Why Application Decommissioning Is a Financial Lever for Health Systems with Jason Rose, CEO and Board Member of Clearsense

·20 min·2 clips

92% of health system CIOs say their agenda has materially changed since January 2025—what's driving this financial tsunami?

The episode begins with host Saul welcoming Jason Rose, CEO and board member of Clearsense, live from the Vive conference in Los Angeles. Rose shares his positive experience at the conference, including speaking on stage. Saul asks why application decommissioning has become a powerful financial strategy. Rose references a Gartner survey from September/October 2025, revealing that 92% of health system CIOs changed their agendas materially since January 2025, and 59% now prioritize cost optimization. He links this to OB3 trillion-dollar funding cuts, inflation, and AI funding uncertainties, calling it a financial tsunami. Rose argues that decommissioning is an untapped lever, with average health systems 30-40% bloated due to redundancies from mergers, Epic rollouts, and cloud migrations. He mentions Gartner's 'application undertaker' article, highlighting organizations' failure to dedicate teams to removing old tech. Saul asks what Trinity Health is doing differently. Rose explains that Gartner wrote an unsolicited case study on Trinity's program with Clearsense, decommissioning 800 applications for nearly $100 million in savings this year. He describes it as a program, not a project, involving 800 projects for Trinity's 92 hospitals and 7,400 applications. The process includes procurement review, strategic governance, data acquisition from vendors, curation, translation into Epic's patient chart, and decommissioning. Rose uses an assembly-line metaphor, noting issues like insufficient staff can trigger a 'red button' to send work back. He quotes Mike Prokic, Trinity's chief IT strategy officer, on the difficulty of 'breaking up and getting my stuff back.' Trinity shuts down dozens of applications per quarter, a pace far exceeding typical efforts. Saul asks about the financial model, specifically using CapEx to drive OPEX savings. Rose emphasizes involving financial leaders, noting that implementation costs are capital budget expenses per application, often more accessible than operating costs. He says programs pay for themselves in weeks or months, with waves funding subsequent waves. Rose reiterates that this is a permanent program, not a project, becoming part of an organization's DNA. He shares an anecdote from a Chime innovation summit where a CEO joked about terminating single-point solution vendors. Saul asks about AI's role. Rose quotes Nick O'Connor, Trinity's CTO, on leveraging unified data for AI tools. He envisions an RFID-tag-like system to archive apps overnight, with Clearsense investing in automation to drive value faster. On the front end, AI can enhance end-user experience at the point of care. In closing, Rose offers a call to action: contact him at [email protected] for a business case within weeks, promising cost takeout estimates larger than expected. Saul encourages listeners to check show notes and share the episode.

As heard by us

A practical case for treating application retirement as a governed cost program.

Application decommissioning comes through as a finance strategy with real operating discipline behind it. Jason Rose, CEO and board member of ClearSense, explains how retiring obsolete health-system applications can create hard savings, with Trinity Health's work approaching…

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You want to see how Trinity Health's application decommissioning program is approaching nearly $100 million in hard cost savings.

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