Welcome to Mastering the Business of Orthodontics
The American Association of Orthodontists and the Wharton School are delighted to welcome you the Mastering the Business of Orthodontics program. This eight-module online program offers a powerful learning experience for orthodontists, like you, who are looking to significantly grow their existing practices.
Productivity of Your Practice
Learn methods of practice level productivity and service optimization.
This modules content will give you a foundational knowledge of health care operations and methods of optimization. You’ll examine the provider-patient relationship and learn how a provider can improve performance measures for the patient by analyzing the different types of performance metrics such as patient-centric, operations, and financial measures. Through discussing the different types of inefficiencies such as waste, variability, and inflexibility, you’ll be able to optimize performance and service. You’ll also learn how to gauge patient flow by flow rate, flow time, and inventory, and be able to map processes using a flow diagram and a Gantt chart.
Following Professor Terwiesch’s lectures, Travis Beamish, Director of Operations at Corus Orthodontists, will provide a practical overview of patient flow, scheduling, and capacity management for orthodontists. By the end of this module, you’ll be better able to calculate the financial viability of a health care provider using Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and create a framework to assess and optimize performance.
CE earned in module 1: 2.25
Learning Objectives and Topics:
- Assess the provider-patient relationship to improve performance measures
- Evaluate the financial viability of a health care provider using Key Performance Indicators
- Determine the balance and flow for your practice
- Examine the methods of practice level productivity and capacity management
- Review treatment plan methods and service optimization
Christian Terwiesch
Wharton Professor
Andrew M. Heller Professor at the Wharton School Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions Professor of Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine Co-Director, Mack Institute of Innovation Management.
Practice Level Financial Management
Learn how to actively manage revenue and expenses to maximize profitability.
This modules content is designed to provide an overview of financial planning and budgeting. First, you’ll hear from Professor Mirko Heinle about short- and long-term planning for small enterprises. You’ll discuss the different kinds of cost and revenue structures, learn how to build a budget, and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to manage your progress and to adjust your finances accordingly.
Chris Bentson, Partner at Bentson Copple & Associates, LLC, will then apply these concepts to specific examples, such as which expenses to consider, within your orthodontic practice. By the end of this module, you will be better able to establish financial objectives within your practice and to measure your success in reaching these goals by assessing a variety of metrics.
CE earned in module 2: 1.75
Learning Objectives and Topics:
- Develop foundational understanding of financial planning and budgeting
- Identify the financial variables that impact your practice’s budget
- Manage revenue and expenses to maximize profitability for your practice
- Determine importance of major expense categories and your average budget allocations
- Assess the profit and loss statement for your practice
Financial Acumen and Practice Transition Planning
Understand key financial statements, EBITDA and practice transition options.
This modules content is designed to give you a foundational overview of financial statements and visibility into practice transition options. Professor Richard Lambert will help you identify and analyze balance sheet equations and its key components such as assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity. Through examining a sample real-world financial statement, you’ll learn how to calculate income, revenue, and expenses transactions, and see how the income statement is linked to changes in the balance sheet.
Then, Dan Wicker, CPA and Managing Partner at Cain Watters & Associates will do a deep dive on the key tools and practices for successfully managing the finances of your orthodontic practice. Then Dan Wicker and Chris Bentson will explore practice transition options.
CE earned in module 3: 2.25
Learning Objectives and Topics:
- Analyze balance sheet key components such as assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity
- Generate an accurate income statement for your organization
- Develop an understanding of cash flow statements and the difference between cash flow and tax estimate
- Examine EBITDA and practice transition options
*Contains general orthodontist compensation and practice valuation financial information.
Patient Focused Marketing Strategies
Learn how to build a strong patient-centric brand.
This modules content sees Professor Barbara Kahn introduce the foundational concepts in marketing strategy and brand positioning. Beyond marketing promotions, marketing and brand strategies in today’s business world require consideration of buyers’/sellers’ markets, customer segmentation, and brand mantras. To understand how best to position a brand, we need to explore the underlying mechanisms of brand positioning so that we may understand not only the cognitive associations with brands, but also the social, behavioral, emotional, and cultural associations.
Following these foundational videos, Dan Bills, DMD, MS elaborates on these concepts and applies to them directly to orthodontics and orthodontic marketing. Then Professor Ron Berman presents concepts and strategies for customer acquisition and retention using digital marketing. To conclude this module, Herb Hughes, DDS will utilize the patient journey and examine a variety of digital strategies including website, search, online reviews and social media to acquire customers and create loyal customers who market for you. By the end of this module, you will be able to identify basic marketing concepts, digital marketing strategies and relate them to your own practice.
CE earned in module 4: 2.75
Learning Objectives and Topics:
- Identify key concepts and strategies for successful marketing
- Explore the multifaceted customer branding experience
- Apply general marketing concepts to specific orthodontic practices
- Examine omnichannel opportunities for orthodontic marketing
- Craft an effective brand for your orthodontic practice
Building an Intentional Culture
Learn strategies to build an intentional culture in your practice.
This modules content will center around organizational culture: what it is, how it works, and the best ways to align it advantageously with your organizational goals. First, Professor Sigal Barsade will explore the critical reasons that organizational culture emerges, and the various layers that exist in analyzing what that culture looks and feels like from a cognitive and emotional perspective. You will see how a strong culture is derived from values and embraced and modeled by leadership. Dr. Cole Johnson, owner and operator of his independent practice, will then further exemplify the benefits of defining a strong culture in orthodontics. By the end of this module, you will learn how to analyze and evaluate an organizational culture.
CE earned in module 5: 2.25
Learning Objectives and Topics:
- Build a foundational understanding of organizational culture
- Identify tools to align culture with your organizational purpose and objectives
- Assess your office culture and ways to improve employee engagement
Inspiring Leadership Principles
Learn about leadership principles: and the best ways to align them advantageously with your organizational goals.
This modules content will center around organizational culture and leadership: what it is, how it works, and the best ways to align it advantageously with your organizational goals. Professor Nancy Rothbard and Dr. Brent Larson, Professor and Director of the Division of Orthodontics at the University of Minnesota will lead you in examining the issue of engaging employees at work. You will learn how to promote engagement at work through boosting energy and motivation, as well as removing distractions. By the end of this module, you will be well suited to examine your overall work environment to identify opportunities for engaging and motivating your workforce.
CE earned in module 6: 2
Learning Objectives and Topics:
- Identify vital leadership principles and practices
- Evaluate your work environment and ways to increase productivity and profitability
- Examine motivation and feedback and how it will drive behavior
Creating and Managing Your Team
Explore strategies for hiring and retaining the right employees for your practice.
This modules content focuses on effectively building, developing, and maintaining employees for your practice. Professor Matthew Bidwell will begin by helping you identify the key steps in hiring, acknowledging both successful strategies as well as the pitfalls which exist in the traditional hiring process. You will learn how to effectively utilize feedback to maintain positive working relationships with employees.
Tracy Moawad, Management Systems Consultant with Hummingbird Associates, will then further elaborate on methods for building and retaining effective teams for your orthodontic practice. You will also identify key practices in upholding HR compliance standards and expectations. By the end of this module, you will develop a holistic understanding of successful practice management and will know how to utilize the metrics, training, and resources at your disposal to build a strong employee base for your practice.
CE earned in module 7: 3
Learning Objectives and Topics:
- Construct hiring metrics based on effective evaluation research
- Strategize effective interview structures for hiring the right people for your practice
- Identify best practices for retaining new hires
- Determine methodology for giving and receiving employee feedback
- Assess lack of engagement in your employees and ways to fix it
Leading the Life you Want
Learn how to pursue a meaningful life through your own lens and improve your performance as a leader.
This modules content is designed to introduce you to the core principles of leadership from the point of view of the whole person, describe the 18 skills that bring these principles to life, and provide you with a self-assessment tool to determine your skills and establish a baseline for your development. As Professor Stew Friedman walks you through the case study of Tom Tierney, former CEO of Bain & Company and co-Founder of the Bridgespan Group, you’ll learn the skills of envisioning your legacy, weaving together the disparate strands of your life, and seeing new ways of doing things.
You’ll also learn exercises for developing each one of these skills and will work with Dr. Anil Idiculla, President of the Rocky Mountain Society of Orthodontists, to apply these concepts to your own experience as an orthodontist. By the end of this module, you’ll understand the leadership principles of being real, being whole, and being innovative, know the skills needed for improving your performance as a leader in all parts of life, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and learn exercises for building your capacity to envision your legacy, weave the disparate strands, and see new ways of doing things.
CE earned in module 8: 1.75
Learning Objectives and Topics:
- Identify the core principles of leadership from the point of view of the whole person
- Assess your leadership skills for improving performance in all parts of life
- Envision your legacy and generate ideas for moving toward it
- Discover how people in different parts of your life describe your unique strengths
- Map out creative ideas for achieving an important goal
