Hi everyone, and thanks for tuning into the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
I'm Erica Spicer Mason, a writer and editor for Becker's Healthcare. Today,
I'm pleased to be joined by Florian Hillen,
who will talk to us about the role of artificial intelligence in the dental
industry. So a little bit about Florian.
He's the founder and c e o of Vidia Health,
an m i t spinout and dental AI company,
working with leading dental service organizations, insurers,
and other companies in the industry. Previously,
Florian conducted research at the intersection of engineering and social science
at MIT's Institute for Data Systems and Society.
And at Harvard Business School,
he also worked for McKinsey and Company and founded nnu,
a digital health tech startup. So with that,
Florian welcome and thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you for having me, Erica. Hello everyone.
Great. Well,
just that short bio really captures how much experience you have in
tech and healthcare. And so just to get us started,
I'm wondering if you can share a little bit more about yourself and what led you
to establishing video health.
Yeah, absolutely. Um, I mean, so I, I spent all my life actually in healthcare,
first on the clinical side, studying medicine for, for over six years and, and,
and wanting to become a, a medical doctor. Um, and then into,
in the entrepreneurship world, uh,
at Nino as well as then at EcoHealth in California,
which was a status quo to analyze heart science. Um,
and throughout this time I really fell love with using technology in
particular, uh, data science, um,
machine learning and as we call it nowadays, ai, um,
to advance patient care.
And so I didn't understand the technology though,
so I went to MIT to study computer science in graduate school. And, uh,
during that time I did a lot of research in test X-rays, uh, breast cancer,
mammography, uh, dermatology across,
across the different verticals of healthcare. And I really realized, uh,
that in dentistry we can have one of the biggest impacts as we can support
dentists in a meaningful way as well as a huge impact because you have hundreds
of millions of patient visits, uh, per year in US alone,
which each one of them we can, um, help quite a lot.
And so that's really what made me fall in love with, with dentistry, um,
the impact we can have in terms of qualitative per patient,
but also quantitative. And so I was very excited to contact video health, um,
to support dentists.
So Florian, I'm really excited to dig into this conversation today.
And just based on your short bio,
it sounds like you have so much experience in tech and healthcare,
but just to give our listeners some context,
I'm wondering if you can just share a little bit more about yourself and also
what led you to establishing video health and what it does.
Yeah, absolutely, Erica. So, um, as you just read, um,
I spent all my life so far actually in healthcare. Um,
I used to be actually a medical student for six years,
trained to become a medical doctor. Um,
I then founded a tech company as well as worked in a,
in a company in Silicon Valley to, uh, do an AI powered,
um, status quo to automatically analyze hard sounds.
And throughout these experiences,
I absolutely fell in love with using data science,
machine learning, or you can, you know,
summarize it as artificial intelligence in order to advance patient
care. Um, at that point though,
I didn't really understand the technology well enough and understood healthcare
and business. Um,
and so I went to m i t to study computer science in graduate studies,
and I was doing a lot of research in chest x-rays,
breast cancer and mammography, um, as well as in dentistry.
And during that time, I absolutely fell in love with dentistry. Um,
and there are many,
many reasons which we could talk about the entire time of this podcast,
but one of the reasons really is that AI and what we are doing
can significantly actually help our customers,
the dental clinicians on the ground in terms of providing better patient
care,
as well as saving them time so we can have a significant impact to our customers
and our patients' lives,
while also having a huge impact as every one of us right goes to the dentist
regularly, and we have several hundreds of millions of patient visits per year,
we can positively impact.
And so that's what led me really to founding video health, which by the way,
the data means from Latin to improve, um, and to see,
so to improve healthcare, our first product, so to say,
is video ai. And, and what really does Erica,
is that every time you go to your dentist and they do a,
a general checkup and they take x-rays to check your oral health status,
um, in these radiographs,
our FDA approved algorithms automatically diagnose, um,
the radiographs and identify to a high accuracy decay,
periodontal disease, endodontic disease, and, and other symptoms,
which really helps on the one side to improve the patient care as
it supports the dentist to not miss anything. But on the other side also,
it really improves the patient experience as it provides a second opinion
right there, right then for the patient, um,
if this treatment is really necessary or not. And so,
um, that's,
that's how we really use this technology to have an impact for our customer in
terms of saving time and a better patient experience,
but also have a positive impact on patient care in general.
Absolutely.
And it's really fascinating to me to hear how artificial
intelligence or AI is being applied in various ways in
healthcare. And in doing so, you know,
we know that a lot of folks are excited about this technology and some
might be more hesitant. So I'm just curious to know,
in your experience and your work with clinicians,
what level of enthusiasm or adoption are you seeing toward AI and
are there any specific challenges, concerns,
or opportunities that you're hearing?
Yeah, that is a great question.
And as I've been working in healthcare for the past decade,
um, you know, previously working and selling to, for instance,
gynecologists and, um, cardiologists and in general doctors,
um,
I think in general the enthusiasm in dentistry around AI and the adoption and
the willingness to try it is significantly greater than in any other
healthcare vertical industry I've ever been to. And that's extremely exciting.
I think one of the major reasons for that, there are several,
but one of them is that dentists have
such a broad set of responsibilities. There are,
they are to some extent a diagnostician and a radiologist, right?
Then they're also a surgeon.
They are also a primary care physician as well as a business person, right? So,
uh, a a normal clinician is kind of four job than one.
And so us coming in and saying, Hey, we support you in this,
in one of these tasks and, and save you time. Um,
and that is being a diagnostician slash radiologist. Um,
and this is in a non-competitive way. We are really there just to support at an,
at the end of the day,
the dentist will always have full discretion on their treatment planning
and so on, absolutely independent of the ai. Um,
but it's truly a win-win situation for dentists. And so we see, um,
not a lack of conflict of interest as well as a huge interest in terms of
adoption.
I think the second aspect why we do see a huge enthusiasm about it
is that dentists and also, uh,
dental chains called DSOs, who are, um,
some of our primary customers, uh, they're entrepreneurs themselves,
uh, they have a business and they understand that technology enables them
to, um, run their business more efficiently and effectively.
And so we actually see a lot of different technology adoptions in dentistry
right now, um,
because dentists really do understand that this actually supports their business
more than anything else. And so it's, it's very exciting,
especially having come from,
from healthcare in general to dive into dentistry and see how dentists,
but also, um, everyone, uh, in the dental office, including, for instance,
the hygienists and the rest of the staff are embracing AI and using
it for in particular, better patient communication and saving time.
So it's overall very exciting. Um, especially dental chains, uh,
have already adopted AI and now also senior practitioners, right,
mom and pop shop dental offices, um, of which we have around, yeah,
90 200,000 in the United States, um, are starting to adopt it rapidly.
It's really exciting.
And what you described makes complete sense thinking about
how dental practices,
just like a lot of other healthcare organizations right now,
they're tight on time and resources as you mentioned. So, um,
AI really does seem like something that will, you know,
they can happily adopt to to save them so much needed, much needed time.
Um, so I'm just kind of leaning into that a little bit more.
I'm wondering if you can share a few examples of specific dental
AI features and how those are a addressing some of these common challenges like
time and resource constraints. Um,
so if you could say a little bit more about that, that would be great.
Yeah, absolutely. Um, uh, so I stick to my, uh,
to our technology first,
and then I can also elaborate on a couple of other AI examples we are seeing in
dentistry. So what we are really providing to the dentist,
our video AI is,
you can imagine it as an AI powered X reviewer.
So every time the dentist, uh,
as well as the hygienist or the rest of the clinical team is using dental
x-rays to provide a diagnosis,
our AI overlays the findings and provides additional information to
the clinician.
And I think with that come three benefits and those benefits,
we've been seeing them and observed them now over years at this point,
as well as over hundreds of customers.
The first one is that the, uh,
dentist or the, the hygienist, the dental clinician, um,
together with the AI spots, lesions, um, or spots diseases much, much earlier,
um, than without the ai. So they don't miss anything important,
um, as well as they have a second opinion even for themselves,
which gives them greater confidence, um, into their diagnosis. So with that,
we truly believe that we can identify identity disease much earlier on average
than without the ai.
The second aspect is that they can use it, um,
to communicate to the patient. So as you might know, dentistry is, is a,
is an amazing industry, but it also sometimes lacks, um, uh,
a great trust between the patient and the clinician. Often in dentistry,
patients try to get a second opinion because they are not fully on board and
fully trusted dental clinician that they really need, um,
this procedure because there's a little bit of conflict of interest, um,
to some extent. And we don't believe that that's often the case,
but certainly it is really hard for a patient to evaluate, um,
that because they're not an expert.
And so the second aspect is that they can use the ai and our customers are using
the AI to provide the second opinion directly to the patient while they're in
the chair. So Erica, imagine you're going to a dentist, um,
and they take what we call for biting x-rays. Um, it's diagnosed with our ai,
and then the patient at the dentist shows you your x-rays and shows.
Look here, these spots are picked up by the ai,
it's an FDA-approved ai, which has been trained on millions of patients and,
and, and over a hundred dentists trained this ai.
And it's not just me who says that we need to, um, you know,
treat this and you need a crown, but the eye confirmed that as well.
So it provides you a greater confidence, um, you know, in, into the, uh,
into your treatment plan of the dentist.
And the third aspect is that it also saves the clinician time.
So sometimes if you do a, what is called a full mouth X series,
so if you recover, for instance, go into a,
a new dental office the first time they're taking 18 different single x-ray
images of your mouth to assess holistically, uh, your, um,
oral health, the issue is, as you can imagine,
that the dental has very limited time.
And so what we can do is we can prioritize the x-rays for them to make sure
that he picks up on the right spots, um,
without spending too much time on the areas which are,
which are looking very healthy, um,
as well as there are other features where we can write back into the practice
management system, which is, um,
synonymous to the electronic health record and healthcare, um,
where we can save a lot of time when it comes to around treatment planning and
charting procedures, et cetera, et cetera. So this is how we,
how we currently help. Now, the results of this are,
are pretty phenomenal. So we, the great thing in dentistry,
you can measure all of that.
And so the first aspect I mentioned that they identify disease earlier
and, and, and, you know, more treatable disease. Um,
we are seeing across the board that the treatment plan value of customers who
are using our AI increases by 26%.
So that means that they identify, for instance, in restorative procedures,
which is fillings and crowns, 26% more, um, you know,
in procedures. And these are true procedures which need to happen, right?
And the second thing is also we are seeing a significant lift,
everything around five plus percent in what we call case acceptance rate.
So that means, uh, case acceptance rate and dentistry means that if the dentist,
you know, suggests the following procedures,
what share of these suggested procedures actually end up, um,
being confirmed by the patient and being done.
And this is really where the second opinion directly at the chair helps
significantly. So those are, you know,
those are all the different aspects how our AI helps. Um, and,
and it's pretty phenomenal that we have such a direct clinical as well as
measurable impact, um, to our customers, but then also to the patient's lives,
if that makes sense. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
I I just want to mention one thing you mentioned earlier,
and I think this is a very interesting aspect of it since, um,
I worked a little bit in radiology before, right? And,
and you asked about what are the challenges maybe, and I think one of the,
the challenges less so than in radiology, but nonetheless they still exist,
is that, um, sometimes, um,
the clinicians think that the AI tells them what to do and they see it as
a competitive, um, or challenging their expertise.
And that is certainly not how we think about it, as well as how we build the ai.
Um, it is really,
really interesting that dentists are actually overall pretty good in diagnosing
disease and the AI is, is really good in diagnosing disease.
But the main point is if you bring them together, Erica,
so the AI plus the dentists, then together,
they're significantly better than either of them alone.
And so we really always try to educate the market and try to educate our
customers that, uh, this is not about competitive. We are an assisting tool.
Um, you know,
the jurisdiction of what the treatment plan should be and what needs to be done,
not always lies with a clinician at the end,
but together they can be better and faster than alone.
Right. Absolutely. And I really appreciate how you outlined,
you know,
how the way that the AI features are addressing some of those issues like time
constraints or case acceptance rate and tying that to some of the,
the real outcomes that you're seeing. Uh,
I know that case acceptance is a huge issue, um, at dental practices.
And then I was really struck too by the patient engagement piece, you know,
being able to have that conversation with the patient about what the AI
is doing to assist with a diagnosis. And, you know,
anytime you get a patient more involved in their care and more educated on their
situation, it can only,
I'm sure that can also only lead to good things as well.
I mean, it goes absolutely Erica, and it, and it goes so far that,
funny enough, everyone in my company, um, you know, obviously we have,
we have dental insurance and, and,
and tons of dentists around our headquarter in Boston are using our ai.
And it actually goes so far that everyone in our,
in our company is now only going to dentists who are using AI because
they also appreciate this level of transparency, right?
So I I do believe that there will be, uh,
a world in the next two to three years where patients will actually request,
um, you know, to have their dentist using AI just as a, as a second opinion,
as a layer of transparency.
Yeah, I I can see that too. Absolutely.
So there are definitely clear benefits here that you've outlined.
And so I'm wondering if you can just give some advice to that dental
organization that hasn't yet adopted ai. Maybe they're on the fence,
maybe they're thinking about it. What would you say to them to get started?
What would you recommend first?
Yeah, , I think to get started, uh,
the best thing is what you reach out to me or our company at video health ai,
um, just simply to,
to get a little bit more in touch to understand how does this technology work?
How is it implemented?
What is the change management and processes for their clinicians to use it,
right? So just just to get educated or to get consulted, um, you know, by,
by my consulting team about what are best practices to implement a technology
such as this, right? I think the technology, honestly is,
is is really great for any dental clinician and in particular dental
chains. So we call them DSOs, right? Dental service organizations, um,
because besides the benefits we've just discussed right around, you know,
increasing treatment plan, increasing, uh, case acceptance and saving time,
um, if you have a small dental chain, uh, there's a fourth value add,
which means that you can standardize your clinical care.
So what I mean by that is if you're a dentist and you have five dental offices,
um, you know, as a, as a,
a self-made entrepreneur to say you can visit each day of the week,
you can visit one of these offices and you get to know them.
But if you become a dental chain over 10 locations and you have in each
location, you know, to dentists and for hygienists,
then all of a sudden you have over 50 clinicians and all of them have a
different, you know, clinical rigor or a different, um, sensitivity.
And so what we really have been seeing is that our video AI really
helps to introduce a standard of care in calibrating all these clinicians
together, which significantly helps the chief dental office that, and honestly,
to manage clinical care and quality programs.
And so I think it's really relevant for every dental clinician and in particular
for dental chains, uh, which have more than 10 locations now,
what, what should they think about, right? And, and maybe that's,
that's a good thing to think about it,
besides getting educated and reaching out and all that.
I think what's very important is number one, the implementation,
and then number two, the change management process. And so implementation,
um, is something which is really important. We, we spent significant,
um, years honestly, on implementing it as smooth into the workflow.
So we are now directly integrated or even embedded into the most of
the major practice management systems, which means that, you know,
insulation is less than 30 minutes, um,
for any office to onboard N O I. The second aspect of it is,
um, change management and onboarding. And there good and bad news,
they're good news, um,
in the sense that it's not that much of change management because
essentially, um,
how they would use the AI is they use it similar to every X reviewer
they're using right now, like a Dexus or a care stream, right?
That is an existing workflow. They are, um,
they are doing with every single patient who gets an x-ray today,
and we are just asking them to do the same thing, but now with video ai,
so they have the same x-rays, the same functionalities,
but now they have AI on it. At the same time though, we've seen that, um,
explaining to the clinicians how to use the AI and how to communicate with the
AI to the patient and so on is extremely valuable. And so that's why,
for instance, what we are doing is after we implemented it, which you know,
takes less than 30 minutes, but then we,
we only do in-person onboardings to train the entire stuff of the dental
practice of how to leverage the AI to the best of the possibilities.
And then the third aspect of it is that after one week, two weeks,
a month of them using the software, um,
we will provide results.
We will share with the clinical team on the ground how many findings have been
found by the AI and how many have been accepted, et cetera.
And that is a very interesting and very important point to close the change
management loop. So you explain why it's relevant,
but then also after a certain amount of time you share with everyone who fus
this new technology, what the impact of this new technology is.
And if you execute this really, really well, and I have an entire team, um,
you know, our customer success team, which is majorly uh, ex hygienists who,
who started joining us, um, if you do this really well, um,
then you successfully implemented AI and then you see all the benefits. Um,
but that is a very important part of it. And I think often,
to be honest with you, Erica, it's often, it's often overlooked a little bit.
Um, if you implement new technologies, um, you know,
they get sold and then no one uses them.
And so we try to really keep ourselves accountable to have our customers using
the technology every day, every time.
Yeah, absolutely. I,
I appreciate you touching on the change management piece because you know,
especially with staffing shortages,
we know it's important for the employees to feel supported as well,
and you know, and as if they're,
they have the buy-in as there, you know, um, so yeah, I,
I appreciate you touching on that. Absolutely. Um,
so I know you had already kind of alluded to where you see
AI and dental care going in the future.
You had mentioned that you're kind of anticipating patients might start to
actually request AI services during their dental visit.
But just as we close out here,
is there anything else that excites you looking to the future in this space and,
and what you might expect on the line?
Yeah, absolutely. Um, I mean, I think that in the next few years, and it,
it will go much faster than, than we thought it would go. Um,
I believe that AI supported diagnosis and treatment planning will
become the standard of care.
So I think in three years we will live in a world where you are going to your
clinician and you will have video AI supporting the clinician in the diagnosis
and treatment plan. Um, I also do believe that number two,
and, and we are starting to work on this already, is that AI will support,
uh,
clinicians as well as the rest of the staff in automating a lot of processes.
Let that be administrative tasks like writing into the practice management
system all the way to, for instance, claims processing, right? Like,
so for instance, if, if, uh, you know, Erica, you were there and,
and you propose to get a crown,
then this often needs to be sent for pre-authorization to your carrier and so
on. And I think AI will play a big role,
and I do believe we will live in a world in a not too distant future where
the AI supports in a diagnostic, the treatment planning,
but then also in these claims processing to enable this in real time.
So you can be in a dental office and the AI supports the clinicians
to say, okay, on tweet number nine, they need to be a crown. Um,
and we have verified this with your insurance carrier,
and they will approve the crown, and this is how you have to think about this.
And I think this will significantly improve the patient experience as well as
automate a lot of backend burden from a lot of dental chains as well as, uh,
dental clinicians. So I'm, I'm very, very excited about it.
And then the last piece of it is the long term, right? So short term,
medium term, and the long term consequences. And I,
I truly believe maybe also coming from Europe where you don't have such a big
divide between dentistry and healthcare. I believe that in the long term, um,
AI will enable medical, dental integration,
and we will live in a world where many patients are going to the dentist
for their regular checkups, cosmetic reasons and whatnot. Um,
but there are a lot of people in the United States who have undiagnosed and
unidentified, for instance, diabetes and hypertension.
And I do believe that with the amounts of big data we are collecting right now
that we will be in a, in a, in a,
in a place to be predicting which dental patients
might have diabetes or hypertension risks,
and then refer them out to the right primary care physician to identify these
significant health risks and systemic health risks much, much earlier.
And I think we will get to a place where dentistry and healthcare will be
much more joined together.
Mm, fascinating. I haven't yet heard that thought of, you know,
the integration of medical and dental care in the future with ai. And so that,
I really appreciate you sharing that and, and your future outlook.
It really feels like the possibilities are pretty endless,
and they'll probably be here sooner than we expect. So thank you again,
Florian for everything that you've shared today.
Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Wonderful. Well, thank you again to Florian,
and also we'd like to thank Vidia Health for sponsoring this episode today.
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