt, physician alignment, and scarce dollars. His guiding philosophy: if your house is on fire, you cannot innovate. Discover how pragmatic IT leadership turns infrastructure chaos into a foundation for the future.~1:30 Oliver’s journey from intern to VP~4:30 Technical debt explained — the 23-year-old PACS problem~8:00 “If your house is on fire, you can’t innovate”~11:00 Building governance and physician alignment~17:00 Streamlining decisions — 8 vendors to 1 in 12 months~22:00 The ROI challenge for foundational IT~28:00 Leadership style — authenticity, transparency, and speaking both languages~32:00 Upskilling IT teams for the AI era~35:00 Book and podcast recommendations