Hello. This is Arianna Portellatin with the Becker's Dental and DSO review podcast. I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor Marise Tanias, the chief dental officer at Affinity Dental Management. Doctor Tanias, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for having me. Yes. Definitely. To start us off, can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background? Well, as you already mentioned, my name is, doctor Maurice Tanios. I am the chief dental officer of Affinity Dental Management. Basically, my history in dentistry is that I am a general dentist. I went to NYU for dental school. I then did a GPR in, New York City. I practiced there for a few years, moved back to California, and, that's when I was introduced to quality management at Western Dental Services. I was there for about 6 years and then, moved on to West Coast Dental to be their dental director. I was there for about a year and a half before COVID hit, and, that's kind of where I was introduced to Affinity Dental Management, which is on the East Coast. And Affinity, they brought me on as a dental consultant. And then from there, my career just, grew. So I've been with the company now for about 4 years plus. That's 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 right now? Well, I think, you know, what comes to mind is really 3 issues, and, one of them is being financial issues. You know, the rising cost of supplies and labor, also insurance reimbursement issues, are definitely no match for our economic state of inflation. Another, important issue that I follow is the techno technological integration, within the dental world. So, you know, keeping up with the rapid advancements is extremely costly. It's definitely necessary, though, and implementation of the technology can be challenging if expectations are not set properly. The last issue, that I've really been following, and and I think it definitely affects not just the dental, field, but all fields is staffing and training. You know, shortages of skilled employees and recruitment and retention challenges, are definitely, you know, always there for us. Okay. Great. And I know you mentioned, technology earlier. Are there any particular pieces of technology that you're following right now? Yes. Oh my gosh. There are so many. Currently, Affinity is you know, we've been using AI Overjet AI for the last 3 years, and it's really been a game changer for us. One of the other technologies that we're we're bringing up or starting to implement is actually a platform called 32 Health. It's a credentialing platform. They definitely offer more than just credentialing, but it will help with some of the automations that we need to be more efficient and, you know, get our doctors onboarded, not just in our company, but with insurance companies as well. Okay. Great. And as far as staffing shortages, how have you seen, these workforce challenges affect Affinity Dental Management specifically? Well, you know, it takes a longer time to hire skilled employees. You know, once we we do get them on board, we definitely try to keep them, which is another challenge in itself. But I think, you know, working for Affinity has its you know, we definitely care for all of our employees when we do bring them on. But, shortages, you know, unfortunately, in the hygiene side, we have been leveraging other employees within the company to kind of move around to help with some of the shortages. But, you know, using some of the temporary employees might be helpful as well. They are more costly, but if that's what we have to do to keep, you know, business running smooth, then that's what we have to do. Okay. Yeah. And I know staffing shortages got a lot worse during the COVID 19 pandemic. Have you seen any of those issues improve even slightly, over the last couple of years, or is it has it kind of been the same as started? Yeah. No. I I definitely believe they've they've improved. I think it's the you know, I would say it's it's improved, but there's still lots of work to be done in that section. You know, shortages of skilled employees is where I would say is is the most challenging because, you know, we'll get an influx of of people applying, but are they skilled or have the necessary experience to provide the, you know, the either the dental treatment that we need or, you know, be, well versed in the dental world. So so that's something that we have to take on. And when we do hire, you know, if we do hire someone that doesn't have the skills, we definitely, spend time in training and and wanting to retain them as well. You know, there's always the challenge of if you train them and then they move on somewhere else and you lose that, that asset. But in in my opinion, you know, anyone who comes over to us, we do our best to train them up and get them, you know, skilled and and well versed in the dental field so that they can be successful. Okay. Thank you. Next question here. What are you most excited about when it comes to dentistry right now, and what makes you nervous? We definitely touched upon the technology aspect. That's really huge for me. That's something I'm very, very interested in. I'm extremely excited about, you know, 3 d printing. We haven't really implemented that yet in our in our practices, but it's coming soon. You know, digital workflow, being able to provide our, our doctors with, you know, technology that helps them become more efficient is extremely important. And, also, you know, AI such as Overjet, to me, that is the number 1, number 1 technology that we use every day in our practice from all aspects, you know, from our office managers to the doctors to the assistants to the corporate team who can, really look at the data that we get from this, platform. It's it's very powerful and transforming for our company. Other things, you know, that I also touched upon a little bit earlier was automation. So, like, phone systems, having, the ability to for patients to call in and getting their their phone call picked up and being able to set the schedule without having, you know, another person on the other line. It you know, again, it's it's something that I'm excited about. I think it solves a lot of issues that, I think, across the board, dental companies have. But, you know, automating our phone systems is important. Credentialing, you know, 32 Health, huge part of our transformation for our company. And then, obviously, from all of those platforms, we have all the data that we collect, and that's just really valuable to us in order for us to improve as a company. Was there anything that makes you nervous about the industry apart from maybe the staffing challenges you mentioned earlier? To be honest, you know, for me, in the way I look at life, which I look at my life and my career and and the dental world, and I look at it all the same. Okay? So I I don't have too many concerns. Really, you know, dentistry is a field that's always going to be in demand. It's ever changing and advancing, which is truly exciting. And so my philosophy about at least the dental world right now is, you know, do what's right for the patient, and everything will just fall into place. And that's honestly how I how I live my dental life, how I live my personal life. You know, do what's right, and everything just falls into place. Great. Last question here. What will the most effective health care leaders need to be successful in the next 2 to 3 years? I think this question is really important because, you know, for me as a as a leader, I have to do what's right, not just for the company, but mainly for our patients. So how can I get to high quality care? Well, first, it's about setting expectations within our organization and, communicating effectively to our team. Okay? The next thing I would say is adaptability and resilience in the face of rapid change. So, you know, like I mentioned, some of the challenges that we might be having, well, we need to be able to, figure out, ways to overcome those challenges and and definitely be adaptable, to our, you know, environment as it changes. You know, data analytics and and AI proficiency is extremely important for health care leaders to incorporate into their day to day workflows. And I have 2 more here. Ability to foster the, collaboration and and and build strong teams within your organization. So leveraging your team members, creating committees, you know, creating a really strong culture so that everyone is working together and becoming successful as one team, you know, one team moving forward in your organization. And the last but certainly not least is, ethical decision making and transparency. And and like I mentioned earlier, always do the right thing. So, you know, in the coming years, health care leaders will need to be highly adaptable, and embrace the technologies and focus on both clinical and business aspects to thrive. Because, you know, if we don't, it'll be very difficult to be successful. And I would just really say, you know, if we could just blend our traditional leadership skills with the new competencies and data analytics and AI and everything that that I had mentioned earlier, we can really help the team to build successful implementations of of everything that we're trying to do here. So, really, ultimately, to be able to to be an effective health care leader, you have to focus on the patient care and patient centered, treatment. Those were all really great responses. So thank you so much. Those were all the questions I had. Thank you once again for joining us, doctor Tanis. It's been a pleasure speaking with you, and I look forward to connecting with you again in the future. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me.