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At athenahealth,

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we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier, a

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healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier patients.

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But the complexities of modern health care tech

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make it hard for you and your care

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teams to focus on what matters

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most? That's where athenahealth can help. Our AI

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native all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,

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streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights

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when clinicians need it most. That means fewer

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clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom

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lines.

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Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice

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can be that much simpler with athenahealth.

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See how simpler is healthier@athenahealth.com.

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Hello. This is Francesca Matthews with the Becker's

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ASC review podcast.

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I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor

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Brian Nuonunu,

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an orthopedic surgeon at Texas Joint Institute. Brian,

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thank you so much for being here today.

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Thank you. Thank

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you. Alright.

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To start off, could you please introduce yourself

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and tell us a little bit about your

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background? Yes. Of course.

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So my name is doctor Brian Wanunu.

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I'm an orthopedic surgeon right now practicing in,

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the North Texas area, so just North Of

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Dallas in McKinney and Allen.

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I am from Dallas, Texas, or I was

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raised here, came, came when I was very

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young. I was about one year old or

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so.

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Went to college in, Atlanta, Georgia, Morehouse College.

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I then attended Georgetown University for my master's

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in, physiology.

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Stayed in Washington, DC, and went to Howard

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University College of Medicine for medical school.

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Came back to Texas for my five year

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residency in Fort Worth, and then I went

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and did a one year extra fellowship training

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in adult reconstruction or hip and knee replacements

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down in Houston at Baylor College of Medicine.

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And now I'm back in Dallas practicing as

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a orthopedic surgeon.

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Excellent. Thank you for the background there. Yeah.

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Next question here is, what are the top

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three trends you're following in health care and

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ASCs today?

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So I I have been very, very, very

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closely watching the trends and seeing where the

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trajectory of our of our career is going

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right now.

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And I think the top three things that

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I see

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currently are

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pretty much the rise of smart surgery.

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That's things that are, like, data driven decision

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making,

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as artificial intelligence,

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as machine learning. They're really reshaping, like, the

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perioperative planning. They're helping us to predict analytics

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on how to anticipate complications,

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personalized post op rehab, and even optimize, like,

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implant selections. I personally use that as far

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as on my robotic side of hip and

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knee replacements

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by getting CAT scans and really planning out

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the patient's surgery even before we even make

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any cuts.

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Essentially, we're moving from experience based now to

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data enhanced, and it's helping young surgeons like

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myself and everyone else kinda come together on

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an equal playing field.

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In addition to the smart surgery rise, I've

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also seen outpatient orthopedic surgery.

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I think a lot of this was driven

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by COVID, of course.

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During the COVID nineteen,

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no hospitals were taking on patients because of

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the overwhelming patients that were in the inpatient,

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areas.

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And so if you wanted your surgery done,

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most people have need to do it on

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an outpatient basis or go home.

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When they started doing that, most patients found

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out that they were doing great at home,

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and they didn't need to stay one, two,

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three days or so.

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And now

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ASCs are handling cases pretty much completely outpatient,

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which were once unthinkable at the in the

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hospital setting. So things from total joint replacements

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like myself, spine surgery, even complex reconstructions

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are done on an outpatient basis. And thanks

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advances in anesthesia,

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minimally invasive techniques,

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same day recovery protocols,

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perioperative pain,

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protocols,

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we're experiencing improved outcomes and patient satisfaction as

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they're able to go home.

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Additionally,

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I like the digital continuity of care that

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I'm seeing.

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This comes in,

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many forms, but some of them can be

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like smartwatches or even those implantable devices that

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I've used in my implants

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that will tell us what's going on with

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the patient, how many steps they're taking, how

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they're moving, if they're going to therapy, or

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even let us know if there's a rise

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in temperature, support prewarn us if there's a

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concern for infection or so. And that integration

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between remote monitoring, wearable sensors,

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virtual physical therapy is close is closing the

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loop between surgery and recovery, and patients aren't

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just disappearing after discharge.

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They're, like, streaming real time data that helps

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us to track their healing, flag complications,

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and fine tune recovery in ways that, weren't

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possible before.

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Mhmm. Absolutely. That definitely echoes some of the

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conversations I'm I'm having over here at, at

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Becker's as far as just what's evolving in

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the space.

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You know, we talked about you mentioned a

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lot of things, but what are you most

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excited about right now?

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Honestly,

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I'm most excited

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about how technology is, like, humanizing orthopedic care.

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You know, we used to think of, like,

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everyone gets one size that fits all. Now

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things are so patient,

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promoted or so patient centered that, I mean,

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the specifics down to the implant sizes, their

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balancing,

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even if they have allergies, you know, are

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taken into consideration.

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And and we used to think that just

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tech meant just replacing touch

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points. Now it's like amplifying them. And, again,

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whether it's using AI to preplan a perfect

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implant or leveraging, like, augmented reality, I've seen

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these AR

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goggles that are really great during surgery. But

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these innovations just kinda help focus on what

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matters the most, and that's connecting with the

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patient directly.

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On a lighter note as well, I'm genuinely

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excited about the smart OR. Like, we're moving

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towards operating rooms that learn from every case,

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capture analytics in real time, and even, not

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to scare anyone, even operate on their own.

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And I've seen a couple of these these,

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robots that literally

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the surgeon is in the room, but it's

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hands off, and they're doing the whole surgery.

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So not quite there yet, but I'm excited

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to see where that goes in the future.

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No. Yeah. Absolutely.

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I really like what you said there about,

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you know, not replacing touch points, kind of

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amplifying them and enhancing

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enhancing that. So, yeah, definitely super interesting.

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And how are you and your your organization

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thinking about growth over the next twelve months?

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Well, to me, growth isn't all just about

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numbers.

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Of course, I want to be busier. I

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want to be able to provide care to

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more patients. I don't I want to perform

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more surgeries. Of course, I do. But it's

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not just about numbers. It's about scaling excellence.

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And for me, over the next year, I'm

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focused on pretty much three pillars.

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I want tech enabled expansion, so I wanna

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leverage digital platforms for patient engagement,

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pre op optimization,

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telehab, and expand access beyond just the physical

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walls. I also want data driven quality. I

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want building performance

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dashboards

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that translate surgical metrics and outcomes into actionable

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insights.

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This will ensure that every new ASC that

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we open delivers consistent evidence based care. And

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thirdly, I want kinda collaborative innovation. You know?

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I wanna be able to partner with device

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companies, startups,

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I mean, AI, of course, and developers to

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pilot new technologies that improve efficient outcomes.

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Growth when it comes with surgeons, technologies, and

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administrators together can make the patients do wonderful.

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Absolutely.

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And that is actually all I have for

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you today, Brian. Okay. Unless there's anything else

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you wanted to to leave us with.

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Well, you know,

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I'll just say that again, just just piggybacking

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off of what we just spoke about. You

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know? I I see growth as not just

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doing more surgeries,

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but as doing smarter surgeries

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for more people with better outcomes.

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I really wanna get to the point to

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where, you know, every surgeon

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with every patient is completely happy and completely

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successful, and we limit anything that could make

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patients worse than they were before.

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Absolutely.

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Yeah. And, again, definitely just resonates with with

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the conversations we're having here every day.

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Thank you so much for joining us today.

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It's been a pleasure speaking with you, and

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I look forward to connecting with you again

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in the future. Excellent. Excellent. Thank you so

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much.

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At athena Health, we know your ambulatory practice

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wants healthier,

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a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier

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patients.

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But the complexities of modern health care tech

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00:08:29,540 --> 00:08:31,379
make it hard for you and your care

228
00:08:31,379 --> 00:08:33,940
teams to focus on what matters most. That's

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00:08:33,940 --> 00:08:37,095
where athenahealth can help. Our AI native all

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in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,

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00:08:40,054 --> 00:08:43,014
streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights

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when clinicians need it most.

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That means fewer clicks, more time for patients,

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and stronger

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00:08:49,549 --> 00:08:52,509
bottom lines. Practicing medicine is complex, but running

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00:08:52,509 --> 00:08:54,429
a practice can be that much simpler with

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00:08:54,429 --> 00:08:54,929
athenahealth.

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See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.