Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Medical Dental Integration, AI and Expanding Access to Care with Bill Piskorowski, DDS

Transcript

Medical Dental Integration, AI and Expanding Access to Care with Bill Piskorowski, DDS · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - Oral health is finally being recognized as part
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  - of whole person care. And at the same
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  - time, digital tools and AI are reshaping how
• 0:09
  - practices prevent disease, engage patients, and grow.
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  - DSOs are expanding. Independent
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  - practices are proving their staying power, and investment
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  - is accelerating across the sector.
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  - Dental leadership has never been more complicated
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  - or more consequential.
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  - Ecker's fifth annual future of dentistry roundtable brings
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  - together more than 250
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and 90 plus speakers for two days of
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  - sessions in Chicago, all built to help leaders
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  - benchmark their priorities,
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  - stress test their strategies, and walk away with
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  - a clearer picture of where this industry is
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  - heading and how to position for it. Join
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  - us September fourteenth and fifteenth in Chicago.
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  - Register on our events page at wwwbeckersdental.com
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  - by clicking on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - Hi, everyone. This is Ariana Porto Latin with
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  - the Becker's Dental and DSO review podcast.
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  - I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor
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  - Bill Piskorowski,
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  - the associate professor emeritus of clinical dentistry at
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  - the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and
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  - the CEO of ACES Health. Doctor Piskrowski, thank
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  - you so much for being here. It's a
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  - pleasure to have you on our podcast today.
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  - Thank you, Arana. It's a pleasure to be
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  - here. Yes.
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  - To start us off, can you introduce yourself
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  - for our listeners and just tell us a
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  - little bit about your background as well?
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  - Yes.
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  - I have a pretty, long term career in
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  - dentistry. I,
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  - was in private practice for twenty seven years
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  - and then
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  - migrated towards education
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  - and at in education
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  - for the last eighteen years.
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  - So I have a pretty storied career and
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  - in education.
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  - Started out as a part time clinician,
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  - teacher, and found up, managing
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  - programs that were called community based clinical education.
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  - And I had the
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  - opportunity to develop the
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  - external outreach sites for two schools,
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  - both at the University of Michigan and UCLA
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  - as assistant and associate deans.
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  - And presently, I am the CEO
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  - of Asus Health,
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  - which is a,
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  - academic clinic engaged solutions for health.
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  - And what our
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  - entity is to expand
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  - external rotations for other dental schools and to
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  - bring industry
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  - towards the academic environment because I've learned a
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  - lot
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  - from vendors in the last several years, and
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  - this is something that is very crucial for
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  - the longevity of both education
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  - and for,
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  - external sites.
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  - Alright. Thank you so much. It's great to
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  - hear about your extensive background here.
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  - First question for you here. What are some
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  - of the biggest issues that you're following in
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  - the dental industry this year?
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  - You know, there's there's always the big buzz
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  - around depending on who you speak to, but
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  - I'll speak both as a clinician, both as
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  - an academic, and
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  - access to care,
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  - especially for vulnerable populations, is is critical.
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  - Workforce development and maintenance
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  - is seems to be the buzzword, both in
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  - academia
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  - and in private practice and
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  - different oral health care delivery models.
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  - And then the new one that came up
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  - as of the last year or two is
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  - the cap on
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  - loans,
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  - for students
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  - that are entertaining
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  - a health care career.
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  - And right now,
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  - $50,000
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  - a year doesn't seem to be enough to
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  - cover it, which
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  - does put some challenges going forward.
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  - Yeah. I'd love to discuss the the loan
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  - cap a little bit more. Is that something
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  - that you're seeing a lot of students and
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  - professors talk about the University of Michigan?
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  - I see that happening across the board,
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  - not only at schools, but also
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  - in health care delivery models. They're trying to
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  - come up with innovative programs on how to
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  - offset some of those struggles, financial
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  - struggles that students are are,
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  - coming across because there are programs like the
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  - military and some, health service core,
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  - groups, but it has to be far broader
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  - than that to make this affordable for everyone.
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  - Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure that's gonna put
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  - a a much larger dent in the workforce
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  - shortages that we're already facing. So it'll be
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  - interesting to see what kind of programs come
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  - about to try to help students and current
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  - practitioners as well.
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  - I'm also curious. What are you most excited
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  - about when it comes to dentistry right now?
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  - And is there anything that's making you nervous
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  - besides the the loan caps and some of
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  - the other challenges you mentioned?
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  - Well, I'm excited. What I'm actually excited about
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  - is
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  - one of the biggest oral health care delivery
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  - models is the DSO.
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  - And with the leadership of Andrew Smith at
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  - ATSO,
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  - he has reached out to academic institutions and
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  - truly is trying to embrace and come up
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  - with solutions
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  - for,
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  - better participation,
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  - of the next generation of oral health care
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  - providers in all facets and actually
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  - access the care issues as well.
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  - What I'm most excited about is the integration
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  - of medical dental
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  - platforms,
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  - salivary diagnostics. I mean, as a dentist, we're
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  - at the forefront of of entertaining
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  - and seeing and diagnosing hypertension,
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  - die diabetes.
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  - So there's a lot that we could do.
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  - And I was fortunate enough to put together
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  - a program with a public health clinic in
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  - Flint, Michigan where we actually,
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  - rotated
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  - nurse practitioners and pharmacy students with our dental
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  - students at clinics, and we measured the patient
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  - outcomes. And it was a very,
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  - eye opening experience because we measured the activation
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  - and the quality of life of the patients.
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  - So you know what? This is something that
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  - with the next round of AI,
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  - it can absolutely help with the simple process
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  - of onboarding patients all the way through to
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  - finances
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  - to measuring those quality of life impact patient
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  - activations
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  - and to truly ask the question,
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  - how well does that patient actually
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  - understand their health at that moment in time?
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  - So AI is gonna be critical, but there
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  - are so many other things that can come
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  - about. But I'm really,
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  - embracing the new technologies.
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  - And, you know, we have to do that
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  - with,
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  - how do you say, great restraint as well
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  - to make sure that we're utilizing it correctly.
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  - Okay.
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  - It's interesting the the program that you mentioned.
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  - Can you tell me a little bit more
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  - about some of the outcomes that you saw
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  - as far as collaboration between the practitioners as
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  - well as the patient outcomes?
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  - Yeah. Absolutely. When we had the nurse practitioners,
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  - going with students,
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  - there were many, many things that the nurse
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  - practitioner could do in the dental setting, and
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  - then there's there are also things that,
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  - hygienist and dental students could do in the
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  - medical setting. And I have to tell you,
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  - once a a student dentist
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  - understands the medicine of dentistry, they become more
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  - confident.
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  - And when you start helping
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  - with the actual understanding of medical histories,
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  - then the the, provider becomes more comfortable in
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  - providing,
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  - dentistry to some of the most challenging cases
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  - out there.
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  - Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
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  - And how long has that program been going
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  - on? Well, it wasn't in two thousand thirteen.
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  - Okay. I left Michigan, so I I they
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  - do have a program to some extent. But,
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  - again, we had, as part of our rotation
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  - with students back in 2011
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  - through
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  - to to now, one of our oral health
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  - care delivery models that we rotated fourth year
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  - students and international students
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  - was in federally qualified health centers, tribal clinics,
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  - mobile platforms,
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  - private practices. And we even developed
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  - a philanthropic program called the Wolverine Patriot Program,
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  - which is now known today as the Victors
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  - for Veterans, where students actually manage the,
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  - platform for treating,
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  - disabled and homeless veterans.
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  - Oh, that's great. And was there anything that
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  - makes you nervous about the industry?
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  - Again,
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  - I'm very concerned about
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  - the finances for next students with the $200,000
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  - cap Mhmm. Because are we going to attract
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  - those people that want to go into underserved
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  - areas?
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  - And I will also say that
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  - we're heavily relying on a lot of AI,
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  - but AI can also
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  - mislead.
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  - And I just wanna make sure that we're
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  - using these new technologies wisely.
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  - Okay. How do you see it potentially,
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  - misleading,
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  - clinicians?
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  - Well, you know, there's always issues with over
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  - diagnostics,
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  - under diagnostics.
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  - What I like about AI, especially in the
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  - field of diagnostics, is
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  - it alerts the practitioner
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  - to what can be, and then the oral
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  - health care provider can actually then decide,
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  - is it real or not real?
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  - Where I love the fact of the AI
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  - is
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  - some of the an onboarding processes that I'm
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  - seeing to make,
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  - patients more engaged
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  - or continuing follow-up is critical.
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  - And, also, like I said, I really think
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  - that a lot of these larger oral health
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  - care organizations
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  - need to seriously
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  - look at the data about the patient experience,
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  - not not what how did the appointment go,
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  - but truly how did it affect the the
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  - patient activation.
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  - Are they truly understanding what's going on in
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  - their health? And I think with all the
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  - advent of medical, dental integration, this is going
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  - to actually help,
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  - patients in the future understand their well-being.
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  - Okay.
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  - And last question for you here. What will
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  - the most effective health care leaders need to
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  - be successful in the next two to three
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  - years?
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  - I believe that in order to be more
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  - successful going forward,
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  - it's all about the maintenance of
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  - the happiness of the provider and the patient,
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  - and that is going to be
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  - through diligent
• 9:38
  - culture at these organizations.
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  - So we really have to truly practice patient
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  - centric care
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  - and also attend to the well-being of our
• 9:47
  - providers.
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  - So making making these things more affordable to
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  - the providers,
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  - and so they're not, how do you say
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  - it,
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  - more at risk,
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  - financially that they can earn a comfortable living
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  - as well as provide necessary care without the
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  - burden excess burdens that is happening.
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  - And what is going on too is that
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  - a lot of dental schools right now
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  - are not solvent from their clinical care,
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  - So they pass on the cost to the
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  - students,
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  - and there are ways of engaging
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  - these platforms to make it more effective.
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  - I know that when I manage the community
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  - based clinical education program,
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  - at the University of Michigan, when the students
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  - were going out on three, four week rotations
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  - in the best year we had, we brought
• 10:35
  - in, substantial financial resources because we created a
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  - sustainable program
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  - that actually
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  - doubled and tripled the number of procedures that
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  - a student did prior to the involvement
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  - of community based clinical education.
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  - So blending our efforts with outside industry
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  - can, in fact, help and bring business to
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  - the dental school environment
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  - to lower the cost of dental education.
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  - And I think that is going to be
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  - huge to reach out to outside industry.
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  - And I I was one of the very
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  - first,
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  - academics to go into a DSO environment,
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  - and I was just blown away by everything
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  - that I learned about the systems and the
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  - technologies that could easily
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  - benefit dental schools.
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  - Super interesting. Thank you so much for for
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  - sharing a bit about that.
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  - That's all I have for you today, doctor
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  - Piskrowski. Thank you so much for joining us
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  - and sharing all this great insight. Been a
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  - pleasure speaking with you and looking forward to
• 11:30
  - connecting with you again in the future. Again,
• 11:32
  - thanks, Becker's Health and you, Ariana, for this
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  - opportunity, and look forward to talking with you
• 11:37
  - in the future. Thank you.