DGTL Voices with Ed Marx
Episode: Pioneering Change: The Role of Innovation (ft. Jason Hill)
Date: February 26, 2026
Host: Ed Marx
Guest: Dr. Jason Hill, Clinical Innovation Officer, Ochsner Health
Episode Overview
This episode features Dr. Jason Hill, Clinical Innovation Officer at Ochsner Health, in a candid discussion with Ed Marx about pioneering healthcare change through innovation, AI, and culture. Dr. Hill shares his personal journey, professional milestones, and leadership insights, blending technical achievement with reflections on resilience, family, and personal growth.
1. Introduction: Human Side of Leadership and Innovation
Timestamps: 00:02–01:08
- Ed Marx opens with a warm introduction, appreciating listeners and framing the episode as a blend of digital innovation, healthcare transformation, and personal storytelling.
- Rapid rapport is built as Ed recounts shared industry history with Jason and highlights his guest’s reputation for being both impactful and “a good human.”
- The interview opens with the “music playlist question,” giving a humanizing glimpse into Dr. Hill’s preferences.
Notable Quote:
“Jason, the most important thing everyone is anxiously waiting to hear the answer to is what songs are in your playlist?”
— Ed Marx (01:09)
2. Personal Passions & Values
Timestamps: 01:09–04:00
Music & Faith
- Dr. Hill reveals he's a huge fan of Christian hip hop, citing Toby Mac and Capital Kings as favorites, and bonding over the legacy of DC Talk.
- Discussion segues into the influence of music and faith in his formative years.
Notable Quote:
“I’m a huge Christian hip hop fan… Two of my favorite bands in that space are Toby Mac… and Capital Kings.”
— Jason Hill (01:18)
Life Mantra & Approach
- Hill’s life mantra: “Just generally be a good person.”
- Emphasizes it’s easy to lose track of mission within the healthcare industry and stresses the need to remain Christ-centered and mission-focused in all roles—professional, familial, spiritual.
Notable Quote:
“It’s easy to lose track of mission in healthcare ... if you’re not really focused on the fact that you’re there to care for people and to provide benefit to them…”
— Jason Hill (03:08)
3. Personal & Career Journey
Timestamps: 04:00–09:32
Navigating Change and Adversity
- Hill describes growing up as a “Navy brat,” moving across the country, and later attending Louisiana Tech for biomedical engineering.
- Recounts critical experiences:
- Met his wife at college (she’s also a biomedical engineer).
- Experienced Hurricane Katrina during med school at LSU, losing all possessions, living in a farmhouse with his wife’s family, working for the Red Cross and Medicaid.
- Developed deep resilience and self-reliance through hardship.
Early Professional Roles
- Describes a leap from cutting-edge Houston hospitals to a “podunk” Louisiana hospital lacking electronic health records (EHR).
- Led Ochsner’s first implementation of Epic EHR, then repeated the process for over 45 hospitals, building foundational tech and informatics programs.
Notable Quote:
“Losing all of my worldly possessions in Katrina installed in me a sense of self-reliance… that was a sense of survival and growth.”
— Jason Hill (08:25)
Entering Innovation Leadership
- Won a HIMSS Davies Award for predictive modeling in sepsis care.
- Became Ochsner’s Clinical Innovation Officer amid the AI revolution, leveraging technical and leadership skills for broader impact.
4. Surprising Facts & Family Life
Timestamps: 09:32–12:52
Martial Arts & MMA
- Hill opens up about his background as an MMA fighter, a journey sparked by being bullied as a child and fostered through military environments.
- He’s trained or holds belts in Shotokan, Taekwondo, Quesul, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
- The entire family practices martial arts; his wife’s Vietnamese heritage adds to this shared discipline.
Memorable Moment:
“It's not just what I do, it's literally what the whole family does.”
— Jason Hill (12:18)
5. Behind the Role: Clinical Innovation Officer
Timestamps: 12:56–14:39
- Hill likens his innovative role to being “made up as you go along” and describes:
- Shifting Ochsner from internal innovation towards AI scalability and strategic partnerships.
- New responsibilities in vendor management, startup integration, and venture capital.
- The eventual focus: building a coordinated organizational AI strategy.
Notable Quote:
“...Innovation team rapidly sort of morphed into... a strategic body and execution body around artificial intelligence.”
— Jason Hill (14:00)
6. Proud Accomplishments & Future Vision
Timestamps: 14:39–18:58
Sepsis Project & HIMSS Award
- Outlines the collaborative, grassroots nature of the sepsis detection and response project during COVID—cutting across titles to form a problem-solving team.
- Created a standardized “time zero” metric (through complex SQL) for sepsis, saving over 2,000 lives.
Notable Quote:
“We all leveled the playing field when it came to org charts… just humans trying to fix a problem.”
— Jason Hill (15:19)
Looking Forward: Workflow and Human Change
- Predicts “agentic AI” will reshape care but underscores a “primary constraint”: the human side of change.
- AI technology is ready, but workflow redesign and change management are lagging.
- Advocates for integrating the right people (end-users) earlier to realize tech’s full promise.
Notable Quote:
“We’re not taking into account the workflow change that has to happen… the technology is there, but the humans don't know that.”
— Jason Hill (17:12)
7. Organizational Culture at Ochsner
Timestamps: 18:58–21:14
- Attributes Ochsner’s success to necessity-driven innovation (due to area’s socioeconomic challenges).
- Highlights their collaborative, “group practice” origins and the organizational dyad leadership model (physician-executive partnerships).
- Strong, supportive, and non-hierarchical culture empowers front-line innovators.
Notable Quote:
“It grounds both people towards understanding and it creates these really cool partnerships... between heart and mind.”
— Jason Hill (20:15)
8. Leadership Insights
Timestamps: 21:14–24:28
Key Skills for Growth
- Actions Per Minute (APM):
- Borrowed from gaming; increasing effectiveness by optimizing which actions create real value.
- “You don’t rise to your aspirations, you fall to your systems.”
- Network Building:
- The importance of knowing who excels at what, across the organization, and pulling together high-value combinations.
Notable Quotes
“The influence of a leader is really not about his or her ability to actually do a thing… it’s about how do I leverage other teams of people…”
— Jason Hill (23:40)
9. Personal Renewal & Creativity
Timestamps: 24:28–25:32
- Recharges through physical activity—especially martial arts and fitness.
- Video games serve as creative and restorative outlets; loves RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 and replaying classics like Dragon Age.
10. Final Reflections: Ikigai & Growth
Timestamps: 26:23–27:52
- Advocates for discovering your “ikigai”—the intersection of what you’re good at, what you can get paid for, and what brings joy.
- Growth comes most during discomfort and setbacks—embrace these periods for learning.
Notable Quote:
“The most important journey of anyone is to figure out… what are the things you’re good at, what you can get paid to do, what are the things you enjoy doing... Life is basically the process of figuring out that center of that Venn diagram.”
— Jason Hill (26:23)
11. Memorable Quotes (By Timestamp)
- "It's easy to lose track of mission in healthcare... if you're not really focused on the fact that you're there to care for people and to provide benefit to them..."
— Jason Hill (03:08) - "Losing all of my worldly possessions in Katrina installed in me a sense of self-reliance..."
— Jason Hill (08:25) - "It's not just what I do, it's literally what the whole family does."
— Jason Hill (12:18) - "We all leveled the playing field when it came to org charts… just humans trying to fix a problem."
— Jason Hill (15:19) - "You don’t rise to your aspirations, you fall to your systems."
— Jason Hill (21:56) - "The influence of a leader is really not about his or her ability to actually do a thing… it’s about how do I leverage other teams of people…"
— Jason Hill (23:40) - "Life is basically the process of figuring out [ikigai]... and it's asymptotic—the more you try to figure it out, the less you will get it."
— Jason Hill (26:23)
12. Conclusion
Dr. Jason Hill’s story interweaves leadership, innovation, personal adversity, and culture. He champions humility, constant learning, structured innovation, and the essential need for work to align with personal values. Listeners gain concrete leadership takeaways and a sense of optimism for impactful, people-centric healthcare transformation.
For further learning:
Look up Jason Hill’s recommended music (Toby Mac, Capital Kings, DC Talk), explore his work in AI/innovation at Ochsner, and reflect on the role of personal resilience in professional journeys.