Zero-trust hospital myths busted

Health Stealth Radio host Frank Cutitta invites Tamer Baker, Healthcare CTO at Zscaler and lead author of Zero Trust Hospital: CXO Vision, and Nate Couture, CISO for the University of Vermont Health Network, to separate zero-trust fact from fiction in a recent episode. The trio dismantles four stubborn myths—vendor lock-in, multi-year rollouts, workflow disruption, and skyrocketing costs—while sharing hard-won lessons from UVM’s post-ransomware rebuild.

“If any vendor tells you, ‘Buy us and you’ve got zero trust,’ that should raise red flags—zero trust is an architecture, not a product.” —Tamer Baker

What you’ll learn in 30 minutes

• Multi-vendor or bust – Why identity, EDR, and network telemetry have to play together, and how Zscaler–CrowdStrike–Rubrik integrations lighten I.T.’s lift.
• Iterate for impact – Start with remote-access and high-risk apps; “remove large chunks of risk immediately, then tighten over time,” says Couture.
• Happy clinicians, quieter help desk – Modern zero trust runs in the background, trimming clicks and speeding log-ins instead of slowing them down.
• Cost curve flip – Strategic partnerships replace box-sprawl, shift CapEx to OpEx, and even boost imaging-read revenue by making remote work seamless.
• SLAs 2.0 – Uptime is table stakes; today’s agreements track threat-block rates, unused features, and ongoing innovation baked into the subscription.

Cutitta closes with a look at talent: instead of hiring unicorn “zero-trust engineers,” focus on staff with the right aptitude and attitude—skills transfer as the architecture matures.

Stream the episode now to hear how a ransomware-scarred health system and a vendor CTO are making zero trust practical, affordable, and clinician-friendly.