# From Flight Nurse to AI Engineer: Why I Started Texas AI Consulting **I believe AI gives power to the underdog in a system that is stacked against them.** That's not a marketing line. It's the reason I wake up every morning and do what I do. It's the reason I left a 20-year nursing career to build something bigger. And it's the reason Texas AI Consulting exists. My name is Eliud Lamboy, and this is my story. --- ## Caring for Strangers at Their Most Vulnerable For twenty years, I was a registered nurse. Emergency departments. Intensive care units. Progressive care. Telemetry. Rehabilitation. I worked in the places where life hangs in the balance and families trust you with everything. I was also a travel nurse, which means I didn't just work in one hospital — I worked in dozens of them, across different systems and different cultures. Epic, Cerner, Meditech, Meditech Expanse — I've navigated all the major electronic health record platforms from the bedside. I've seen what works. I've seen what doesn't. And I've seen how broken systems cost real people real outcomes.

20 YEARS AT THE BEDSIDE

🏥 Emergency Department, ICU, PCU, Tele, Rehab
🗺️ Travel nurse across multiple healthcare systems
💻 Epic, Cerner, Meditech, Meditech Expanse — hands-on EHR experience
❤️ Thousands of families cared for, one at a time

Here's what I know from that experience: when you're a nurse, you affect one family at a time. You work with people when they are at their most vulnerable. Race, economic status, gender, age — none of that matters. The only thing that matters is that they need help, and you chose a career that put you right there in that room with them. So you do the best of your ability to help them through their suffering. After twenty years, I did that for a lot of families. I know they remember me, just as I remember them. It's deeply personal. One family at a time. But now that my time is shorter, I want to make a difference for *more* families. To help them in ways I couldn't before. **AI is the tool to do that.** --- ## The Red Tail Squadron: Service Above Self Before I talk about AI, I need to talk about where my sense of duty comes from. I'm a United States Air Force veteran. I served as a flight nurse with the **332d Air Expeditionary Wing** — the famous **Red Tail Squadron** — flying combat aeromedical evacuation missions in Iraq. ![Deployment with the 332d Air Expeditionary Wing in Iraq](/blog-images/ballad-pic2-png.jpg) For that service, I earned the **Air Force Air Medal** for flying combat missions. It's an honor I carry with me every day, not as a trophy, but as a reminder of what it means to serve something bigger than yourself. ![Flight Nurse training with the U.S. Air Force](/blog-images/eliud-flight-nurse-2-png.jpg) As a flight nurse, you're responsible for critically injured and ill patients in the most austere conditions imaginable — inside a cargo aircraft at altitude, with limited equipment, making life-or-death decisions with no backup plan. That kind of pressure teaches you to think clearly, act decisively, and never stop caring about the person in front of you. ![Air Force Flight Nurse — ready to fly](/blog-images/eliud-flight-nurse-3-png.jpg) Those lessons didn't stay in the military. They followed me into every ICU, every emergency department, and now into every AI solution I build. --- ## The Pivot: From Bedside to Code In 2024, I made a decision that changed everything. I earned two IBM Professional Certificates through Coursera:

IBM PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATES

🤖

IBM AI Engineering

Completed January 2024

• Machine Learning with Python
• Deep Learning & Neural Networks with Keras
• Computer Vision & Image Processing
• Neural Networks with PyTorch
• Deep Learning with Keras & TensorFlow
• AI Capstone Project

Verify Certificate →

💻

IBM Full Stack Software Developer

Completed September 2023

• Cloud Computing & Web Development
• React, Node.js & Express
• Python for Data Science & AI
• Django, SQL & Databases
• Docker, Kubernetes & OpenShift
• Microservices & Serverless

Verify Certificate →

Why did I do it? Because I saw firsthand how technology — when done right — saves lives. And I saw how many healthcare systems were falling behind because they didn't have people who understood *both* the clinical side and the technical side. I wanted to be that bridge. --- ## Making an Impact at Methodist Healthcare After my certifications, I joined the **Methodist San Antonio Division Application Development team**. That's where things got real. I developed **data streams for SSRS reports and Power BI dashboards** that delivered actionable data directly to clinicians. Data that used to sit in silos was now flowing to the people who needed it most — at the bedside. But the project I'm most proud of is what we built for the **Pulmonary Embolism Rapid Response (PERT) Team**.

THE PERT PROJECT

My team developed the backend ETL pipeline — similar to the architecture that AIDoc uses — to extract data from the Methodist Healthcare System, run AI-driven analysis, and deliver real-time notifications to the PERT team.

The result? Improved outcomes for pulmonary embolism patients across the entire San Antonio Division.

Methodist is now a PE Centers of Excellence Accredited hospital.

View Accreditation →

That's what happens when you combine clinical knowledge with engineering talent. Real patients get better outcomes. Hospitals earn recognition. And teams perform at a higher level because they have the right data at the right time. I also developed **full-stack applications** for Methodist using **.NET and Node.js**, deployed infrastructure on **Google Cloud Platform** with **GitHub CI/CD routed through Terraform**, and implemented **Azure Microsoft Entra ID** for role-based authorization. This isn't theory for me. This is what I do. --- ## Why Texas AI Consulting Exists Everything I've done — nursing, military service, engineering — has led to this moment. Texas AI Consulting exists because the healthcare industry needs people on the ground who understand the space. Not consultants who've only read about EHRs in a textbook. Not developers who've never set foot in a hospital. **People who've lived it.** My expertise sits squarely in the **implementation and integration** space — EHR workflow, care management, telehealth operations. The hardest part of any AI deployment isn't building the model. It's getting it to work *inside the actual clinical workflow* without disrupting patient care. That's where I come in. ### Veteran-Owned and VetHUB Certified I'm proud to say that Texas AI Consulting is a **veteran-owned business** and will hold the **Texas VetHUB certification**. Texas recently restructured the HUB program, significantly shrinking the pool of eligible businesses. Being VetHUB-certified means state agencies and large organizations can work with us and meet their HUB contracting goals. ### Texas Rural Strong: $281 Million Per Year Here's something most people don't know: Texas is about to receive **$281 million per year for five years** through the **Texas Rural Strong Program** — the most of any state in the nation. That funding is specifically designated to implement AI solutions for the rural districts of Texas. Rural healthcare facilities face unique challenges. Limited staff. Aging infrastructure. Patients who drive hours for basic care. AI can change all of that — smarter triage, remote monitoring, predictive analytics for patient deterioration, automated reporting to reduce administrative load. **Texas AI Consulting can be the team on the ground** — traveling to rural sites, understanding local needs, and deploying solutions that actually work in these environments. Because I've been the clinician in underserved settings. I know what it's like to work without the tools you need. --- ## The Mission: More Families, More Impact At the height of my nursing career, I affected one family at a time. It was deeply fulfilling. You work with people at their most vulnerable, and they trust you. That experience changed me. But one family at a time isn't enough anymore. With AI, I can help build systems that improve outcomes for *thousands* of families. Systems that catch a pulmonary embolism before it's too late. Systems that make sure rural patients get the same quality of care as people in major cities. Systems that give small practices the tools they need to compete with hospital conglomerates. **AI gives power to the underdog.** That's not just a belief — it's something I've seen with my own eyes, both at the bedside and in the code. --- ## Let's Build Something Together If you're a healthcare system, a rural health district, or any Texas organization looking to implement AI solutions with someone who actually understands the clinical environment — I'd love to talk. This isn't about selling you software. It's about solving real problems for real people. --- *Texas AI Consulting | From the Bedside to the Algorithm — AI That Understands Healthcare*

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From Flight Nurse to AI Engineer: Why I Started Texas AI Consulting