At athenahealth,
we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier, a
healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier patients.
But the complexities of modern health care tech
make it hard for you and your care
teams to focus on what matters
most? That's where athenahealth can help. Our AI
native all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,
streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
when clinicians need it most. That means fewer
clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom
lines.
Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
See how simpler is healthier@athenahealth.com.
Hello. This is Francesca Matthews with the Becker's
ASC review podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor
Brian Nuonunu,
an orthopedic surgeon at Texas Joint Institute. Brian,
thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you. Thank
you. Alright.
To start off, could you please introduce yourself
and tell us a little bit about your
background? Yes. Of course.
So my name is doctor Brian Wanunu.
I'm an orthopedic surgeon right now practicing in,
the North Texas area, so just North Of
Dallas in McKinney and Allen.
I am from Dallas, Texas, or I was
raised here, came, came when I was very
young. I was about one year old or
so.
Went to college in, Atlanta, Georgia, Morehouse College.
I then attended Georgetown University for my master's
in, physiology.
Stayed in Washington, DC, and went to Howard
University College of Medicine for medical school.
Came back to Texas for my five year
residency in Fort Worth, and then I went
and did a one year extra fellowship training
in adult reconstruction or hip and knee replacements
down in Houston at Baylor College of Medicine.
And now I'm back in Dallas practicing as
a orthopedic surgeon.
Excellent. Thank you for the background there. Yeah.
Next question here is, what are the top
three trends you're following in health care and
ASCs today?
So I I have been very, very, very
closely watching the trends and seeing where the
trajectory of our of our career is going
right now.
And I think the top three things that
I see
currently are
pretty much the rise of smart surgery.
That's things that are, like, data driven decision
making,
as artificial intelligence,
as machine learning. They're really reshaping, like, the
perioperative planning. They're helping us to predict analytics
on how to anticipate complications,
personalized post op rehab, and even optimize, like,
implant selections. I personally use that as far
as on my robotic side of hip and
knee replacements
by getting CAT scans and really planning out
the patient's surgery even before we even make
any cuts.
Essentially, we're moving from experience based now to
data enhanced, and it's helping young surgeons like
myself and everyone else kinda come together on
an equal playing field.
In addition to the smart surgery rise, I've
also seen outpatient orthopedic surgery.
I think a lot of this was driven
by COVID, of course.
During the COVID nineteen,
no hospitals were taking on patients because of
the overwhelming patients that were in the inpatient,
areas.
And so if you wanted your surgery done,
most people have need to do it on
an outpatient basis or go home.
When they started doing that, most patients found
out that they were doing great at home,
and they didn't need to stay one, two,
three days or so.
And now
ASCs are handling cases pretty much completely outpatient,
which were once unthinkable at the in the
hospital setting. So things from total joint replacements
like myself, spine surgery, even complex reconstructions
are done on an outpatient basis. And thanks
advances in anesthesia,
minimally invasive techniques,
same day recovery protocols,
perioperative pain,
protocols,
we're experiencing improved outcomes and patient satisfaction as
they're able to go home.
Additionally,
I like the digital continuity of care that
I'm seeing.
This comes in,
many forms, but some of them can be
like smartwatches or even those implantable devices that
I've used in my implants
that will tell us what's going on with
the patient, how many steps they're taking, how
they're moving, if they're going to therapy, or
even let us know if there's a rise
in temperature, support prewarn us if there's a
concern for infection or so. And that integration
between remote monitoring, wearable sensors,
virtual physical therapy is close is closing the
loop between surgery and recovery, and patients aren't
just disappearing after discharge.
They're, like, streaming real time data that helps
us to track their healing, flag complications,
and fine tune recovery in ways that, weren't
possible before.
Mhmm. Absolutely. That definitely echoes some of the
conversations I'm I'm having over here at, at
Becker's as far as just what's evolving in
the space.
You know, we talked about you mentioned a
lot of things, but what are you most
excited about right now?
Honestly,
I'm most excited
about how technology is, like, humanizing orthopedic care.
You know, we used to think of, like,
everyone gets one size that fits all. Now
things are so patient,
promoted or so patient centered that, I mean,
the specifics down to the implant sizes, their
balancing,
even if they have allergies, you know, are
taken into consideration.
And and we used to think that just
tech meant just replacing touch
points. Now it's like amplifying them. And, again,
whether it's using AI to preplan a perfect
implant or leveraging, like, augmented reality, I've seen
these AR
goggles that are really great during surgery. But
these innovations just kinda help focus on what
matters the most, and that's connecting with the
patient directly.
On a lighter note as well, I'm genuinely
excited about the smart OR. Like, we're moving
towards operating rooms that learn from every case,
capture analytics in real time, and even, not
to scare anyone, even operate on their own.
And I've seen a couple of these these,
robots that literally
the surgeon is in the room, but it's
hands off, and they're doing the whole surgery.
So not quite there yet, but I'm excited
to see where that goes in the future.
No. Yeah. Absolutely.
I really like what you said there about,
you know, not replacing touch points, kind of
amplifying them and enhancing
enhancing that. So, yeah, definitely super interesting.
And how are you and your your organization
thinking about growth over the next twelve months?
Well, to me, growth isn't all just about
numbers.
Of course, I want to be busier. I
want to be able to provide care to
more patients. I don't I want to perform
more surgeries. Of course, I do. But it's
not just about numbers. It's about scaling excellence.
And for me, over the next year, I'm
focused on pretty much three pillars.
I want tech enabled expansion, so I wanna
leverage digital platforms for patient engagement,
pre op optimization,
telehab, and expand access beyond just the physical
walls. I also want data driven quality. I
want building performance
dashboards
that translate surgical metrics and outcomes into actionable
insights.
This will ensure that every new ASC that
we open delivers consistent evidence based care. And
thirdly, I want kinda collaborative innovation. You know?
I wanna be able to partner with device
companies, startups,
I mean, AI, of course, and developers to
pilot new technologies that improve efficient outcomes.
Growth when it comes with surgeons, technologies, and
administrators together can make the patients do wonderful.
Absolutely.
And that is actually all I have for
you today, Brian. Okay. Unless there's anything else
you wanted to to leave us with.
Well, you know,
I'll just say that again, just just piggybacking
off of what we just spoke about. You
know? I I see growth as not just
doing more surgeries,
but as doing smarter surgeries
for more people with better outcomes.
I really wanna get to the point to
where, you know, every surgeon
with every patient is completely happy and completely
successful, and we limit anything that could make
patients worse than they were before.
Absolutely.
Yeah. And, again, definitely just resonates with with
the conversations we're having here every day.
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. Excellent. Excellent. Thank you so
much.
At athena Health, we know your ambulatory practice
wants healthier,
a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
patients.
But the complexities of modern health care tech
make it hard for you and your care
teams to focus on what matters most. That's
where athenahealth can help. Our AI native all
in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,
streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
when clinicians need it most.
That means fewer clicks, more time for patients,
and stronger
bottom lines. Practicing medicine is complex, but running
a practice can be that much simpler with
athenahealth.
See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.