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Hello, everyone. This is Ariana Portolatin with the

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Becker's Dental and DSR Review podcast. I'm thrilled

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to be joined today by doctor Bayless Sastry,

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the CEO of teledentistry.com.

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Doctor Sastry, thank you so much for being

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here today. It's great to speak with you

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again. Oh my gosh. Ariana, thank you so

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much for inviting me, and, it's always a

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pleasure to to, you know, have these meetings

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with you and to be a returning guest,

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I might add. So thank you so much.

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Yes. Yes. We're always happy to have you.

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To start us off, can you introduce yourself

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to our listeners and tell us a little

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bit about your background?

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For sure.

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So for the folks who are listening, I

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am a dentist. I graduated from Boston University

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back in 02/2005.

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Shortly thereafter, I set up my own DSO

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in Las Vegas.

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Also set up an insurance brokerage firm, which

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was not looked upon very kindly by some

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folks in the area, but they soon enough

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understood that what I was doing was trying

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to send more patients to dental offices and

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improve access to care.

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I sold that insurance brokerage firm and simultaneously

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then started up teledentistry.com

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with the same mission, which was to, you

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know, help improve access to care, albeit through

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a virtual platform.

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This was in 02/2017,

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and,

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it's been,

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nothing short of a roll roller coaster since

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then. And,

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now fast forward to 2025,

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we are now currently serving 90 insurance carriers

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plus

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and,

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providing services to approximately 150,000,000

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lives across The United States, insured lives. Thank

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you so much, Arianna.

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Great. Thank you so much for that intro.

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First question here. What are some of the

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biggest issues that you are following in the

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dental industry this year?

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I'm following

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several issues.

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Number one actually is the,

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removal

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of fluoride from public water,

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sources.

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That's a big one on my,

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radar.

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Next, we have,

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the changes to,

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Medicare Advantage and Medicaid

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through the one big beautiful bill act.

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Simultaneously,

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we have, the technology sector. We have

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players like Epic, which

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are getting

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very large

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and are seeming to, you know, take advantage

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of their ecosystem wherein they vet out who

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are the

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successful

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additions to their platform and then replicate and

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then leverage their distribution to create their own

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solution.

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And last but not least, provide licensing,

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with,

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the,

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compacts

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gaining steam, something very nice.

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That's what I'm look that that's that's, that's

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something very near and dear to me. And

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so I'm looking forward to seeing a lot

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of progress on that on that side of

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things as well. So

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Yeah. It seems like, you're paying attention to

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many things that other dental leaders are following

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right now at the same time.

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I know Medicaid and the the one big

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beautiful bill is a big issue. Definitely, the

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removal of fluoride in in

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various states.

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Are you paying attention and kind of thinking

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about how those things will affect

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people's ability to access teledentistry?

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Yes.

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It with teledentistry,

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specifically as it relates to our business,

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you know, we got our big boost during

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the pandemic, obviously, with the dental office closures

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and,

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needing and and literally the nation

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needing a solution

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to help people who are having a dental

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emergency avoid the emergency room at that time.

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And, it was during that time that we

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got our big boost.

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Several insurance companies joined up on our platform.

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And now, obviously, thanks to that, that's where

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we are right now.

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Looking to the future,

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you know, not everybody has a dental emergency

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all the time. You know?

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We look at

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our business as an evolving

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model

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wherein

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it is a platform designed to help deliver

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care to patients wherever they are. You know?

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And that includes,

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preventative care and, other types of solutions that

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are allowed under the dental practice acts across

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the country.

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And so we very strictly adhere to those.

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And what we're finding is,

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that

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we are able to, in fact,

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provide preventative services to these members of of

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insurance companies and patients in turn

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and,

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effect on a lot of those types of

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things that are, you know, the hour of

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the need when you have such a strong

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voice,

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you know, removing fluoride from the public water

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and acknowledging, in fact, that there will be,

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accelerated dental disease because of this. It's a

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bit baffling,

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and it's all based on science that's not

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necessarily true or not necessarily proven 100%.

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But, nonetheless, a knee jerk reaction is being

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taken in this regard.

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So, we feel it's our responsibility as health

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care providers,

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and oral health care providers to step up

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and provide solutions that,

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will meet this need. So that's how we're

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pivoting our business. Not pivoting. We're adding,

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you know, service lines to our business that

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will help,

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in the preventative space as well.

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Great. Great to hear your thoughts there.

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Next question here. What are you most excited

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about when it comes to dentistry right now,

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and what makes you nervous?

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Well, you know,

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dentistry as a profession

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is reliant on the

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practitioner to be of sound mind and body.

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You know? And I can tell you as

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I'm aging,

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you know, your body does give out. You

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know? And,

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at some point,

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you know,

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you're not able to practice at that level

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of efficiency that you knew you could a

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few years prior. You know?

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I'm excited to see some of the advancements

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in AI and,

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augmented reality

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and,

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those sorts of techno the amalgamation of those

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technologies really

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to

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create new ways

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for

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practitioners

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who want to practice

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at the top of their game

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and can now leverage these tools to be

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able to do so

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without additional stress on the body and mind.

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Would that make sense? You know? And I've

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seen some cool technologies coming out, like, where

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you can literally visualize

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the root canal anatomy,

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of a patient

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while they're in their chair

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using augmented reality.

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That's

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incredible to me. And, just a few years

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prior, this would not have been even possible

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to you couldn't even imagine this was possible,

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you know, let alone actually using it in

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the operatory. You know? And so these are

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the kinds of things that I find are

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extremely,

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exciting.

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Nervous. You know, there's always,

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concerns

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around,

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the practice of dentistry, the practice of health

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care as in as a whole.

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And, it again relates to the same thing,

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which is, you know, being being able to

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practice

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with sound mind and body and how you're

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able to deliver care in a meaningful way

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to patients

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as,

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their expectations evolve,

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which are continuously evolving,

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and,

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meeting the demand

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of those expectations in a cost effective manner.

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You know? That's the challenge. You know? Because

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this everything sounds great. You know? AI augmented

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reality and so on and so forth. Well,

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those companies are all valued at billions of

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dollars for a reason.

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It's gonna cost a lot of money to

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deploy them. You know? And,

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ultimately,

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sometimes patients, they just don't wanna pay for

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that kind of, you know, advancement. So that's

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where I think the rubber hits the road.

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And how does that all kind of combine

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in a way to make it so that

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there's effective

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health care being delivered in a cost effective

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manner

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that, helps the practitioner during during the different

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life stages that they go through as well.

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Interesting points that you make there. Thank you

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so much for sharing those. Our last question

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here, what will the most effective healthcare leaders

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need to be successful in the next two

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to three years?

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Yeah. I think this this one is, rather

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obvious to those who are following the space.

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You know, it's it's all about leveraging

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the newer technologies,

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which has been, you know,

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the same thing we've been saying for the

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last ten, fifteen years. You know, there's always

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a new technology coming out. Now it's AI.

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You know?

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And, you know, if you I'm old enough

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to know that, you know, the the new

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technology way back when was email.

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And so,

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as as we age and as we kinda

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go through, these different, you know,

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eras of technological,

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evolution,

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it's important to note that

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health care leaders

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are dealing with

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doctors

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who right now are using a pen and

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paper to make scheduling decisions,

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all the way to somebody who's using AI

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and everything in between. You know? So how

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do you accommodate,

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you know, that range

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of

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health care provider along the way, you know,

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and provide them a safe

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mental space to work in. It's hard to

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do. You know? And and, you know, we're

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as as providers, as doctors, we're constantly being

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told

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to level up our skill set,

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level up, you know, our abilities,

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in order to meet the demands of, you

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know, the market, so to speak.

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It's hard to do.

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You know? And as health care leaders, how

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do we make that easier? How do we

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make it so that the doctors who we

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are in charge of, the

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the the dental assistants that we're in charge

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of, the hygienist,

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everybody is

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on

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the same page as you and

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can actually work with you and the systems

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you're providing

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to make sure that the care that's being

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delivered is, again, effective and, you know,

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meets the patient's demands.

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Alright. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing

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that. Well, that is all I have for

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you today, doctor Sastry. Thank you so much

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for joining us today. Great to speak with

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you again. It's been a pleasure speaking with

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you today, and I look forward to connecting

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with you again in the future. Thank you

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so much, Ariana. Real pleasure as always.