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This is Scott King with the Becker's Healthcare

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podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by

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Isaiah Nathaniel,

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senior vice president and chief information officer at

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Delaware Valley Community Health Inc. Isaiah, how are

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you doing today? Thanks so much for joining

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us.

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It's a pleasure to be here, Scott. Thank

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you for having me. Looking forward to the

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conversation.

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Yeah. We we were talking before. I know

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you're in a pretty good mood because of

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a, certain football team in the area winning

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the Super Bowl. Is that correct?

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That is absolutely correct. Being from Philadelphia,

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born and raised,

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being in health care, and being in Philadelphia,

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it's such a great

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time for Philadelphia fans because

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the Philadelphia Eagles, my birds, have won Super

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Bowl fifty nine

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against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. So this

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week, we're elated. We're happy, and I'm looking

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forward to this coming Friday for the actual

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Super Bowl parade.

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It was quite the accomplishment, and now I

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wanna get to the accomplishments over at Delaware

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Valley Community Health. What what are some of

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the things you're most proud of from last

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year?

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I think over the last year, what we're

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very proud about is our interoperability

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strategy that includes artificial intelligence, but also includes

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cybersecurity,

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some of the

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things that you hear about

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all across the country in health care.

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I'm really proud that we have hunkered down

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and really looked at all of our strategies

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from making sure everything is working the way

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that it should, not only for the patients,

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but for our staff in general. So when

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I talk about some of our biggest accomplishments,

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what I'm really suggesting is that we really

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looked at from LAN to the LAN.

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Our infrastructure is impacting patient care, including the

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patient experience. And we made some strategic decisions

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to

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thoughtfully include

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AI, thoughtfully include digital transformation

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into an ecosystem

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that our patients are being able to take

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advantage of.

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What are some of the big organizational goals

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you've set for 2025?

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Some of the bigger goals that I've set

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for 2025

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is to really get into the optimization

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of our overall

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architecture.

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And what I mean by that is I'm

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really looking into

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make things a bit more efficient from a

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process perspective.

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I can also talk about the workflow optimization

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that we're doing. And what we're really trying

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to say is, really, where is our data?

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Where is it going in and out of

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our system? And then how do we make

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sure that at the point of care, our

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providers are able to deliver the proper experience

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that they want to with the infrastructure that

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we have? And that goes all the way

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to

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a lot of the core principles in the

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quadruple way.

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So for us,

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this year is really, really focused on

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making sure that our systems are

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coming on all speeds. And to parallel that

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with the Eagles win, it's it's similar to

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that, making sure

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everyone understands the goals, the vision,

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and the actual process to get done. And

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if we're like the Eagles, we're gonna win

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a Super Bowl ourselves this year.

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Sounds like you might.

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What what headwinds do you anticipate for the

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next year or two?

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Cybersecurity is always the biggest concern.

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And part of what I stratify as cybersecurity

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concerns is just understanding what the users are

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doing each and every day. You can talk

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about endpoint or device management,

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but it takes one click as we know.

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And if we learn anything from the last

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year or last two years is that we

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have to be really diligent in this space.

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We really, as executives, have to have the

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conversations

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across the organization

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to make sure that everyone understands that cyber

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security is an organizational goal, not just a

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department goal.

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And so for me looking at cyber security,

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what I'm trying to do is make it

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that

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so profound

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and so diligent

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and so thoughtful in

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looking at zero trust, looking at the new

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HIPAA rules that we hope will

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be through and the actual rule in 2025,

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looking at how do we make sure that

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everything in our system can be as

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thoughtful,

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attentive,

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and secure as possible. So that's that's really

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what I'm really looking for for 2025.

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Yeah. I I've heard a lot of people

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kind of address cybersecurity

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concerns.

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I I guess to to to get into

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it a little further, is

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protecting patients' information, is that kind of the

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the main thing you wanna that you don't

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want the wrong people to get their hands

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on?

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That is really the main thing. And

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when you wrap that in the center of

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a bubble,

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there's so many tentacles to that. It's

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are your devices all patched?

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Are your network infrastructure do you have segmentation

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appropriately?

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Are you really understanding where the flow of

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traffic is going in and out of your

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systems, and are you doing the proper upgrades?

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And

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that is really all encompassing of cybersecurity

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and then including device and patch management

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and device vulnerabilities.

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But, really, for me, it's really the

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end users and making sure that we have

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a strong effort of training so that they

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understand.

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And

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really taking an approach of

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one user can cause a major disruption to

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an

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entire ecosystem like we saw in some of

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the major breaches of last year.

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Last question I have for you, Isaiah. How

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are you evolving as a leader?

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I think

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it's very interesting that you ask me that

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question.

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And every year,

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I try to give myself

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not a New Year's resolution. I try to

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give myself

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more of

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a marker on or marching orders that I

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like to use for the entire year.

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And just two weeks ago, I gave myself

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my marching orders.

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And it's a quote by Albert Einstein, and

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the quote is,

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no problem can be solved from the same

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level of consciousness

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that created it.

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And so for me,

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this year, my evolving

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as a leader is looking at that

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lens from a conscious perspective and saying,

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okay. I might think I'm great

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in all of these years previous, but how

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do I really renegotiate

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that greatness in myself?

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And I'm a former division one athlete, so

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I I live by this Kobe mamba mentality

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attitude. And,

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basically, for me and my role,

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it's

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saying every day, am I doing things the

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right way? Am I leading my team the

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right way?

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What level of consciousness am I bringing to

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my organization

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to say, hey. I know we've done cybersecurity

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training that we have to mention when we

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talk about last year, but how do we

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elevate that? How do I really look at

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my entire stack? How do I look at

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the quadruple aim? How do I just go

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back and really look at problems

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of yesterday

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and give it a twenty twenty five

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solving or solve the issue. So for me,

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it's really no problem can be solved from

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the same level of consciousness that created it,

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and that has really gotten me going,

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in this year.

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So now I have to ask you. What

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sport? What school?

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So I played, Delaware State University,

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and it was basketball.

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Oh, that's awesome. So you're you're getting excited

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for March here.

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Oh, I'm really excited. Listen, man. This this

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has just been a great couple of months

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for me,

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going from January to February

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to March coming up very soon. So and

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the fact that, my alma mater, Delaware State

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University,

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has signed a former Eagle, Deshaun Jackson, to

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be our head coach of the football team,

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it's just a very, very exciting time for

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us. And that Eagle was that Eagle's connection

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is just it's proven to be one for

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the lifetime.

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That's awesome. It's a great time to be

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you. I I appreciate you joining us today.

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It was a a great conversation, Isaiah. Some

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good health care talk and and definitely some

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good sports talk too. So thanks for joining

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us. Look forward to working with you again

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soon. Pleasure is mine. See you soon.