Hello. This is Francesca Matthews with the Becker's
ASC review podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor
Sumana Mule, founding physician of Merus Gastroenterology
and Gut Health. Doctor Mule, thank you so
much for being here today.
Absolutely. And thank you so much for having
me.
K. Great.
To start us off, could you please just
introduce yourself and tell us a little bit
about your background?
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm a board certified gastroenterologist
and the founder of Medus Gastroenterology and Gut
Health based in Johns Creek, Georgia, which is
just outside of Atlanta.
My training journey started in the medical school
in India, then I moved to Detroit, Michigan
where I trained in internal medicine at Wayne
State University.
Later, I did a gastroenterology fellowship at Penn
State, University. And following that, I had the
privilege of practicing in a variety of environments.
The first my first job was at a
VA hospital,
system in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
Later on, I moved to a large multi
specialty group of over a 100 physicians in
Tampa, Florida,
and later a single specialty,
GI practice here in Georgia. So it kind
of gave me a nice spectrum of different
setups with GI. It's all gastroenterology, but the
setup is very different.
Gave me a firsthand experience on on how
things run-in each of these
areas.
What I noticed
through these experiences,
was that while each system had its strengths,
there was often very little flexibility or autonomy
for physicians to truly practice medicine
the way it's meant to be practiced.
I like medicine to be thoughtful, collaborative,
and without unnecessary barriers, and I couldn't find
it in these
other systems.
That was frustrating, and that frustration really pushed
me to take a leap of faith and
start my own independent,
fully outpatient practice,
here in Georgia.
In in this location is frankly one of
the most competitive GI markets in Metro Atlanta.
It was risky, but it was it has
been incredibly rewarding so far.
So today,
my independent practice, METAS Gastroenterology,
has we built this fortunate to build a
strong reputation just purely through
authentic patient relationships
and word-of-mouth.
And more recently, we've been recognized and featured
as the Santa top doctor. So we're really
honored and,
pleased
as to how far we've come in the
last four years since our practice has opened.
But what's more satisfying is really having the
freedom to, you know, care for patients in
a way that feels personal,
undrushed, and really deeply fulfilling.
Absolutely. Yeah. That physician autonomy component, I find
comes up a lot in the ASC space
is one of the things that
sort of draws people into
the outpatient setting or just into independent practice
overall, but especially
related to ASCs. It seems like physician autonomy
and ASCs are kind of intertwined at times.
I'm wondering what are the top three trends
that you're following in health care and ASCs
today?
Yeah. There is so much,
going on in the in the trends in
health care SCs, but the top three things
I think I am excited about is,
one is in in SCs, we are seeing
a migration of more complex GI procedures into
the outpatient setting
and advances in technology, sedation safety, and post
procedure monitoring.
All of them that made it possible for
what traditionally was done in hospital departments to
come into the
outpatient setting, and it's still safe and efficient
as well. And payers are recognizing the value,
and patients appreciate the convenience and comfort,
which which is much easier to be done
in ASCs rather than in a hospital setting.
The second one that I'm seeing is a
definite renewed interest in physician led ownership models.
For years, at least the last decade, consolidation
into private equity, hospital systems
immediately like independence was impossible. And when I
even when I started, it felt like I
don't know where this is going, but I
just got back from our annual ACG, the
College of Gastroenterology
Conference in Phoenix.
And I saw more and more physicians, especially
younger ones, who are looking for independent models
that combine autonomy,
with efficiency and support.
And they like practices that integrate ASCs into
the into their,
model as well.
So there I think in general, GI or
more physicians are realizing that ownership is not
just about equity, but it's also having a
voice
in how medicine is practiced,
which is often lacking when you practice in
larger health systems where there's not much autonomy
and flexibility.
And the third one that is really exciting
and is still evolving quite a bit and
rapidly is the integration of AI or digital
tools and operational automation in ASCs.
Things like AI enabled patient engagement,
streamlined scheduling,
real time analytics, they've all they're all helping
small centers compete with the larger systems.
It's, in and you think of them sometimes
as are we gonna lose human touch, but
it's really
helping us scale empathy seamlessly and remove that
friction between the patient and staff experience. So
all of these are really I mean, it's
an exciting time to be an independent GI
physician and with all of these resources available.
They're they make us health care more cost
efficient,
and they're leading innovation in quality and patient
satisfaction
as well. So so it's really exciting.
Absolutely.
Yeah, you you mentioned AI is something you're
excited about.
I'm wondering what else are you most excited
about in this space right now or if,
you know, if AI is the answer, kind
of if you can expound on that a
little bit. Within the AI, you mean? Well,
just what in general are you excited about?
Whether it's AI or whether it's something else?
Yeah. I think, yeah, for the AC is
really,
the AI tools are making it more cost
efficient and, making it seamless.
Some of the hurdles we used to face
with the revenue cycle management are decreasing with
the AI tools and then the migration of
addition of newer,
service lines within the GIM gastroenterology.
So such as
adding new things such as my view, interest
in placement. They're adding more revenue to the
ASCs,
as well as hemorrhoid,
ablation. So adding new procedures
that we traditionally haven't done before,
is is also exciting. But within the AI
world, there's there's just so much. I was
just speaking to someone
just as I was hopping on this call,
a new company that's literally a year old
who,
enable
medicines specialty medicines that we prescribe often run
into prior authorization,
peer to peer, all of which take is
a burden on the staff and as as
physicians do when we have to do that
peer to peer. But this AI tool is
doing this all seamlessly behind the scenes, almost
80 to 90% approvals without pulling
resources or time from the staff. So for
every pain point, there seems to be a
nice,
model tech model that's coming up that's able
to solve this. So,
you know, it lets us practice medicine and
not think about all these other,
operational burdens.
Mhmm.
Yeah. Absolutely. And it's always great to hear
you know, I think there's so much talk
about AI, but it's great to hear observations
about where it's, you know, really having an
impact in physician practices.
How are you thinking about growth over the
next twelve months?
Yeah. For us, we are an independent practice,
and I, as I mentioned, I'd started about
four years ago. So for now right now,
we have a solid foundation. We've been recognized.
We've had a good rapport with the patients.
So for us, the next stage is really
growing growth over,
the next twelve months. We wanna expand our
team, bring on another gastroenterologist.
We actually just
completed signing on onboarding a great physician for
that.
She who's gonna be starting next year. So
increase this will help us increase our office
and procedural
capacity while we still remain aligned to our
philosophy of patient first high touch care.
We're also,
focusing on operations again,
bringing AI into the clinic side as well
refining workflows.
We are trying to adapt smart automation and
optimizing staff engagement
so that as we scale, we don't lose
what makes us special.
Right now, as an independent practice, it's a
sense of connection and responsiveness for patients
that they really appreciate. We wanna keep that
going as we scale.
So deepening that quality of every patient interaction
and building a team culture that supports that
is is truly exciting. So if we can
maintain that alignment between clinical quality, patient experience,
and physician satisfaction,
I think that's the formula for sustainable success
in this next, phase of outpatient GI care.
Absolutely. That's something I hear from a lot
of independent physicians, especially GIs, is when when
I ask, you know, kind of what keeps
you all going. It's that connection to community
and that,
yeah, like, that that real sense of, patient
responsiveness as you said. Yeah.
Is there anything else I haven't asked about
that you think is important in this conversation?
I think we hit on all the all
the main points, but, really, I think what's
most exciting is this revival or the renaissance
of independent patient centered medicine for a while.
Even few years ago, it felt like the
only path was consultation. But now physicians are
finding new creative ways to build sustainable independent
models. So I'm really excited. I am really
excited for all the physicians out there to
build their own independent practices or join independent
practices and make their voice heard. And that
lets them practice the medicine the way they
wanted to all along. So we're seeing practices
in ASCs that reflect individual values and local
community needs. So it's a win win, I
think, for the patients, for the physicians,
and reduce, you know, burnout when which happens
when they practice in,
stiff systems that that can't flex, that can't
give them the autonomy they need. So,
I think that's really key. This this next
chapter in medicine is so energizing,
and that's what is redefining,
what quality means, not by adding layers, but
by, you know, bringing it back to the
basics, listening and partnering with the patient.
Absolutely. I like to we can end it
there. It's really,
yeah. I think that resonates with so much
of our audience.
But, yeah, that's actually all I have for
you today, doctor Mule.
Thank you so much for joining us. Oh,
thank you so much. It was a pleasure.
Yeah. Yeah. It was a pleasure for me
as well, and I look forward to connecting
with you again in the future.
Likewise.