Hello. This is Arianna Porto Latin with the
Becker's Dental and DSO review podcast. I'm thrilled
to be joined today by Christopher Bland, the
chief operating officer and integrator at Positive Impact
Dental. Christopher, thank you so much for being
here today. Oh, it's my pleasure. I'm excited
to have a quick conversation.
Yes. We're excited to have you here. To
start us off, can you introduce yourself for
our listeners and tell us a little bit
about your background?
Sure. My name is Christopher. Like you said,
chief operating officer at Positive Impact Dental Alliance.
We've dropped the Alliance in the last year.
Let's see. A little bit about my history
is I spent about thirty years in the,
in the medical space, in particular,
optometry.
Grew two of the largest optical chains in
the country
and,
did some, few years of of growing, or
starting a, men's primary health care.
Unfortunately,
that
was COVID affected and and didn't quite get
off the ground as as quick as we
hoped.
And then,
here I am in the in the dental
space, very similar to the optical, but very
unique and
super excited to be here.
Great. Thank you so much for that. First
question here. What are some of the biggest
issues that you're following in the dental industry
this year? Oh, you know, I think two
of the biggest things we're really following right
now
is is and I think you always follow
is is RCM and and and the AI
that's
associated with it. You know, can we collect
quicker, better, more, faster? You know, obviously, that's,
everybody's thing. And and then AI in general,
just how we can leverage,
you know, from large language models to,
specific AI that helps with diagnosing and and
just
phone answering. It's just the whole gamut is
is probably one of the things we're we're
we're we're early adopters here
and like to just we're trying to stay
on the forefront of what's happening in that
AI space.
Great.
And next question here. I'm curious to know
what are you most excited about when it
comes to dentistry right now, and what makes
you nervous?
You know, I'm I'm really excited about the
white space and the opportunity for us to
grow. You know? And and, you know, very
similar to the optical industry about ten years
ago,
I'm really excited about having
being in a place to help
doctors, dentists,
have an exit,
and that that's a that's a lucrative exit
for themselves. So, you know, I'm really excited
about that growth and and helping people towards
the end of their career ready to sunset
and do what they work their whole life
to be able to go do, go play.
And,
and just having that you know, being the
place and the opportunity for them to do
that, that's that's really exciting for us,
this year. And then,
and then, you know, continuing our mission.
What worries me about the dental space
is,
not much. Not much really. You know, we've
got obviously,
you know, some macro and economic things that
that you always worry about,
but it's it's it's kind of a an
evergreen industry.
You know, peep there's always gonna be people
that need, you know, a positive impact in
their life through through good dental dental health.
And,
but there is a worry there. It's like,
how how how much do we have to
modify to
to keep up with, inflation
and costs and,
you know, and still be able to provide
wonderful care.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. That's something I hear a
lot from executives is just this
economic environment that we're currently in, a lot
of back and forth, a lot of changes
happening,
you know, day to day, week to week.
Are there any,
changes or things that positive impact has sort
of modified and adjusted
to just
remain
sustainable, in this environment with all the changes
going on?
You know, I've I've been here since February,
and one of the first things we really
did was to sit down,
with the executive team,
and we spent
two and a half days
just
fine tooth comb on expenses. You know? There's
always
especially in a DSO where we where we've
got, you know,
a bunch of offices,
you know, trying to lean into what works
best for them. But it was that it
was it was that really deep dive on
on, is this an expense that we need?
Does it move the company forward? Does it
meet our mission statement? Does it, you know,
ultimately
improve patient care? And so that was an
exciting few days
to just go through and and and and
just strip away,
you know, a lot of unnecessary expense.
Yeah. Yeah. Super interesting there. Thank you for
sharing that.
Last question here. What will the most effective
health care leaders need to be successful within
the next two to three years?
Even more so on a macro level, but
let's just talk health care.
It's going to be embracing
AI. I know that's an easy catchphrase. It's
what everybody says,
but, it it touches so many pieces of,
of of business now,
much more effectively than just a year ago.
So it's really maybe not being an early
adopter, but being aware
and and getting up to speed on it,
that is
it's just got so much possibility out there
that that if we not if we don't
embrace AI, figure out how it works for
our our companies,
we're gonna get passed up.
Right. Right. Definitely.
And semi related question here. I know in
the beginning, you talked about your background,
working in health care, but maybe in some
different fields, with primary care and optometry, I
think it was.
Are there any lessons or tips and tricks
that you take from those past experiences into
your work now in dentistry?
Yeah. You know, there's it's amazing how similar
they are
and
how
dentistry and this is just my take care.
And may and and I have a very
small skill, small data set, but,
tend to make it very complicated
when it's when when some of the business
things and some of the patient care,
protocols and all that can be very simple.
And and,
you know, we went through that in the
optical industry and the optometric industry
ten, fifteen years ago, and then the dental
industry is, you know, it's,
the business side of it,
we tend to make very complicated.
And and, you know, the old KISS principle
really will help this industry. And that that's
kinda one of the things I'm I'm bringing
here
is, you know, we we can make this
complicated
or we can
make it really simple and fun. You know?
To me, simple is fun. So how do
we make it fun? How do we keep
it simple?
And,
that's that's, you know, blocking and tackling and
the fundamentals will always
will always give us a lift.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Thank you for sharing that.
Well, that is all I have for you
today, Christopher. Thank you so much for joining
us today. It's been a pleasure speaking with
you, and I look forward to connecting with
you again in the future.
Hi. Thanks for having me. This has been
enjoyable from my side too. Thank you so
much. Enjoy the rest of your day. Bye
bye. Thanks.