Before founding Spark, our leaders ran some of healthcare's most demanding technology programs from the inside, as CIOs, program directors, and operations leaders. Here's what that work looked like, and what it delivered.

The challenge: Move St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, 83 outpatient clinics, and more than 300 third-party applications from Cerner onto Tower Health's Epic system, workflows, and governance. Then COVID-19 hit mid-program.
Our role: Our founders led the Epic transition and integration, managed the third-party application work, and moved the whole program to a virtual model when the pandemic arrived.
The result: The program finished nearly $30 million under its $90 million budget.
Led by: Christopher Gudding and Danielle Dude

The challenge: Prime Healthcare was growing through acquisitions, with 48 hospitals and more than 400 clinics in 14 states on a single instance of Epic. Every newly acquired facility had to join that system fast.
Our role: As Epic Program Director, our CEO led a team of 140 and built a repeatable template for bringing acquired facilities onto Epic.
The result: Newly acquired facilities went live on Epic within 60 days, including more than 30 that moved from MEDITECH.
Led by: Christopher Gudding

The challenge: Walmart was building a healthcare business inside a company that had never run a standalone healthcare IT function. New clinics, clinic conversions, and virtual care all needed technology that worked on day one.
Our role: Our CEO built the healthcare technology program from the ground up as CIO, Digital Transformation, and managed a $50 million budget. Our co-founders ran readiness, testing, go-live, and post-live support, redesigned role-based training, and helped stand up a PMO.
The result: More than 50 clinics opened in three years and 24 existing clinics moved off older systems, with 75% fewer go-live incidents. Virtual care launched in all 50 states in three months, and training earned a 4.9 out of 5 learner score.
Led by: Christopher Gudding, Danielle Dude, and Brody McConnell

The challenge: Pacific Dental Services set out to run more than 800 dental offices in 27 states on Epic. But Epic's dental module, Wisdom, was an inpatient tool, not a full outpatient dental suite.
Our role: As Program Director, our CEO built a first-of-its-kind Epic program to take Wisdom from an inpatient tool to a full outpatient suite.
The result: Wisdom became a full outpatient dental suite on Epic, built for more than 800 offices in 27 states.
Led by: Christopher Gudding

The challenge: UC Irvine Health's move from Allscripts to Epic was three months from go-live, and the cutover plan and command center still had to be built.
Our role: Our CEO built the cutover plan, stood up the command center, and led the move from Allscripts to Epic.
The result: UC Irvine Health went into go-live with a cutover plan, a working command center, and experienced leadership in place.
Led by: Christopher Gudding
Tell us where you are, from early planning to a go-live already on the calendar, and we'll show you how we'd approach it.
Copyright © 2026 Spark Healthcare Advisory - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Mental Fortitude
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.