Hey there, dental professionals and industry enthusiasts.
Picture this. It's October, and you're in the
middle of one of the most transformative
experiences of your career. You're at the Becker's
Fall Future of Dentistry Roundtable in the vibrant
city of Chicago, fresh off an incredible 3
days at the Hyatt Regency. Imagine yourself inspired
and invigorated
after attending captivating keynote sessions by none other
than the legendary boxing world champion and CEO,
Lila Elite, and the extraordinary
professional basketball player, Caitlin Clark. See yourself engaged
in lively discussions,
exchanging ideas, and collecting a stack of business
cards from fellow dental experts and potential partners.
You've networked with over 350
attendees and learned from more than 80 speakers
who are at the forefront of dental innovation.
You sat in on educational sessions exploring topics
that elevate dental care as a critical element
of whole person health. You've witnessed firsthand how
digital technology is revolutionizing
patient outcomes
and how both large DSOs and independent practices
are flourishing. Get ready to transform your career
and don't miss out on this incredible
opportunity. The Becker's fall future of dentistry roundtable
is from October 30th to November 1, 2024.
Get registered by going to beckersdental.com
and clicking on the events page.
Hello. This is Cameron Cortejano with the Becker's
Dental and DSO review podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor
Catherine Alderman, founder and CEO of Intelligent Care
Alliance. Doctor Alderman, thank you so much for
being here today.
Hey. Thank you so much, Cameron, for inviting
me. It's always a pleasure, and I'm honored
to be on a Becker's Healthcare
podcast. I'm super excited,
to talk about, some of the issues we
have in dentistry
and what to look for in
2024 and even 2025.
Awesome.
To start us off today, can you just
introduce yourself,
and tell us a little bit about your
background?
I have been in dentistry for a long
time, and, really, I can be up I
have been growing dental group from a start
up, so I have a lot of experience,
growing,
successful dental practices from a start up and
also developing them as they become a seasoned
practices.
So my expertise
is all about
strategy,
marketing,
mentoring,
PR,
and now integrating
AI technology
to help dental practices
and to support the team.
Great. Thanks for that.
What are some of the biggest issues
that you are following in the dental industry,
this year?
I would say 4 issues. Number 1, AI
integration.
People want to have an a integration, but
there is a fear and lack of time
and sometimes lack of understanding how to bring
it successfully
and integrate it into practice. So number 1,
a integration.
Number 2, patient acquisition and retention because,
most practices
do feel
competitive
landscape,
and keeping patients
engaged and loyal
is everything, but it's becoming more it's
becoming more challenging with so much competition
in the market.
And that brings another point, employee retention,
that,
they do experience
employee retention problem, but, really, the biggest,
advantage of all the professional practices is a
long term
motivated and a happy team, and a lot
of dental practices
will struggle with having a long term
motivated and a happy team. So,
employee retention
moves along with the patient acquisition and retention.
And, also, the last challenge that I see
many dental offices experiencing
is economic concerns.
Because right now, due to economic situation
in USA
and the election's coming up, patients are more
careful with the standard.
And really, they are
they're really worried about spending money, and, they
want to only do an insurance pay. So
that has been, I see it as a
common challenge in a lot of the input
practices.
Yeah. Definitely. I think that, the economic conditions,
especially as we're getting even closer and closer
to the election now,
is is becoming a bigger talking point
in dentistry.
What do you see kinda,
going forward,
up to the election and then maybe, like,
a little bit
post election when it comes to the economy
and, like, patient spend and stuff like that.
But I would be I would love to
have a crystal ball and tell you that,
but I don't have that knowledge.
But what I do know that, I it
survived 2,008
recession.
So what worked for me is, encouraging the
team, providing a great customer service, and really
focusing on procedures that patients value.
Emergency dental care,
doing procedures that do help patients to be
out of pain, to prevent
action, or to make sure,
it gives them value. So
learning from 2,008,
2009 recession, it's really being available to the
patients and offering the services that they need.
And, that's really helped me to get through
that recession
and, maintain successful practices and maintain the growth.
And regardless of what happens
with the upcoming elections
or after elections,
I would say focusing on on a customer
service and focusing on provided services that patients
would value
and, making sure what services
are offered
at DentalProctus.
Got it. That makes sense.
Something that I'm curious to get your thoughts
on
are what are some things that you're most
excited about when it comes to dentistry today,
and what are some things that are potentially
making you a little bit concerned or a
little bit nervous?
Oh, I love to talk about it. So
my excitement, I just completed the MIT program,
in 2004, and, MIT program was to create
AI products for health care. So I love
AI, and I'm excited,
about transformative potential of AI in a dental
industry.
AI can streamline operations, improve patient care. It
can even help in diagnosis, and, really, it
can help to support dental teams and
maximize what we do
while minimizing how much energy we have to
spend.
But to bring AI is not easy because
our team is,
our team is already kind of overstimulated,
and a lot of teams are short on
health, and burned out. So introducing a new
technology
can be challenging. So then so while I'm
excited about bringing AI to dental practices,
I'm also nervous about the teams accepting it
and taking time to learn it and really
incorporate it in the daily routines
and operations
and utilizing
AI correctly
to support them. So while I'm excited, I
can see that, I'm a little nervous about
it as well. And most importantly,
that, there is a responsibility
when I do introduce AI or AI is
introduced to the office. You want to make
sure that it's implemented the right way, otherwise,
it can back fire as well. So there
is a responsibility
about bringing
AI and,
moving it to as a part of our
daily routine. But, again, it has to be
done correctly.
So it benefits the practice, benefits the team,
and not the opposite.
So that's I'm excited and nervous
about bringing AI at the same time.
Yeah. I think just because it is still
so new to the industry, there is a
lot of that
feeling that,
you know, AI is great, and it can
help us be more efficient at our practices.
But if we're not using it correctly,
it can
definitely,
maybe not backfire, but, you know, we're not
getting the most out of it. So we
wanna make sure we're doing that. What do
you think are some of, you know, your
best practices when it comes to integrating and
implementing
AI and making sure that
the the whole team at a dental practice
is kinda on the same page with that
new tech and AI.
I love that question. And, truly, it's come
down to one answer, change management. So when
we
be as a practice leaders, we may get
excited about, technology, saving money,
increasing revenue while relying more,
on our AI and,
not so much relying on our human health.
So other leaders may get excited about this
technology.
But if we want to bring an AI
to the practice,
the team may not be that excited because
they can look at it as a threat
to the job, or they don't understand how
it will support them, or they may not
see value in adding it. So we have
to think change management, and change management is
when we get our teams excited about it.
And,
the goal is here is not to implement
too many new things,
but really to focus on one thing at
a time and,
really to go through the cycle of explaining
to the team how it will help them,
support them,
taking any spheres away,
and then, give it time
for the team to
use the technology,
get comfortable with the technology,
and really start seeing the benefits of it.
So we're gonna change management model focuses on
implementation,
careful implementation,
and getting the team on board and getting
the team actually excited
to
use this technology.
So that's really my best advice.
Do it slow. Do one thing at a
time, but do it now.
The reason that I would say do it
now
because we're all gonna be using AI.
No exceptions. We will be using AI in
every part of our life.
And while AI will not replace our jobs,
it will make the jobs look more different.
So the team
and,
team members and officers
that do implement AI now,
they will have a much easier conversation
to be
to use an AI,
in their daily lives.
So my best recommendation, start using AI now,
implement AI, but do it slowly. Do it
one thing at a time and follow change
management model, which basically starts with getting the
team excited, getting them
getting them to see the benefits,
then learning how to use it, and really
utilizing those benefits.
So that's that would be my best recommendation
on how to bring AI
in a more successful way.
Got it. That makes a ton of sense.
Kinda as we move into
the last question for today,
what will the most effective health key health
care leaders need in order to be successful,
in the next 2 to 3 years, do
you think?
I love talking about it. I might give
you a little bit longer answer here because
number 1, again, the leaders the leaders have
to be adoptable.
They have to adopt.
So they have to understand what health care
landscape is changing is a
super fast pace and then really driven the
technological advancements AI,
shift on a patient expectations,
and really more regulatory requirements.
So leaders will need to be highly adaptive,
able to
change the direction quickly
and response to new challenges. And really, they
have to see an opportunity
as they arise. So they have to be
adaptable
adaptable, and they have to be flexible
and,
adjusting
to everything that is happening so quickly,
you know, around us. They have to be
tech savvy. They have to understand that, again,
it's gonna be here. They really cannot ignore
AI. It it's gonna be here. That's,
they cannot ignore it, so they have to
adjust to that. So they're really whether they
believe it or not, they have to adjust
to it. They have to implement it, and
they have to start thinking how can I
bring AI? In what areas can I use
AI? And how can I implement it,
to my practice?
But the next one will surprise you. Empathy
and emotional intelligence.
The the leaders have to be emotionally intelligent.
All leaders,
not just the practice owners, office managers,
leaders. They have to have an emotional intelligence
because that's how it's been shown to be
number one factor
that is valued
by workers
when they value
when they score the health of the culture.
So emotional
emotionally intelligent leaders are highly valued, and they
need it
especially in a light of a labor shortage
and,
the way the labor market is looking. So,
really, developing empathy
and emotional intelligence skills are crucial
for leaders
in a current market.
And, really, they have to have a strategic
vision because,
effective health care leaders,
they need to have a clear and strategic
vision for the future. And the reason I
say that because there is so much happening,
and I see it in every practice that
the leaders become bombarded with,
plans or to do list. And they have
to
they have to know what matters because not
everything matters. So they have to be able
to become that
20%
of a to do list that will make
a big impact and focus
only on work tasks,
because that's the most important.
And they have to build strategic plans and
build a vision
based on
what really matters. So they have to be
able to pick out and understand what matters
and really build a strategic vision
based on what matters and not, you know,
what maybe
everybody,
says that they need to do. So they
have to be able
to confidently pick what really matters.
And then, you know, they have to con
they have to continue well, learn, and they
have to really be kind of have the
growth mindset
again because that's really,
that's really important,
to survive in this fast paced
world.
And really and finally, the most the most
important that all this remains important
regardless of economic situation, technological
advancements,
or
political situation
focusing on a patient experience and outcome. That's
a basic foundational
principle,
and we all have to remember other leaders.
Patient care, patient experience
comes first,
and that has to be our top priority
to ensure
that our teams, our doctors
provide the positive experience
and, create that,
patient experience with a positive outcome. So, really,
there is a lot for the leaders, but,
if the leaders possess those qualities and value
of things, they will do great jobs. They
will be great leaders,
in,
in
this market.
Awesome. Thanks so much for that. So, just
to wrap up here today, I wanna thank
you so much again for joining
us on the Becker's
Dental podcast, doctor Alderman, and thank you for
sharing all those valuable expertise,
and insights. It's been a pleasure connecting and
speaking with you today,
and I look forward to connecting with you
again in the future.
Thank you so much, Cameron. My pleasure. And
thank you for giving me this opportunity and
letting me share,
about my favorite thing, the business of dentistry
and leadership and, you know, everything that has
to do with,
growing successful dental practices.