Why Your EHR Can No Longer Block the Software You Want | Brendan Keeler

🏥 Subscribe for more practice management advice! Watch other full episodes:    • Scaling Practice Management by Talkie.ai   Watch the highlights:    • Scaling Practice Management Highlights   Most independent practices assume they're stuck with whatever their EHR ships with - the default scribe, the default CRM, the default everything. Brendan Keeler says that's no longer true. Known to many as the "Health API Guy," Brendan leads the interoperability practice at HTD Health and has seen the EHR world from nearly every angle - 5.5 years inside Epic, plus stints at Redox, Zus Health, and Flexpa. He joins Jakub Grajcar to explain why independent practices have more power over their technology than they realize. We dig into: 🔌 Brendan's #1 tip - lean on interoperability to get big-system efficiencies without giving up your independence ⚖️ Why the 21st Century Cures Act means your EHR can't just block the software you want to use 🏛️ How practices are winning against Epic, PointClickCare, and Henry Schein in court - and what it means for you 🧩 Point solutions vs. the EHR bundle - why the specialist tool is usually better, and how to force integration 🤖 Copilots vs. agents - the two kinds of AI, and why scribes took off first 🗺️ How to actually choose AI: map your workflows, find the bottleneck, then know your own buying priorities 📞 Why the AI front desk is the next wave after the scribe - lower clinical risk, faster efficiency gains Resources mentioned: 👤 Guest: Brendan Keeler LinkedIn:   / brendan-keeler   Newsletter - Health API Guy: https://healthapiguy.substack.com X: https://x.com/healthapiguy 🏢 Companies & Tools HTD Health: https://htdhealth.com Health information exchange on-ramps: Particle Health, Health Gorilla, Zus Health Independent-practice-focused HIE tools: Connective Health, Abstractive Health 🏛️ Regulation & bodies mentioned 21st Century Cures Act (information blocking) Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) 📚 Book Essentialism by Greg McKeown ⚖️ Court cases referenced Information blocking suits against Epic, PointClickCare, and Henry Schein 🎥 See how Talkie.ai works - AI medical receptionist demo:    • Voice AI creating a patient case in athena...   Timestamps: 0:00 Teaser: how practice consolidation and landmark EHR court battles are reshaping who controls patient data 2:07 Scaling Practice Management intro & meet Brendan Keeler, Interoperability Practice Lead at HTD Health 2:33 Quick warm-up: lucky numbers and childhood memories from the Jersey Shore 7:17 Why independent practice consolidation makes interoperability more urgent than ever 15:05 Brendan's path from Epic in the Netherlands to Redox, Zus Health, Flexpa, and consulting today 22:49 Systems of record vs. point solutions, and the EHR's built-in incentive to block competitors 24:49 A restaurant industry analogy for why software platforms lock out point solutions 25:54 How the 21st Century Cures Act outlawed technical foreclosure of point solutions 27:04 Why court cases, not regulators, are forcing EHRs to open up data access 29:21 What practice owners should demand from vendors on integration rights 34:35 Why competitive pressure keeps point solutions like Talkie innovating 36:25 A framework for choosing AI tools: platforms vs. point solutions for your biggest bottleneck 40:46 Copilots vs. agents, and why ambient scribe became healthcare AI's first big win 46:39 Why patients accept automation when it solves the problem — the Uber analogy 48:57 Where to follow Brendan's work and closing thoughts