{"id":12922,"date":"2024-08-27T16:01:55","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T23:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/?post_type=resources&#038;p=11535"},"modified":"2025-01-07T15:31:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T23:31:37","slug":"douglas-brown-and-kentucky-morrow-on-driving-innovation-in-dentistry","status":"publish","type":"resources","link":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/resources\/douglas-brown-and-kentucky-morrow-on-driving-innovation-in-dentistry\/","title":{"rendered":"Douglas Brown and Kentucky Morrow on Driving Innovation in Dentistry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this episode of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YIJZcB50XG4&amp;list=PL8sPE8UqEy5i-ReuTOqL_BFzw0VAOucuT&amp;index=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Dental Economist Show<\/a>, host CRO Mike Huffaker of Planet DDS sits down with Douglas Brown, the co-founder and managing partner of Dental Innovation Alliance (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dialliance.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DIA<\/a>), and Kentucky Morrow, the principal of investments at DIA, to discuss innovation in dentistry. Join them as they discuss the growth and potential of the dental industry, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/blog\/dso-technology-dykema-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">impact of technology<\/a> on dental businesses, and their unique investment approach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Join them as they discuss:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Investing in and advising early-stage dental technology companies<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The role of technology in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/resource-library\/embracing-change-and-innovation-in-dentistry-a-conversation-with-melissa-turner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">driving innovation<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The value of hands-on experience in dental businesses\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/resource-library\/artificial-intelligence-in-dentistry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AI<\/a> in dentistry\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And much more!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YIJZcB50XG4?si=0qzpbBebEhaL_mX5\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>About Our Guests<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Douglas Brown<\/strong> is the co-founder and managing partner at Dental Innovation Alliance (DIA), a strategic investment firm focused on supporting early-stage dental and health technology companies. In the 1990s, Douglas organized several dental industry leaders into a group practice study group, which led to the formation of the Association of Dental Support Organizations (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theadso.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ADSO<\/a>). He has held leadership positions within ADSO, including president and chair of the Government Affairs Committee. He currently serves on ADSO&#8217;s executive committee and other key committees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Kentucky Morrow<\/strong> is the principal of investments at DIA. He is also a board member of several organizations and companies, including Alta Smiles, Cloud Dentistry, and Milk &amp; Bull.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Episode Highlights<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Find out how patient-centered innovation is shaping the next wave of dental care with key points highlighted in this episode:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Areas of dental investment<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kentucky Morrow explains that DIA\u2019s investment in the dental sector centers on three key areas: expanding access to care, improving care outcomes, or improving practice-level efficiency. DIA considers a wide range of investments, including software companies, device companies, and even consumer companies if there is an angle where they can be incorporated into the dental practice. Kentucky says that they \u201ctend to shy away from\u201d dental support organizations, clinics, and dental laboratories. Instead, they look for technologies and innovations that can be used by clinicians and practices to improve their operations and care outcomes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>AI and dental technology <\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Morrow says that, while AI is a significant trend within the dental technology space, it is not always necessary. For instance, DIA has invested in a company called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uptimehealth.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Uptime Health<\/a>, which does equipment maintenance and compliance tracking. Ultimately, what DIA looks for when they evaluate companies is their value\u2014what problems they are solving. Kentucky stresses that incorporating AI is useless if it\u2019s just for the sake of it. He adds that DIA have invested in AI technologies, but emphasizes that it is not a requirement for investment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>The investment \u201csweet spot\u201d <\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Douglas Brown estimates that 90% of their investments are focused on the seed to Series A stages since this \u201csweet spot\u201d is where DIA feels they can add most value. However, they are also open to investing in a small number of \u201creally early stage companies.\u201d Douglas notes that these companies would still be beyond a concept and into some development. What\u2019s more, while their main focus is on early stage investments, Douglas says they will occasionally invest in growth-stage companies if there are favorable terms, a growth rate that will continue to go into the future, or opportunities to leverage their network to add value.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Revenue cycle management technologies<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brown says that DIA is prioritizing finding new revenue cycle management (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/resource-library\/solving-rcm-challenge-for-dental-practices-dsos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RCM<\/a>) technologies. This is due to its growing complexity involved with revenue cycle management, with the variety of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/blog\/score-3-key-wins-with-patient-membership-plans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">insurance plans<\/a>, the difficulty in getting insurance verified, and getting claims processed and money collected. Although there have been some advances, Douglas says that the whole chain of revenue cycle management has yet to be tackled. However, he still believes a comprehensive solution will emerge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode of The Dental Economist Show, host CRO Mike Huffaker of Planet DDS sits down with Douglas Brown, the co-founder and managing partner of Dental Innovation Alliance (DIA),&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11536,"template":"","categories":[562,8,1427,128,201,88,146,1412,1417],"tags":[1449,13,43,57,147,1217,152],"resource_type":[1336],"class_list":["post-12922","resources","type-resources","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-dental-cloud-technology","category-dental-service-organization","category-dso","category-insurance","category-planet-dds","category-practice-management","category-rcm","category-technology","tag-dental-investment","tag-dentistry","tag-dso","tag-planet-dds","tag-practice-management","tag-rcm","tag-technology","resource_type-podcast"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resources\/12922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resources"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/resources"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12922"},{"taxonomy":"resource_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetdds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_type?post=12922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}