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- This is Riz Hatton with
the Becker Dental Podcast.

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I'm thrilled to be joined
today by Amanda Lester,

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vice President of Operations
at North American Dental Group.

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Amanda, thank you so much
for being here today.

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- Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure.

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- Great. Well, just to start us off,

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could you introduce yourself

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and tell us a bit about your background?

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- Of course. My name is Armanda Lester.

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I am the Vice President

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of Operations at North
American Dental Group.

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Um, I've been in dental for
a little over 10 years now.

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I started briefly as,
um, growing a business

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as a small group pri of private practices,

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and then we grew into an
affiliated DSO practice.

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Prior to that, I did
some financial planning

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and wealth management with PNC Bank

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and I went to the Ohio State University.

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- Great. Thanks so much
for that introduction.

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My first question for you today is

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what are the biggest issues you're

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following in dental today?

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- Um, I'm sure that this
is not going to be new

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to your ears, but truthfully,
we're following a lot

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of the staffing complexities
in dental right now.

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Um, it is something that is brand new

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where we have seen a flop in the ratio

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where doctor two support
staff, now the doctor

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roles have increased

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and it seems like the support
staff is not following the

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increase of the new
doctors that we are, um,

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graduating out of dental school.

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So what we're finding a lot is, you know,

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we've all seen the wage
inflation over the last year

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and a half or really since Covid,

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and then also trying to
find like team members

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that are committed to, you know,

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one practice staying in an organization,

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growing and learning in their role.

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And a lot of like the dental
support team members have

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either taken opportunities
with different practices

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or they are not in
dental at all any longer.

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The other thing I've seen too,

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just in a specific geographical footprint

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that I support is the,
the schools that used to

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to do the programs have all
shut down, which is really sad.

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- That's really interesting.

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And I'm curious, how is
North American Dental Group

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tackling, uh, those issues with that lack

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of, um, support staff?

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Are there any initiatives
that, uh, they're doing?

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- Uh, yeah, actually we have
been researching heavily

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of building our own dental, um,

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school dental support staff
schools in specific areas of,

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um, our organization.

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We're really committed to
growing our team members

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and, you know, if there is somebody

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that would wanna transition
from an admin role into a dental

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assistant, for example, we are
supportive in building their

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education and funding
their education in order

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to make them achieve that.

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Furthermore, we're also, you know,

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we're really heavily focused on

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what our team members are
saying about how we support them

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as an organization.

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So we do pulse surveys
every quarter where we try

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to figure out how we can
improve as an organization

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to support our team members

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because at the end of the day, you know,

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they're the ones that are patient facing.

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They're the ones that are
caring for our communities

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and we wanna ensure that
one, we retain them,

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and two, they feel valued
while they work with us.

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- Fascinating. Thank you. What
are you most excited about

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and what makes you nervous
when it comes to dentistry?

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- Dentistry? Oh my goodness.

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I am so excited about
our industry right now.

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Um, just seeing the evolution

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of dental over the last 10
years has been incredible.

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So, you know, once upon a time I know

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that like intraoral cameras
was, that was the rage.

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Now we're dealing with artificial
intelligence platforms,

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digital impressions through
scanning, um, techniques,

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laser dentistry, 3D printing.

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It is just all evolved
so wildly and rapidly

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and it's so exciting because
it's really enhancing the

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patient experience from every level.

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It's also, you know, I think
efficiency is probably one

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of the biggest, um, benefits

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of people's lives right now is

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what's convenient and efficient.

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And so being able to do like
same day crowns in a practice

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or print night guards

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or even, you know, for our
more, um, advanced procedures,

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implant guides and for the 3D printing.

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And then furthermore with
the artificial intelligence

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platforms, I think it's just one

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of the most unique experiences

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because as you follow dentistry
over the last, you know,

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I'm sure many of people that
are listening to this decades

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and decades, for me decades,
I follow podcasts, I follow,

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um, groups on social media.

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And the largest, um, complaint is

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that people aren't speaking the same

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language when we talk about dental.

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So, for example, a doctor
diagnoses a patient,

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they do the treatment, they submit

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the claim to the insurance company.

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The insurance company
might disagree with it

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and reject the claim,

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or, you know, having a patient
that has been loyal to you

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and all of a sudden you tell
'em that they need something

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that is a little outside
of their routine care.

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And you know, they scratch their heads

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and they may go down the
street for a second opinion

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because they don't believe like

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what we're recommending may be necessary.

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Now with this artificial
intelligence, it is an ecosystem

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that where everybody is agreeing

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essentially on the communication.

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So a lot of the payers, um,

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the insurance payers are using
AI as a form of, you know,

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claims approvals.

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Um, I know that a lot

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of revenue cycle teams are
using it to submit claims.

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Also, now we're able to teach

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and educate the patients from
a different perspective of

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where they're almost able
to like look at their x-rays

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and understand what we're looking at

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as we're educating them
towards their oral healthcare.

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So I think it's just one
of the most exciting times.

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There's something in it for everyone.

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You know, when it comes to
identifying opportunities

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for mixed missed x-rays from
the front desk team to be able

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to communicate with the hygienist

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or even like bone levels out
of like the normal probing,

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um, you know, with their soft
tissue probing, now we're able

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to see like the bone levels at
a different, um, perspective

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with the artificial intelligence.

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I just think it's like one
of the most advanced things

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that's happened in dentistry.

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- Yeah, that's, that's super interesting.

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I've heard so much about, you know,

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AI being used in in dental right now.

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I'm curious, um,

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what specific AI technologies
are being utilized at

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North American Dental Group?

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- So we're using a
platform called overjet.

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And so what it does is when it integrates

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with our current software
into our X-ray system,

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our x-ray platform, and
so it's able to take all

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of the images and quickly
scan and read them

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and give its recommendations based on the

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algorithms that it has.

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And so it's been, it's
been a really cool rollout

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for our entire organization.

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We are fully integrated now with all

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of our general practices

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and we're piloting some

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of the techniques within
our specialty practices.

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More importantly, I think it's
just been the biggest piece

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of it is the educational
component that it provides.

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- That's fantastic. Thank you.

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What will the most effective
healthcare leaders need

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to be successful in the
next two to three years?

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- <laugh>, I definitely think being

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committed to transformation.

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One of the things I, you
know, I'm always teaching and

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and coaching on our teams is
that the only thing in life

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that you know is consistent is change.

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So we all have to be
ready and adaptable to it.

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So as we were just talking
about like with the 3D printing

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and, you know, digital
impressions and scanning

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and artificial intelligence,
we have to be committed to

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being open to transform our organization

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over and over again.

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Um, we also have to be very committed to

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the patient's experience.

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So patients now want the ability to easily

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and independently access
their own medical records

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or schedule an appointment

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or, um, you know, have
like appointment times

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that are easier on their schedule.

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So what we've done in our
organization really is like we're

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doing online scheduling,
we're opening up the ability

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to have some teledentistry,
we are ensuring

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that we can communicate via text

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and, you know, making sure

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that people can pay their bills easier

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and correspond with their providers.

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So just being adaptable is
the one thing that's gonna be

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the most important to
successful healthcare leaders.

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Furthermore, making sure that
we have, you know, the ability

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to communicate with our
teams at the same level.

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- Well, thank you so much Amanda

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for your fascinating insights

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and this awesome discussion today.

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I look forward to connecting
with you again in the future.

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- Thanks for your time.
Re it's fun as always.