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Hello. This is Arianna Portellatin with the Becker's

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Dental and DSO review podcast. I'm thrilled to

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be joined today by doctor Marise Tanias, the

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chief dental officer at Affinity Dental Management. Doctor

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Tanias, thank you so much for being here

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today. Thank you for having me.

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Yes. Definitely. To start us off, can you

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introduce yourself and tell us a little bit

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about your background?

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Well, as you already mentioned, my name is,

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doctor Maurice Tanios. I am the chief dental

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officer of Affinity Dental Management.

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Basically,

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my history in dentistry is that I am

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a general dentist.

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I went to NYU for dental school.

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I then did a GPR in, New York

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City.

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I practiced there for a few years, moved

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back to California,

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and, that's when I was introduced to

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quality management at Western Dental Services.

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I was there for about 6 years

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and then, moved on to West Coast Dental

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to be their dental director.

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I was there for about a year and

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a half before COVID hit, and,

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that's kind of where I was introduced to

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Affinity Dental Management, which is on the East

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Coast.

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And Affinity,

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they brought me on as a dental consultant.

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And then from there, my career just, grew.

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So I've been with the company now for

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about 4 years plus.

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That's great. Thank you so much for that.

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First question here. What are some of the

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biggest issues that you're following in the dental

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industry right now?

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Well,

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I think, you know, what comes to mind

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is really

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3 issues, and,

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one of them is being financial issues. You

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know, the rising cost of supplies and labor,

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also insurance

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reimbursement

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issues,

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are definitely no match for our economic state

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of inflation.

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Another,

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important issue that I follow is the techno

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technological

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integration,

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within the dental world. So, you know, keeping

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up with the rapid advancements

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is extremely costly.

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It's definitely necessary, though,

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and

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implementation of the technology

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can be challenging if expectations

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are not set properly.

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The last issue,

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that I've really been

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following, and and I think it definitely

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affects not just the dental,

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field, but all fields is staffing and training.

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You know, shortages of skilled employees

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and recruitment and retention challenges,

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are definitely,

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you know, always there for us.

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Okay. Great. And I know you mentioned,

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technology earlier. Are there any particular pieces of

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technology that you're following right now?

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Yes. Oh my gosh. There are so many.

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Currently,

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Affinity

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is you know, we've been using

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AI Overjet AI

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for the last 3 years, and it's really

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been a game changer for us.

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One of the other technologies that we're we're

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bringing up or starting to implement is actually

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a platform called 32 Health. It's a credentialing

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platform. They definitely offer more than just credentialing,

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but it will help with some of the

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automations that we need to be more efficient

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and, you know, get our doctors onboarded,

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not just in our company, but with insurance

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companies as well.

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Okay. Great. And as far as staffing shortages,

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how have you seen, these workforce challenges affect

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Affinity Dental Management specifically?

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Well, you know, it takes a longer time

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to hire skilled

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employees. You know, once we we do get

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them on board, we definitely

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try to keep them,

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which is another challenge in itself. But I

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think, you know, working for Affinity

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has its you know, we definitely care for

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all of our employees when we do bring

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them on. But, shortages, you know, unfortunately,

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in the hygiene side,

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we have been leveraging other

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employees within the company to kind of move

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around

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to help with some of the shortages. But,

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you know, using some of the temporary employees

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might be helpful as well. They are more

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costly, but

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if that's what we have to do to

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keep, you know,

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business running smooth, then that's what we have

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to do.

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Okay. Yeah.

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And I know

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staffing shortages got a lot worse during the

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COVID 19 pandemic. Have you seen any of

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those issues

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improve even slightly,

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over the last couple of years, or is

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it has it kind of been the same

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as started?

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Yeah. No. I I definitely believe they've they've

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improved.

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I think it's the you know,

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I would say it's it's improved, but there's

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still lots of work to be done in

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that section.

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You know, shortages of skilled employees is where

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I would say is is the most challenging

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because, you know, we'll get an influx of

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of people applying,

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but are they skilled or have the necessary

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experience

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to

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provide the, you know, the either the dental

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treatment that we need

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or, you know, be,

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well versed in the dental world. So so

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that's something that

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we have to take on. And when we

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do hire, you know, if we do hire

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someone that doesn't have the skills, we definitely,

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spend time in training

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and and wanting to retain them as well.

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You know, there's always the challenge of if

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you train them and then they move on

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somewhere else and you lose that,

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that asset. But in in my opinion, you

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know, anyone who comes over to us, we

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do our best to train them up and

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get them,

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you know, skilled and and well versed in

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the dental field so that they can be

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successful.

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Okay. Thank you. Next question here. What are

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you most excited about when it comes to

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dentistry right now, and what makes you nervous?

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We definitely touched upon

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the technology aspect.

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That's really huge for me.

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That's something I'm very, very interested in.

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I'm extremely excited about,

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you know, 3 d printing. We haven't really

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implemented that yet in our in our practices,

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but it's coming soon. You know, digital workflow,

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being able to provide our,

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our doctors with, you know, technology that helps

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them become more efficient is extremely important.

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And, also, you know, AI such as Overjet,

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to me, that is the number 1,

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number 1 technology that we use every day

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in our practice from all aspects, you know,

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from our office managers to the doctors to

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the assistants

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to the corporate team who can, really look

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at the data that we get from this,

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platform. It's it's very powerful and transforming for

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our company.

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Other things, you know, that I also touched

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upon a little bit earlier was automation.

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So, like, phone systems, having, the ability to

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for patients to call in and getting their

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their phone call picked up and being able

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to set the schedule without having,

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you know, another person on the other line.

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It you know, again, it's it's something that

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I'm excited about. I think it solves a

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lot of issues that, I think, across the

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board,

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dental companies have. But, you know, automating our

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phone systems is important. Credentialing,

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you know, 32 Health,

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huge

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part of our transformation for our company.

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And then, obviously,

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from all of those platforms, we have all

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the data that we collect, and that's just

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really valuable to us in order for us

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to improve as a company.

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Was there anything that makes you nervous about

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the industry apart from maybe the staffing challenges

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you mentioned earlier?

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To be honest,

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you know, for me, in the way I

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look at life, which I look at my

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life and my career and and the dental

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world, and I look at it all the

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same. Okay? So I I don't have too

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many concerns.

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Really, you know, dentistry is a field that's

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always going to be in demand.

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It's ever changing and advancing, which is truly

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exciting.

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And so my philosophy

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about at least the dental world right now

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is, you know, do what's right for the

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patient, and everything will just fall into place.

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And that's honestly how I how I live

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my dental life, how I live my personal

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life. You know, do what's right, and everything

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just falls into place.

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Great.

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Last question here. What will the most effective

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health care leaders need to be successful in

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the next 2 to 3 years?

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I think this question is really important

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because,

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you know, for me

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as a as a leader, I have to

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do what's right, not just for the company,

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but mainly for our patients.

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So how can I get to high quality

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care?

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Well, first, it's about setting expectations within our

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organization

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and, communicating effectively to our team. Okay? The

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next thing I would say is adaptability and

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resilience

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in the face of rapid change. So,

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you know,

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like I mentioned,

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some of the challenges that we might be

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having, well, we need to be able to,

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figure out,

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ways to overcome those challenges

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and and definitely be adaptable,

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to our, you know, environment

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as it changes.

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You know, data analytics and and AI proficiency

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is extremely important for health care leaders to

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incorporate into their day to day

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workflows.

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And I have 2 more here.

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Ability to foster

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the,

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collaboration and and and build strong teams within

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your organization.

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So leveraging your team members,

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creating committees,

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you know, creating

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a really

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strong culture

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so that everyone is working together

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and becoming successful

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as one

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team,

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you know, one team moving forward in your

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organization.

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And the last but certainly not least is,

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ethical decision making and transparency.

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And and like I mentioned earlier, always do

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the right thing.

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So, you know, in the coming years,

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health care leaders will need to be highly

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adaptable,

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and embrace the technologies and focus on both

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clinical and business aspects to thrive.

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Because, you know, if we don't, it'll be

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very difficult to be successful.

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And I would just really say, you know,

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if we could just blend our traditional leadership

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skills with the new competencies and data analytics

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and AI and everything that that I had

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mentioned earlier,

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we can really help the team to

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build successful

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implementations of of everything that we're trying to

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do here. So, really, ultimately,

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to be able to to be an effective

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health care leader,

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you have to focus on the patient care

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and patient centered,

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treatment.

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Those were all really great responses. So thank

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you so much. Those were all the questions

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I had. Thank you once again for joining

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us, doctor Tanis. It's been a pleasure speaking

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with you, and I look forward to connecting

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with you again in the future.

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I appreciate it. Thank you so much for

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having me.