The Business of a Clinic (BOAC)

Jared Aron
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The Business of a Clinic (BOAC) is a podcast for private healthcare leaders who want to run not just a great clinic, but a great business. Each episode explores the overlooked commercial side of healthcare — how to grow revenue, improve patient retention, fill empty calendars, and build high-performing front-office teams. Hosted by the team at Coherent and led by founder Jared Aaron, we sit down weekly with clinic owners, practice managers, and industry experts to unpack the real challenges behind no-shows, cancellations, and disengaged patients, and share practical frameworks and playbooks that any clinic can apply. If you’re a private healthcare operator such as dentist, aesthetic practitioner, chiropractor, physio, or private GP looking to bridge the gap between excellent care and effective business operations, this is your roadmap to running a clinic that thrives — for your patients, your staff, and your bottom line. The show is hosted by Coherent: Coherent Healthcare is a Clinic Revenue Winback company, helping private healthcare practices unlock hidden revenue. By rebooking no-shows, cancellations, and lapsed patients — and by simplifying how clinics collect payments — Coherent enables practitioners to fill their diaries, improve cashflow, and focus more on patient care.

  1. 1d ago

    The Next AI Advantage in Healthcare Starts With Clean Data | Pablo Perea at GoHub Ventures, BOAC #60

    What does healthcare AI look like 12, 24 or 36 months before it reaches the mainstream? Pablo, partner at GoHub Ventures, joins Jared to explain how an early-stage investor thinks about the next generation of digital health companies. GoHub is investing around six to ten companies a year, and Pablo says roughly 80% of the fund is set to focus on digital health. But more AI does not necessarily mean better healthcare technology. Pablo explains why many horizontal AI products look increasingly similar, why highly vertical solutions can become difficult to scale, and why he believes AI-enabled services could offer a more compelling model for private healthcare: using AI for leverage while developing enough depth to understand how the clinic actually operates. They also explore the infrastructure underneath successful AI adoption. A clinic can connect a tool to its systems quickly, but if its data, workflows and operating procedures are not ready, the promised efficiency can disappear into hidden implementation and verification costs. The conversation then turns to how investors make decisions. Pablo shares how GoHub uses customer conversations, technical advisers, pattern recognition and market signals to form conviction, and why investing at pre-seed often means evaluating the people behind a company before there is enough technology to evaluate. Finally, they look ahead to the next 12 months: data readiness, operational efficiency and patient-facing workflows are areas Pablo expects to keep accelerating, while clinical applications will continue to move at different speeds depending on regulation and the underlying medical problem. A conversation about healthcare AI after the hype: what has defensibility, what creates real value inside a clinic, and what investors believe is coming next.

  2. 3d ago

    He Went From Vet Hospitals to Running a 130-Office Dental Group | Dave Gaspar, BOAC #59

    In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Jared speaks with Dave Gaspar, CEO of SmilePartners, a dental support organisation with 130 offices across seven states. Dave’s career has taken him across two different but surprisingly connected areas of healthcare: veterinary hospitals and dental clinics. Before becoming CEO of SmilePartners, he worked at Banfield Pet Hospital, then Pacific Dental Services, before moving from COO to CEO at SmilePartners. That journey gave Dave a deeply operational view of what makes clinics work. He has spent time in the field, inside practices, alongside clinicians, front office teams, dental assistants, veterinarians, and dentists. His perspective is that successful retail healthcare is not necessarily complicated, but it is hard. Clinics need providers, patients, care delivery, and payment. The challenge is that human beings sit inside every part of that system. Jared and Dave discuss the similarities and differences between veterinary medicine and dentistry, including patient communication, insurance, payment, emotional decision-making, treatment acceptance, and the role of empathy. Dave explains why veterinary medicine taught him so much about trust, especially because the patient cannot speak for themselves and the family has to make decisions on their behalf. They also explore what it means to scale a dental group without losing touch with the frontline. Dave shares why he believes leaders need to spend time in the operatory, understand how dentists think, learn the insurance side of the business, and stay close to the clinical and non-clinical realities that shape the patient experience. The conversation also covers hiring and onboarding dentists, moving from COO to CEO, reducing friction across a large group, and how to evaluate new technology and AI. Dave’s framework is simple: does it help the patient, the clinician, the team, and the business? If technology does not reduce friction across those areas, it may create more problems than it solves. The episode closes with one of Dave’s most important leadership lessons: slow down, build the relationship, align on the why, and do not disappear when things get difficult. In a healthcare world increasingly focused on automation, Dave’s view is that people, trust, communication, and relationships still sit at the centre of great clinics. In this episode Dave’s journey from veterinary hospitals to dental group leadershipSmilePartners and scaling to 130 offices across seven statesWhat dental clinics can learn from veterinary medicineWhy retail healthcare depends on reducing frictionThe difference between dental insurance and veterinary payment modelsWhy veterinary medicine can be more emotionally chargedPatient communication when the patient cannot speak for themselvesEmpathy, sympathy, and trust in healthcare decisionsWhy clinic success is simple, but not easyThe four things every successful dental or vet clinic needsProviders, patients, treatment delivery, and paymentWhy human beings make every process harder to executeLearning dentistry from inside the operatoryWhy leaders need to understand the front lineTreatment acceptance and motivating patients before pain startsHiring, onboarding, and supporting new dentistsBeing shoulder to shoulder with cliniciansMoving from COO to CEOWhy Dave’s role now is to reduce friction at scaleHow to evaluate technology and AI in healthcarePatient, clinician, team, and business impactWhy explaining the “why” matters before rolling out changeAI receptionists, verification tax, and hidden frictionWhy healthcare still needs people, even as automation growsThe leadership lesson Dave learned in veterinary medicineWhy showing up during hard moments builds trustKey idea Great clinics are not built by technology alone. They are built by people who reduce friction, explain the why, stay close to the frontline, and build enough trust to help patients, clinicians, and teams move forward together. About the show The Business of a Clinic explores how private healthcare clinics can grow by improving patient relationships, patient engagement, clinic operations, retention, follow-up, commercial systems, and the overall patient experience.

  3. 5d ago

    Why Dentistry Should Never Become a Commodity | Steven Lynch, BOAC #58

    In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Jared speaks with Steven Lynch, CEO of Total Dental Ireland. Steven’s route into dental group leadership was not conventional. He began in accounting and finance, trained as a chartered accountant, worked at BDO, moved into banking, and then found his way into dentistry through a tooth-whitening distribution business. After that, he co-founded MedAccount Services, an accountancy firm focused on dentists, which grew to serve around 35% of the dental market in Ireland. That experience gave Steven a rare view into the business side of dentistry: where practices succeed, where owners struggle, where systems break down, and where consolidation can help. After meeting Lonsdale, Steven stepped out of MedAccount and into the CEO role at Total Dental Ireland. The group has grown to 10 sites, with more in exclusivity and a target to reach over 20 practices in the near term. The conversation explores what Steven looks for when acquiring dental practices. He is not interested in commodity dentistry or purely high-street volume. Instead, he looks for quality, conservative dentistry, returning patients, community focus, loyal teams, and practices where patients trust the clinicians enough to bring their families back. Jared and Steven discuss the practical realities of buy-and-build healthcare: integration, compliance, regulation, central teams, regional managers, practice managers, culture, systems, and what should and should not change after acquisition. Steven explains why Total Dental Ireland does not rebrand practices, why he prefers to promote internal practice managers rather than impose outsiders, and why the central team exists to remove burdens from dentists so they can focus on clinical work. They also discuss AI in dentistry, including virtual assistants, AI note-taking, imaging as a second opinion, digital consent, PMS systems, cloud software, patient communication, verification risk, and why Steven sees AI as a tool to support dentists and front-of-house teams rather than replace them. The episode closes with Steven’s view on the future of dentistry in Ireland: more consolidation, larger practices, more in-house services, safer and more modern environments, and a patient experience built around trust, community, and quality rather than commodity care. In this episode Steven’s journey from accounting and finance into dentistryTraining as a chartered accountant and working at BDOLeaving banking for a tooth-whitening distribution businessHow a lost agency opened the door to dental accountingCo-founding MedAccount ServicesServing around 35% of the dental market in IrelandMeeting Lonsdale and stepping into Total Dental IrelandGrowing to 10 sites, with more in exclusivityWhy the first five practices were the hardestBuilding a central team around operations, clinical leadership, people, and M&AWhat Steven looks for in a dental acquisitionWhy dentistry should not become a commodityConservative dentistry, maintenance, and returning patientsBuying practices with history, community, and trustWhy Total Dental Ireland does not rebrand acquired practicesCompliance and regulation as the first integration priorityBuilding an internal web portal for practice tasksPromoting practice managers from inside the teamRemoving the ownership burden from dentistsWhat Steven learned from seeing the Irish dental market at scaleWhy over-centralisation can failPractice manager learning days and group-wide trainingEthical sales in dentistryHow Total Dental Ireland thinks about AIVirtual assistants and front-of-house patient experienceAI note-taking and digital consentAI imaging as a second opinionWhy AI should reduce risk, not replace dentistsThe verification tax of AI receptionWhy missed calls matter in dental practicesCloud PMS, digital scanners, and practice-level choiceKeeping practices community-focused while scalingThe future of dental consolidation in IrelandSafer, more modern, full-service dental practicesKey idea Steven’s view is that dental consolidation should not turn dentistry into a commodity. The strongest groups will preserve the trust, history, and community feel of local practices while adding the systems, compliance, technology, and support that help dentists focus on care. About the show The Business of a Clinic explores how private healthcare clinics can grow by improving patient relationships, patient engagement, clinic operations, retention, follow-up, commercial systems, and the overall patient experience.

  4. Sep 4

    He Learned How to Grow a Clinic From a Fruit & Veg Stall | Jonathan Shearer, BOAC #57

    In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Jared speaks with Jonathan, a podiatrist, clinic leader, and director of a podiatry and sports therapy practice near Birmingham. Jonathan’s journey into podiatry started unusually early. At 16, he had an ingrown toenail treated and remembers the immediate difference it made to his life. That experience shaped his decision to become a podiatrist, because he saw how quickly podiatry could improve someone’s pain, mobility, and quality of life. After training in Southampton and working in the NHS, Jonathan moved into private practice and built his own clinic in Tamworth. Twenty years later, the practice has evolved from a one-person operation into a team-based clinic built around podiatry, sports therapy, MSK care, technology, training, patient experience, and community relationships. The conversation explores what it really takes to move from clinician to clinic leader. Jonathan explains why many clinicians are never trained to run a business, why private healthcare has matured, why podiatry practices often undercharge, and why charging properly is necessary if you want to invest in your team, your equipment, your training, and the patient experience. Jared and Jonathan also discuss the shift from self-employed associates to an employed team model, and why that changed the culture of the clinic. Jonathan shares how he thinks about trust, vulnerability, cross-referrals inside the team, weekly training, team alignment days, and building a culture where practitioners can ask each other for help without ego or embarrassment. A major theme of the episode is growth outside the clinic walls. Jonathan explains how lessons from working on a fruit and veg market stall shaped his approach to building relationships. He talks about local businesses, sweet shops, running shops, football clubs, PTA nights, leaflets, free treatment vouchers, and why clinic owners need to “go where the buffalo are” instead of relying only on digital marketing. The episode is a practical look at how clinics grow through trust: trust with patients, trust inside the team, and trust across the local community. In this episode Jonathan’s journey from NHS podiatrist to private clinic ownerHow an ingrown toenail at 16 shaped his careerBuilding a podiatry clinic in Tamworth over 20 yearsWhy private practice was not really taught to cliniciansHow podiatry, sports therapy, MSK, and technology came togetherMoving from self-employed associates to an employed teamWhy clinic owners often burn outWhy many podiatry practices underchargeCharging enough to invest in training, equipment, and experienceImproving the clinic environment and first impressionsWeekly training, CPD, and internal team developmentBuilding a vulnerable culture where people ask for helpCross-referring patients to the right practitioner inside the teamWhy good clinic is good businessUsing reviews, rebooking, and feedback to spot training needsTeam alignment days and building culture outside the clinicHiring mistakes and letting candidates test-drive the clinicWhy staff retention depends on career developmentLearning relationship-building from a fruit and veg market stallConnecting with local businesses, GP surgeries, and community groupsThe sweet shop referral storyWhy clinic owners should give first and build trustBuilding symbiotic relationships with local partnersWhy local networking still matters in a digital marketing worldThe PTA night that helped launch a clinicWhy clinic owners need to “go where the buffalo are”Key idea Clinic growth is not only built through ads, websites, or digital funnels. Jonathan’s story shows how much growth can come from trust, community, team culture, local relationships, and consistently showing up where patients and partners already are. About the show The Business of a Clinic explores how private healthcare clinics can grow by improving patient relationships, patient engagement, clinic operations, retention, follow-up, commercial systems, and the overall patient experience.

  5. Sep 1

    He Built 80 Dental Practices Without Taking Away Autonomy | Lane Theriault, BOAC #56

    In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Jared speaks with Lane Theriault, CEO of Independence Dental. Lane started his career as an investment banker at Citigroup before moving into dental consolidation. After helping launch 123Dentist in Canada, he moved to the U.S. to build Independence Dental, which has grown from 8 practices at the end of 2020 to around 80 practices today. The conversation explores how Independence Dental thinks about scaling differently from a traditional DSO. Instead of forcing every clinic into one rigid playbook, Lane describes a supported autonomy model where successful practices keep control of their clinical and business identity while gaining access to group-level support. Jared and Lane discuss what dentists actually want after acquisition, including recruiting support, marketing accountability, revenue cycle management, payroll, procurement, and operational infrastructure. They also go deep on why marketing alone does not fix growth if the practice has a “leaky bucket” at the point of call handling, conversion, diary capacity, and patient retention. Lane also shares how Independence Dental is approaching AI. Rather than treating AI as a single product or outsourcing everything to vendors, the group is building an internal culture of AI, where people closest to the operational problem can build tools for their own workflows. They discuss custom apps, knowledge bases, coding agents, PHI, BAAs, AI receptionists, patient trust, and why transparency matters when patients interact with AI. The episode closes with Lane’s view on what will and will not change in dentistry. Customer service, relationships, and trust will remain central. But labour shortages and automation may change how care is delivered, including the possibility of robots completing tasks like crowns in the future. In this episode Lane’s journey from Citigroup to dental consolidationLaunching 123Dentist in CanadaBuilding Independence Dental from 8 to around 80 practicesWhy Independence Dental chose a supported autonomy modelHow DSOs can support practices without removing local identityWhat dental owners actually want after acquisitionRecruiting support in a difficult dental labour marketMarketing accountability and holding vendors responsibleWhy marketing spend fails when patient handling is weakThe leaky bucket problem in dental practicesCall conversion, diary capacity, and new patient flowWhy consensus matters in a partner-led dental groupHow Independence Dental thinks about organic growthBuilding custom tools instead of only buying softwareCreating a culture of AI across the organisationWhy people closest to the problem should help build the solutionBuy vs build decisions in healthcare technologyRevenue cycle management and automationAI receptionists, transparency, and patient trustPHI, BAAs, compliance, and security requirementsKnowledge bases, organisational context, and AI workflowsLane’s four steps for AI transformationWhat will change in dentistry over the next decadeWhat will not change: service, relationships, and trustDental robots and the future of clinical workKey idea The future of dental groups may not be one rigid playbook. Lane’s view is that the strongest model is one where successful practices keep their autonomy, while the group provides the infrastructure, systems, support, and technology that help them grow. About the show The Business of a Clinic explores how private healthcare clinics can grow by improving patient relationships, patient engagement, clinic operations, retention, follow-up, commercial systems, and the overall patient experience.

  6. Aug 22

    A Great Clinician Can Still Build a Bad Clinic, with Jared Aron & Sally Eugenia Schwartz, E54

    What separates being an excellent clinician from building an excellent clinic? In Episode 54 of The Business of a Clinic, Sally sits down with Coherent founder Jared Aron to discuss how private healthcare is changing and why clinical quality, while essential, is only one part of what makes a modern clinic successful. Jared argues that the competitive landscape has fundamentally changed. Fifteen or twenty years ago, a strong practitioner could often build a successful private practice largely on clinical reputation. Today, patients have far more choice, clinics compete for attention across increasingly crowded markets, and practices need to think deliberately about brand, patient relationships, operations and the experience surrounding clinical care.  One of the central ideas in the conversation is the 3,650-day patient relationship. If a patient stays with a clinic for ten years, they may spend only a handful of hours physically with their practitioner. That leaves thousands of days in which the clinic still needs to reinforce trust, clinical excellence and the patient relationship through communication, follow-up and support. Jared and Sally also explore why clinic growth becomes harder as the founder moves further away from every individual patient. Associate clinicians may provide excellent treatment, but expecting them to also manage cancellations, recall and patient follow-up creates an operating model that is difficult to sustain. The discussion then turns to data and marketing. Clinics can spend heavily attracting patients without understanding what happens after somebody presses the “Book Now” button. Different systems measure different parts of the journey, terminology is inconsistent, and clinic leaders can end up making decisions without a reliable picture of what is actually happening. They also discuss the talent required to build modern healthcare businesses. Jared explains why repeatedly recruiting from the same healthcare talent pool can reproduce the same operating systems, and why clinics may need expertise from technology, hospitality, data and other industries to rethink growth and patient experience from first principles. Finally, the episode examines the hero operator problem: the exceptional clinic manager or team member who remembers everything, fixes everything and keeps the organisation together. These people can transform a practice, but they also become a major point of dependency. When they leave, go on holiday or simply become overloaded, the system can quickly deteriorate. The goal, Jared argues, is to move knowledge from people’s heads, to documented processes, to systems that actually execute those processes consistently. That means building a clinic that does not depend on finding an endless supply of “dancing, singing unicorns”. Topics include private healthcare competition, clinic branding, patient relationships, clinical excellence, retention, cancellations, marketing attribution, healthcare data, clinic hiring, hospitality, commercial talent, SOPs, operational resilience, front-desk teams and scaling patient experience.

  7. Aug 20

    From Front Desk to $100M+ Healthcare, with Alejandro Fernandez from Synergy Orthopedic Specialists, BOAC E55

    Alejandro Fernandez has seen healthcare operations from almost every level of the organisation. He started in the early 1990s working medical records and the front desk of a doctor's office while paying his way through college. He learned bookkeeping, billing, coding and revenue cycle management before eventually moving into healthcare leadership, private equity and large-scale physician group operations. Along the way, Alejandro helped grow Gastro Health from 18 doctors when he joined to around 150 providers and more than $100 million in revenue by the time he left. He also participated in almost 30 transactions as the organisation expanded. Today, he is CEO of Synergy Orthopedic Specialists in California.  In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Jared and Alejandro look at what three decades of healthcare change have actually achieved. Medical records have moved from paper to computers. Claims went from physical forms and dial-up modems to electronic systems. AI can now help with documentation, imaging, scheduling and patient communication. Yet Alejandro still walks into medical practices and surgical centres operating on paper, while many of the fundamental processes around reimbursement, access and administration remain extremely complex.  They discuss the economics behind running a physician group, why doctors are trained to provide medicine rather than manage P&Ls and administrative systems, and what healthcare operators should be doing to create more space for clinicians to focus on patients. A central theme of the conversation is empathy. Alejandro argues that improving healthcare operations is not only about removing work or introducing automation. It is also about adding a better human experience around the clinician. Patients are often sick, worried or in pain, and the administrative experience around their care should recognise that. The conversation then turns to AI. Alejandro shares where he sees genuine opportunities for technology to increase capacity and remove low-value administrative work, while warning against assuming every new AI product can already do everything vendors promise. His framework for the future is simple: start with access, build empathy into the patient experience, then add technology wherever it genuinely helps.

  8. Aug 12

    He Treated in High-Security Prisons & NHS, Now He Leads 160 US Clinics | Richard Leaver, Alliance PT

    Richard Leaver has seen healthcare from almost every angle. He trained as a physical therapist in England, worked in the NHS and environments ranging from hospitals to high-security prisons, moved to the United States, and eventually transitioned from treating patients into healthcare leadership. Today, he is CEO of Alliance Physical Therapy Partners.  In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Richard joins Jared Aron to explore what changes when healthcare is operated at scale. They start with the philosophical differences between the NHS and the US private healthcare system before getting into Richard's operating principle: compliant, quality care delivered in a fiscally responsible manner. In his view, financial performance cannot sustainably come before compliance and quality.  The conversation then turns to one of the biggest changes facing physical therapy. A decade ago, the constraint for many clinics was generating enough patient demand. Richard believes that has flipped: licensed clinician supply has become a structural challenge, while AI and automation are beginning to create meaningful change across non-clinical operations.  Richard and Jared also discuss why technology adoption is much harder than buying technology, the danger of forcing change too quickly, virtual front desks, AI-assisted workflows, managed technology services, and why healthcare organisations can no longer treat technology as something sitting outside the core business. And looking ten years ahead, Richard draws an important distinction: the technology, administration and reimbursement surrounding physical therapy may change dramatically, but he hopes the clinical reasoning, hands-on care and act of caring itself do not.  In this episode:  Richard’s journey from the NHS to US private healthcare  Private healthcare vs publicly funded healthcare  Why compliance and quality come before financial performance  The growing shortage of physical therapists  Where AI is already changing healthcare operations  Why the human layer still matters  Why technology projects fail after implementation  Managing change across clinicians and healthcare teams  Software vs managed technology services  Why technology has become a strategic healthcare capability  What will and won’t change in physical therapy  The future of US healthcare reimbursement

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About

The Business of a Clinic (BOAC) is a podcast for private healthcare leaders who want to run not just a great clinic, but a great business. Each episode explores the overlooked commercial side of healthcare — how to grow revenue, improve patient retention, fill empty calendars, and build high-performing front-office teams. Hosted by the team at Coherent and led by founder Jared Aaron, we sit down weekly with clinic owners, practice managers, and industry experts to unpack the real challenges behind no-shows, cancellations, and disengaged patients, and share practical frameworks and playbooks that any clinic can apply. If you’re a private healthcare operator such as dentist, aesthetic practitioner, chiropractor, physio, or private GP looking to bridge the gap between excellent care and effective business operations, this is your roadmap to running a clinic that thrives — for your patients, your staff, and your bottom line. The show is hosted by Coherent: Coherent Healthcare is a Clinic Revenue Winback company, helping private healthcare practices unlock hidden revenue. By rebooking no-shows, cancellations, and lapsed patients — and by simplifying how clinics collect payments — Coherent enables practitioners to fill their diaries, improve cashflow, and focus more on patient care.

Information

  • Creator
    Jared Aron
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    55
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Business of a Clinic (BOAC)
  • Show Website
    The Business of a Clinic (BOAC)