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- This is Laura Dearer with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Marilyn Sandor, founder
and CEO of good checkup.
Marilyn, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- Laura, I'm so excited to be here today
and I appreciate the invitation to join you.
I'm looking forward to a fun conversation.
- It'll be a great one. Thank you, Marilyn.
Now, before we dive into the broader questions,
I was wondering if you could please introduce yourself
and tell us a bit about your background.
- Sure. My name is Dr.
Marilyn Sandor,
and I am a highly experienced pediatric dentist.
I am the founder of my own practice,
Naples Pediatric Dentistry,
and I'm also the innovator
behind a product called Zube Prophy Angles
that is now sold globally, which is a suite of products
for pediatric care in the dental industry.
And I am the founder of Good Checkup,
which is the first mobile to mobile patent pending
teledentistry solution
that can give dentists everywhere the ability
to set themselves free from the standard care model
and provide patients convenience by
having virtual care directly at their
fingertips from their phones.
- That sounds like an amazing accomplishment
and ability to do that, connecting patients with their, uh,
dentists so easily and quickly.
Now, I wanted to move on to the next question.
What are the biggest issues
and trends that you're following in healthcare today?
- I think the biggest trends right now are dentists
and dental practices, having
interest in patient engagement
and trying to meet patients where they are
and where they want to be.
So I'd say the issues in the past have been inaccessibility
and they're really taking that head on now
and trying to provide access to care and the patient.
Um, engagement, again, from all levels,
like from appointment making to even
financial arrangements are, uh,
being done virtually,
and it's for the convenience of patients.
So I really feel that taking the step forward then for care
to be provided virtually is becoming more of, um,
a product that's demanded
by the public, if that makes sense.
So I think that, uh, yeah, the trends are really trying
to find the best ways to engage
with patients at their convenience
and then to make it very meaningful.
- I love that, and certainly it seems like a great way
to continue to build your business and grow and develop.
From your perspective, is there anything
that you are hearing from patients
that they're particularly missing within their interactions
with their dental providers or,
or something that, um, you know, would be really
interesting, especially between patients
of different ages or generations?
Um, how do you really assess communities, um,
at large in making sure that as a a dental provider you are,
um, touching all patients where they are?
- Right. It's, it's tricky
because different, um, age groups
are wanting different things.
So currently I feel like the younger generation really has a
mindset where they're very savvy,
they're very interested in knowing about the provider,
they're interested in knowing about them,
not just from a resume standpoint,
but they're going to be following them on social media.
They'll want to get to know them
and feel comfortable with them.
So they have a lot of this try
before you buy sort of interest.
So with that comes virtual care
being such a positive for a provider, like a dental provider
that has the skills for engagement
and so to showcase themselves
so you can have like a perfect pairing.
So if somebody's seeking that, um,
inside track about their possibly going to be chosen
provider, they can get a lot of that information.
But then if they're able to actually speak
to them in advance, that's really, um, I think very, uh,
I'd say, um, gosh, valued by the younger generation
now is convenience
for maybe older age groups is very important
because it's not as easy for people to get
really like out of their, um,
normal daily routine depending on say, older people
that either they're at their work, they're at their,
um, maybe retired location.
So again, virtual services, um, are very valuable.
So I think, I think I've strayed from the question,
but I think being able to like meet your patients
where they want to be, a lot of it has
to have the number one convenience in mind.
And then number two, what's in it for them?
And wanting to know
before they arrive what it is that they're going
to be experiencing or with whom they're going to be engaging
is I think becoming far more, um,
well understood and valued.
- No, that was actually perfect and kind of spot on
and what I was hoping to get, um, in thinking through,
you know, what, um, some
of the different age groups are doing and then how
or what they're demanding
and then how, you know, uh,
dental organizations can really tailor their approach, um,
based on who the patient is and,
and make sure they've got that, um, information
and inconveniences and digital connections there.
So I think that's really helpful, um,
to think about and understand. Thanks.
- I think you're definitely, yeah,
that you framed that very nicely.
That's that's exactly right.
You have to like, look at the age groups,
look at their style, look at their interest and, and try
and provide each different group convenience
and a true understanding of their needs
so they feel valued. really,
- Right?
I mean, we all wanna feel valued. Valued, right?
Mm-Hmm, , yes. So it definitely makes sense.
Um, now from your perspective, uh, what are some
of the things that you're most excited
about and what makes you nervous?
- Uh, I'm most excited really about the, uh, the topic
of access to care.
I really am, because right now we have the tools
that we didn't previously to make that a reality.
Really, really do.
We have the means to be able to reach large groups of people
directly, quickly, focus on individuals.
We can use, um, you know, tools like AI
to really understand our populations better.
But I think what makes me nervous is that
I don't want to have, I think all of this excitement about
what you can do, have people stray from really
how do we prevent problems before they start?
Because yes, there's a lot of neat ways
where you can like fix things
and a lot of new things that you can use to identify things
that need to be fixed,
but I think we really have to focus on
how we can use this new access to care, to be able to
really send the right information, send the right messaging,
send the right tools to be able
to prevent dental concerns
and, um, gosh, I guess be of the mindset
that staying healthy can be profitable
because people will be interested in engaging
and spending money on dental services
that will prevent them from having problems.
So I, I think, yeah, that's probably
what I'm most nervous about is that we, we really have
to use this opportunity to think on a larger scale
and to be able to
provide what's really best given the fact that we can.
- That's such an amazing way to think about, um, you know,
the care you're providing in bringing in the digital
technology, uh, really dovetails nicely into those efforts.
Uh, one of the things you said struck me a little bit, um,
when you were talking about messaging around prevention
and making sure that you're connecting obviously
with patients, but then that next step is,
is really inciting the actions that you want.
Have you found any particular messages
that worked really well, um, or,
or something that didn't work
as well as you thought it would?
And how has that process been for you?
- Mm-Hmm. , thankfully being more well
understood now is the oral systemic connection.
So when you're speaking with patients
about their oral health, bringing it back to the fact
that your mouth is like the gateway to the rest
of your body, , and it really is relevant.
And the current technologies that are available from
salivary testing to cavity detection, to
artificial intelligence scans of a static image
of your mouth to potentially, uh, identify plaque
or cavities and the different tools that we have,
these very sophisticated digital
and um, chemical analyses that we're able to provide.
People really are giving a snapshot of somebody's health
and their oral health and to kind of play that out
to understand like,
this means bacteria getting into your bloodstream.
This means bacteria settling on your heart valves.
This might mean with you have early, um, signs
of periodontal disease that it will increase your chances
of having Alzheimer's.
I think bringing everything back
to your whole body health is compelling
and I feel like that's where the messaging is more,
is the most effective and,
and more of it needs to kind of be in that direction so that
as a whole, we start caring
and investing in maintaining health rather than trying
to repair something that's broken, like granted, yes,
of course we want to do that, but let's try
and focus on preventing problems before they start
because we can, and it would be shameful to not do so.
- I love that. That's such an amazing message in way
to look at things, um,
and certainly so helpful within thinking about how to care
for patients and communities in the whole person.
Now, before we wrap up here, I wanted
to move into the last question.
What will the most effective healthcare leaders need
to be successful over the next two to three years?
I know the space is changing dramatically.
There's a lot happening both in terms of clinical care
and technology and just the way that healthcare and,
and dental care delivery is thought about in,
in practice within, um, the, the different communities.
And so I'd love your perspective on what leaders need
to know in order to be, uh, successful, um, in the future.
- Well, that's a great question
and, uh, yeah, we hope, I hope, um, leaders
with vision emerge
and that they can kind of move above like the fray
of like just looking for dollars and market share
and realize that, again, prevention can be profitable.
People will want to be healthy.
It's, it's, people don't want to be unhealthy.
And so to have vision for what really can bring around
and bring about health in larger populations, um, gosh,
I think there needs to be a really good understanding
of individual populations, their needs, their wants,
and then how to educate them
to move them in the right direction.
So you're actually like moving the needle on health by
again, preventing problems, problems before they start.
So I think leaders need to understand that they
must address the interests of individual people
and their groups and then the larger groups,
and that one size doesn't fit all.
So I think that the, the
most effective healthcare leaders are going to need to
really understand on a granular level who they're trying
to help and the problem from
a 30,000 foot view.
So being able to have perspective, I think
- That's great advice, and certainly having
that perspective, being able to have a vision, um, and,
and move towards that, inspire others towards their vision.
But as you said, being nimble and flexible
because things are changing all the time and,
and certainly understanding, you know, the, the patients
and the communities and, and knowing how to, um, cater
to those needs and wants is going to be super important
and critical, um, which is, you know, so,
so important for success.
- Yes, exactly that.
To be able to understand the particular needs
of a population
and then to be able to look at that from a, a,
a distanced perspective about how to move
that whole population towards what they want,
but then to understand what's holding them back,
what are the, what are the reasons that they can't progress,
so that really you have to solve the problem.
So yeah, to be problem solvers I
think is gonna be important.
- Well, problem solvers is, is a great place to be. Uh, Dr.
Sandor, thank you so much
for joining us on the podcast today.
This has been a really fun conversation.
I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
- Thank you so much. I really appreciated the opportunity
to have a chat with you
and, um, I look forward to talking with you again soon.
- It's so important for leaders at the top of organizations
to keep learning, stay sharp, grow their networks,
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