Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Dr. Kwane Watson, Founder and CEO of Kare Mobile Inc.

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Dr. Kwane Watson, Founder and CEO of Kare Mobile Inc. · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello. This is Cameron Cortejano with the Becker's
• 0:03
  Dental and DSO review podcast.
• 0:05
  Thrilled to be joined today by doctor Quan
• 0:07
  Watson, founder and CEO of Care Mobile.
• 0:11
  Doctor Watson, thank you so much for being
• 0:12
  here today. Thanks for having me.
• 0:15
  Awesome. For some of our listeners who may
• 0:18
  not be familiar, can you just share a
• 0:19
  little bit about your background and and what
• 0:21
  led you to StartCare Mobile?
• 0:24
  Yeah. So I've been a dentist now for
• 0:26
  twenty six years, graduated from the University of
• 0:29
  Kentucky in 1999.
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  I owned a couple of practices over that
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  period of time.
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  One practice was more of a working class
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  practice in West Louisville, but I also started
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  the de novo practice in 2007
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  in a more affluent side of
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  town. So those practices,
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  became the dental director for DentaQuest for the
• 0:51
  state of Kentucky.
• 0:52
  And, Care Mobile actually came from
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  the passion I have for serving
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  the working class
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  and providing services where others wouldn't.
• 1:02
  And I thought there's no better way to
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  do that but in a mobile modality. So
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  that's the background of care and a little
• 1:10
  bit about my experience as a dentist.
• 1:14
  Yeah. Thanks for filling in some of those
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  gaps there.
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  What what are some of the things you
• 1:18
  see in terms of access to dental care,
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  in those kind of more traditional models
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  that weren't being solved in particularly
• 1:29
  in some of those underserved
• 1:31
  communities that kinda led you to found Care
• 1:34
  Mobile and and have that that mobile on
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  the care,
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  on the go delivery.
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  Yeah. I think the biggest thing was when
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  I started working for DynaQuest and was managing
• 1:44
  their practices throughout the state
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  back in around 2016.
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  You know, I knew that access was a
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  challenge being that I was,
• 1:53
  practicing in West Louisville.
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  But it wasn't until I was going to
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  Far Western Kentucky, which was, like, two and
• 1:59
  a half hours away from Louisville
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  and running a practice there that I saw
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  just how desperate patients were to receive care.
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  And if,
• 2:08
  they couldn't get into the clinic that I
• 2:10
  was working in, they had to travel at
• 2:12
  least two and a half hours one way
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  to one of the universities to be seen,
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  where the weights were anywhere from,
• 2:19
  you know, three to four months. And if
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  you're in pain and you have to wait
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  three to four months and if you have
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  to drive two and a half hours one
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  way to find somebody to serve you, I
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  just didn't find that as an equitable solution.
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  So starting Care Mobile was the a way
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  for me to provide
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  equitable access to oral health care by bringing
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  mobile units to these communities where brick and
• 2:40
  mortar options weren't there.
• 2:43
  Yeah. Absolutely. That makes a ton of sense.
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  And and, obviously, mobile
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  is a very different approach
• 2:52
  to dental care delivery. How does that model
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  work? And and kinda can you just share
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  how it compares to some of those traditional
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  practices,
• 3:01
  from a a cost as well as scalability
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  standpoint?
• 3:05
  Yeah. Definitely. So our model is even more
• 3:07
  unique. I I I would say a lot
• 3:09
  of times that I didn't
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  create mobile dentistry. Mobile dentistry has been here
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  for a long time, but the way we
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  kinda do it is different.
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  All of our vans are single chair.
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  And so, basically, our assistants or our hygienist
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  and our doctor can drive one of the
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  vans
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  and quickly and easily easily,
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  have a three chair, four chair practice anywhere
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  or you can scale it down based on
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  volume
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  and work out of one chair and do
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  a higher,
• 3:38
  yielding procedure
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  out of one chair. So, what I love
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  about our model is the scalability
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  and the way that we can actually scale
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  up or scale down
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  our business based on the needs of the
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  patients on that particular day.
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  And so, you know, one of the things
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  that we do is utilize a lot of
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  technology
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  to
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  enhance the ability for us to, provide these
• 4:00
  services. Of course, we're we're partnered with,
• 4:03
  Dentures Ascend and Henry Sign One and their
• 4:05
  cloud based platform helps us,
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  be able to identify,
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  our productivity
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  prior to us going out,
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  review our x rays and things of that
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  nature virtually
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  because it's in the cloud,
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  and actually just,
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  be more profitable because we utilize all the
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  functionality of the tool
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  to enhance the
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  daily production goals that we have to set
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  in order to be able to afford to
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  do the services that we render.
• 4:34
  Yeah. That's
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  super interesting just in terms of, like, the
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  scalability, how you can do the one share
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  if you want, but if you have some
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  higher volume, you could you can bump it
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  up to a couple. You touched a little
• 4:46
  bit on on technology. How
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  does tech,
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  teledentistry
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  integrated systems,
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  how do all those
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  play
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  in in making this model viable and efficient?
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  It's essential to our workflow.
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  So it's critically important that we utilize all
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  of our
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  clinical team at the
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  their their most optimum,
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  position. So, like, Kentucky is one of the
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  states that allows general supervision hygiene. So our
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  hygienist can do a lot of the,
• 5:20
  initial assessments
• 5:21
  of the patients,
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  prevention,
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  pre authorizations
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  for SRPs if necessary,
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  synchronous or asynchronous tele dentistry,
• 5:32
  scanning patients. So you having them do those
• 5:35
  things
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  makes the time when the doctor goes out
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  and provide services a lot more efficient
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  because some of the initial paperwork and due
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  diligence has already been done for the patients.
• 5:47
  Yeah. Definitely. How would I guess you compare
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  it to your experiences
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  in, like, brick and mortar practices just in
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  terms of the efficiency and the use of
• 5:57
  technology?
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  I believe, mobile requires more technology and more
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  efficiency.
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  Because as as we mentioned, it's the that
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  you have so many variables,
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  that you have to consider. Like, a lot
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  of our doctors don't actually live in the
• 6:11
  communities that they serve. So we have the
• 6:14
  so we have to factor right in in
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  their compensation.
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  Is this worth them driving two hours to
• 6:19
  this remote location to serve this community on
• 6:22
  that particularly given day? And so, therefore, it's
• 6:25
  critically important that before they go out there,
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  all the necessary pre authorizations
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  and all the initial diagnostic work is completed
• 6:34
  for the patient prior to that appointment
• 6:36
  because it's not,
• 6:38
  enough revenue potential for that doctor to be
• 6:41
  in that community,
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  seeing the patient for the first time and
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  trying to figure out what they need to
• 6:46
  do.
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  Our goal is to know exactly what we
• 6:49
  plan to do on those patients. And if
• 6:51
  the patient is,
• 6:53
  someone that our doctors can't serve,
• 6:55
  assist that patient in finding the appropriate place
• 6:58
  for them to go
• 6:59
  so they can get the services that they
• 7:01
  need rendered by somebody that's more suitable or
• 7:03
  capable of providing that service.
• 7:05
  Yeah. That makes a ton of sense.
• 7:08
  And then as as dentistry and the dental
• 7:12
  industry continues to just evolve,
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  where do you see models like yours with
• 7:17
  Care Mobile
• 7:18
  kind of fitting into the future of dental
• 7:21
  care and and how patients are able to
• 7:23
  receive dental services?
• 7:25
  I think it's essential. You know, we know
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  that,
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  a third of the population is underserved.
• 7:32
  And, you know, the cost of
• 7:35
  putting a brick and mortar practice up in
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  some of these
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  remote locations just isn't feasible because you're not
• 7:41
  gonna be able to find the providers just
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  to be in those areas
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  or live in those areas a lot of
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  times. So having a mobile
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  option in utilizing
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  our hygienist and,
• 7:51
  dental therapists
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  or if necessary, even our assistants to do
• 7:55
  certain tasks that are in that community is
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  the only way that we can truly provide
• 7:59
  equitable,
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  access to everybody.
• 8:03
  Yeah. Absolutely. That makes a ton of sense
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  to me.
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  And then just just to close this out
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  here, I just wanna get your thoughts on
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  something that you're you're excited or optimistic about
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  for the future of dentistry, whether that's related
• 8:18
  to mobile care or teledentistry or or really
• 8:20
  anything in the industry.
• 8:23
  Yeah. So what I'm most excited about is
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  that we're in the process of creating a
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  new
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  iteration of our business by combining brick and
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  mortar and mobile,
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  the single term mobile van model with a
• 8:36
  brick and mortar,
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  in particular markets. And what this will do
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  is increase our number of, providers that will
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  be able to fractionally get on the vans
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  and and provide services in that modality or,
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  still do the traditional brick and mortar, but
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  mesh the technology that we use on the
• 8:57
  vans into the practices.
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  It's always interesting to me when I go
• 9:01
  into some of these practices how they haven't
• 9:04
  advanced with technology as much as we have
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  in the mobile,
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  modality because we had to.
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  So being able to push the envelope and
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  utilize some of the tools we use in
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  the mobile
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  capacity in the brick and mortar practices and
• 9:17
  more of a hybrid model is It's something
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  I'm super excited for going into 2026 and
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  beyond.
• 9:23
  Awesome. Yeah. I think
• 9:25
  the the mortar
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  brick and mortar practices really could
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  even
• 9:31
  adopt technology even further.
• 9:33
  So super cool and looking forward to kinda
• 9:36
  seeing how that goes.
• 9:38
  Well, I wanna thank you for joining us
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  today, doctor Watson, and sharing your valuable expertise
• 9:44
  and and insights.
• 9:45
  Been a pleasure speaking with you, and I
• 9:47
  look forward to connecting with you again in
• 9:49
  the future.
• 9:50
  Likewise. Thank you for the opportunity.
• 9:53
  Awesome. Thank you so much. Have a good
• 9:54
  one. Alright. Bye.