This is Alan Condon with the Beckers Podcast,
and I'm delighted to be joined today by
doctor George Ozude, an orthopedic surgeon at Movement
Orthopedic Institute
in Texas.
And, doctor Ozude, a pleasure to have you
on the podcast with us today. And before
we dive into our discussion, could you take
a moment to give us a little bit
more insight into your background and your practice?
Sure. Absolutely. So I'm a orthopedic surgeon with
the Sports Medicine Fellowship Training.
I've been practicing
here in Houston since 2014.
I did my medical school at the University
of Illinois in Chicago,
and I did my residency there as well.
Finished out my last year of training and
fellowship down here in the medical center in
Houston
at the Baylor College of Medicine and the
University of Texas.
I actually
had initially started my practice as an employed
practice
in with UT, the same place I did
my fellowship.
And I did that for about 7 years,
and then I went on to start my
own private practice.
And it's been about 3 years since I
opened, and it's a direct pay orthopedic surgical
practice.
Meaning, we take no direct contracts with insurances.
We directly contract with either patients
and or with their employers for the physician
fee.
And sometimes we also have hybrid patients who
wanna use their insurance, so they use it
for their facility fees or any other ancillaries.
But all physician fees are directly contracted.
Gotcha. Really interesting. So so 3 years since
you opened your own practice,
no doubt, look, going into your 4th year
now, when you look ahead into
2025,
can you give us a little bit of
insight into
the biggest headwinds, challenges that you're planning and
preparing for?
Yeah. Absolutely. And as you can imagine with
my niche model,
there's very particular unique headwinds
that I face. You know, it's not a
very common model. A lot of patients and
employers aren't used to it. It takes a
lot of educating actually on the front end,
for folks who are not aware of this
model. But it is a growing model, especially
with
the challenges that the entire medical landscape is
facing with
higher costs of health care,
more,
complexities
and actually delivering care both in terms of
access and in terms of quality.
And so I believe those headwinds actually
spell some tailwinds for me,
you know, because there will be higher influx
and and demand for this type of model
where we,
you know, just have a more, predictable
accessibility
as well as costs.
We lower cost through this model.
But on the headwind side,
you know, it's so new that it does
require a lot of educating and marketing.
And one big area where I need to
market
is to
large
and midsize employers,
specifically
the HR and benefits
offices of these,
these type of companies.
Sometimes it's even necessary to get in front
of the CFO or the c CEO
in order to explain the model and its
benefits.
Those are the biggest headwinds for me over
the past 3 years, and I continue to
see that being headwinds just because it's not
a common model.
You know, there's ecosystems that are growing around
this model. We still have a ways to
go,
but it's definitely headed in the right direction.
And so,
just putting on my marketing hat where I
didn't have to worry about that in my
prior practice. But putting on my marketing hat
and getting the word out is the big
obstacle for me.
Right. So really boils down to, like you
said, a lot of patient education
and marketing to some of those large mid
side employers like you had mentioned.
I'm curious,
such a niche model, no doubt unique in
some of its challenges, but also some of
its benefits as well. I'm wondering if you
could take me back to 3 years ago
when you were deciding to start your own
practice. How did you land on this model?
I'd love to hear a little bit more
about your thinking there.
For sure. You know, I I had no
clue about, you know, this model, let alone
this model, but just the business side of
medicine when I first finished training. And so
within the 1st 2 to 3 years, you
start to kind of see, you know, how
the sausage is made in the factory. Right?
So to speak. And that's what started leading
me to see the writing on the wall
and where things were headed. That spurred me
to try to look for alternate routes of
of delivering care, of, you know, keeping my
my own physician autonomy.
You know, and I, really came across this
model
through Keith Smith, doctor Keith Smith at the
Surgery Center of Oklahoma.
He's been doing this with his surgery center
for 25 plus years. It's the first that
I heard of it and, it really made
sense to me. It was clear. It was
simple. That's probably the biggest thing. This model
simplifies,
you know, the the care delivery,
challenges that we see in medicine.
And so that was around,
my 3rd or 4th year of of practice.
And, you know, I I always thought if
I really wanted to obtain and maintain my
autonomy, I would probably have to do something
like this.
That gave me the idea.
Investing outside of, medicine gave me kind of
the
the,
soft landing,
so to speak, to, to, kinda go out
there and take a risk and try this
model.
And so
it really is just a a patient physician
relationship driven
type of endeavor. You know?
Just really trying to eliminate as many middlemen
that get between that relationship as possible.
That's where this all comes from.
Gotcha. So really, it's so so important to
you obviously to maintain that autonomy in this
few few years in your early practice
going out here. I'm curious, could you where
do you see the biggest opportunities for growth
for you and your practice when you look
ahead the next 2 or 3 years?
So I think the biggest opportunity is in
in marketing.
I think,
getting the word out is
is, you know, really key,
because there are gonna be pressures to find
alternate
routes for for health care. And so I
think we really need to capitalize on that
energy that's gonna seek out quality,
cost control,
access,
you know, really,
taking advantage of of that
movement,
so to speak.
And so, yeah, that's where I see the
biggest opportunity of growth, leveraging
technology.
You know, I know there's big push with
with,
artificial intelligence, but really just leveraging marketing technology,
you know, using the power
of the Internet and social media to spread
the word. I think that's going to be
the avenues of greatest growth.
Yeah. I'm curious to hear a little bit
more about that. Is it kind of you
know, surgeons the next generations of surgeons coming
out of residencies and fellowships and whatnot who
are looking to go down the same avenue
as you and start their own practice? Is
that something that surgeons now in in this
day and age are taking more advantage
of in terms of exploring social media avenues,
remarketing marketing in new ways that surgeons, maybe
the last generation, might might not have had,
a lot of experience with?
Yeah. You know, on aggregate, I still think
we're at a time where the majority
of
new grads are are going into employed practice,
and younger practicing docs are kind of getting
swept into employed practice.
I think the awareness is is what's changing,
and I think that's already in the
at the level of training from medical school
and residency.
And so may it may be a few
more years before we actually start to see
that
that effect take take hold in the actual
practice models.
But I do think that it's it is
coming. You know, back when I was training
20 years ago,
you know,
I was nowhere near as
as business savvy,
as,
just whole or well rounded
as some of the trainees today.
And I was not aware of some of
these
underlying trends that really impact medicine that just
go beyond the clinical
aspect
of our day to day.
And so I do think right now at
this moment, though, these trainees that are coming
out now, they're aware. They know kind of
they know,
very well the problems that are that are
within the medical landscape. And I think they're
they're because of that reason, they're open to
these other models. And it's just a matter
of proof of concept,
you know, just the
the fact that more and more folks are
doing it,
and like I said, social media allows that
to be put on a platform and and
displayed.
I think that will allow them to have
more confidence to go out and do it.
It may take a few years, but I
think it's coming.
Yeah. Yeah. Fascinating to get your perspective there.
I guess, last question that I'd love to
hear from you on. I think, obviously, specializing
in sports medicine. But when you think about,
the orthopedics field more broadly,
how do you see it evolving over the
next coming years, either from a clinical standpoint,
surgical technologies? What are you paying close attention
to?
So I am paying close attention to
the separation that's happening from orthopedics,
with the rest of medicine. And that's very
likely happening in other specialties too.
I think it's represented by the drive and
push for more,
cases to be done outside of the hospital.
So in that sense, where the care is
being delivered, I think, is getting separated from
that more legacy model where it was just
one big hospital where everything was done.
I think you're gonna you're gonna see the
increase of more and more specialty specialty ASCs,
you know, and and that can be down
to the level of orthopedics,
and and even subspecialties within orthopedics where you
have just the arthroplasty,
you know, designated ASC or outpatient arthroscopy,
dedicated ASC. I think that's coming. I think
that makes sense for overall quality
and patient experience.
With the direct care model, I think that
is the best way to do that model
where you limit the amount of middlemen. You
have to run a lean,
outfit.
And so, obviously, I'm biased. Right? Because I've
been in this space for 3 years, but
I don't think in anywhere
in medicine is it more represented
to or more needed to have a very
strict business minded, business focused,
run practice. And I think that happens best
with the direct care model,
limiting the middlemen.
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it's fascinating to have
you make your debut appearance on the Becker's
podcast, hear a little bit more about that
unique direct care model at the Movement Orthopedic
Institute.
Doctor Dzune, I'd love to take things back
up for you maybe later on next year
to hear a little bit more about, your
growth, your growth trajectory there. But thank you
so much for taking time to be on
The Becker's Podcast with us today. Sure. Thanks
for having me.