Why Clinics Break Invisibly: Excel, Front Desks & AI Receptionists | BOAC #45

From the British Army to Building a £24M Dental Group | Mark Aichroth #46

Can a dental practice owner sell part of their business without surrendering its culture, identity or day-to-day control? In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Jared Aron speaks with Mark Aichroth, co-founder and CEO of DeNovo Dental Partners, about a different model for dental consolidation: shared ownership. Mark’s career has taken him from 10 years as an officer in the British Army to hospital administration with Humana and HCA, health insurance, the early team at Circle and, eventually, dental acquisitions. Those experiences shaped his belief that healthcare businesses work best when clinicians have genuine ownership and influence. Mark explains how DeNovo grew to 16 practices, approximately £24 million in revenue and more than 300 employees. He breaks down how its partnership structure works, including its combination of cash and parent-company shares, incentives for EBITDA growth and the balance between practice autonomy and financial accountability. Jared and Mark also discuss why the traditional “buy, combine and sell” rollup model is becoming less effective, why simply acquiring more practices is vanity without operational growth, and how shared ownership can improve culture, succession and staff retention. They cover: *  How military leadership translates into healthcare  *  Earning trust and credibility with clinicians  *  Building a dental group from an idea  *  The economics of shared ownership  *  Why dentists resist top-down consolidation  *  Practice autonomy and EBITDA accountability  *  Shared services and dentist-led knowledge sharing  *  Staff ownership and retention  *  Measuring clinical excellence  *  What makes a dental practice attractive to DeNovo  *  The importance of chemistry during an acquisition  *  DeNovo’s ambition to grow beyond 100 practices  *  AI, digital imaging and the future of dentistry  A conversation for dental practice owners, healthcare entrepreneurs, investors and operators looking for a more durable way to build healthcare groups.

Why Clinics Break Invisibly: Excel, Front Desks & AI Receptionists | BOAC #45

In Episode 45 of The Business of a Clinic, Jared Aron, founder of Coherent, explores why the business side of healthcare is still so operationally fragile. Jared begins with a story from his own clinic: four separate systems, none of them speaking to each other, and a senior team member spending days every month tying everything together in Excel. From there, he explains why this is not a small-clinic problem — even sophisticated healthcare providers are still running major parts of the business through exports, spreadsheets, and manual reconciliation. The conversation then turns to the front desk. Jared reflects on the mistake many clinic owners make: assuming the front desk is a single role, when in reality it becomes 50 or 60 jobs at once. Reception, hospitality, stock checks, social media, cancellation recovery, patient follow-up, and diary management all get layered onto the same team — then owners wonder why patients slip away. Jared and Sean also discuss why “we have a system” often falls apart after a few follow-up questions, why operational gaps get worse as clinics scale from one site to many, and why durable revenue growth depends on more than simply increasing marketing spend. Later, Jared explains the thinking behind The Business of a Clinic community, why healthcare needs more space to discuss operations and commercial infrastructure, and how Coherent Engage differs from a CRM, a Mailchimp-style automation tool, or an AI receptionist. The episode closes with a discussion on AI doctors, AI receptionists, and the future of patient support. Jared’s view is clear: the goal is not to remove the human from healthcare. The goal is to remove the administrative bloat around them, so humans can spend more time doing what matters — serving patients with empathy, judgement, and continuity.

The Hidden Data Risk Behind Healthcare AI | Bharat Reddy, CTO of Coherent Healthcare, #44

Healthcare is in the middle of an AI gold rush. AI receptionists, AI doctors, AI agents, automated workflows — everyone is racing to move faster, automate more, and do more with data. But healthcare is different. Patient data is not just behavioural data. It is medical history, vulnerability, access to care, and trust. That makes security, governance, and accountability far more important than many people realise. In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Sean speaks with Bharat Reddy, CTO of Coherent Healthcare (CoherentHQ.com), about AI, cybersecurity, patient data, and what healthcare can learn from bank-grade security. Before joining Coherent, Bharat was VP of Security Architecture at Morgan Stanley, where his role was to think like an attacker before the attacker arrived: reviewing systems, data flows, weak points, and the potential consequences of failure. That lens is becoming essential in healthcare. Sean and Bharat discuss legacy systems, siloed patient data, AI regulation, data sovereignty, the NHS and Palantir debate, vendor risk, and what clinic leaders should ask before trusting any AI tool with patient information. The core message of the episode is simple: AI in healthcare cannot just be powerful. It has to be secure, auditable, accountable, and built with the minimum data necessary.

E#43 | Why Clinics Break at Scale | Business of a Clinic (BOAC)

In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Jared speaks with Cameron Tudor, physiotherapist and founder of West London Physio, about what really happens when a clinician becomes a clinic owner. Cameron’s journey spans private practice in Australia, locum work in the NHS, building a clinic from one patient and one phone call, scaling to four clinics and around 50 staff, and later returning to a more focused single-clinic model. The conversation explores the hidden operational reality behind clinic growth: leases, personal guarantees, reception, bookkeeping, hiring, burnout, systems, checklists, patient follow-up, and the uncomfortable shift from being the clinician to becoming the entrepreneur. Jared and Cameron discuss why healthcare often has a logistics problem, not a clinical problem, and why efficiency should not be seen as cold cost-cutting. Done properly, efficiency allows clinicians to focus on care, gives patients a more consistent experience, and helps the business become more sustainable. They also unpack what breaks when clinics scale, why centralising culture too quickly can backfire, how SOPs and checklists protect the patient journey, and why clinic owners need to listen before trying to impose change. The episode closes with Cameron’s view on the future of MSK: rising patient demand, growing pressure on public systems, clinical care remaining deeply human, and the front desk evolving from admin processing into concierge-style patient support. In this episode * Cameron’s journey from physio to clinic owner * Starting a clinic with one patient, one phone call, and a major lease liability * Why clinicians are often forced to become entrepreneurs * The hidden jobs clinic owners inherit: receptionist, accountant, marketer, operator * Why burnout forces clinic owners to think in systems * How SOPs and checklists create consistency * Why efficiency is better care, not just cost control * Who should own patient follow-up and recall * Why clinicians often resist admin-led follow-up * The tension between healthcare and “sales” * What ethical selling looks like in private healthcare * What breaks when scaling from one clinic to multiple sites * Why listening matters when acquiring or integrating clinics * The future of MSK and private practice * Why the front desk may become more concierge than admin Key idea Clinics do not break because the clinical care is poor. They usually break because the systems around the care are not strong enough to scale. 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.

When a Terminal Patient Refuses to Be Passive, with Dale Atkinson, Business of a Clinic (BOAC), E42

Jared Aron speaks with Dale J. Atkinson, founder of Clear Signal Partners, patient advocate, entrepreneur, and writer of The Life Organic. Dale shares his personal experience of receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, navigating the healthcare system, building a care team around him, and learning how much communication, coordination, trust, and self-advocacy matter when the patient journey becomes complex. Jared and Dale discuss what it means to become “CEO” of your own health journey, why patients often struggle to tell clinicians what they are doing outside standard care, how misinformation can pull vulnerable patients into dangerous online rabbit holes, and what healthcare providers can do to create safer, more supportive patient relationships. They also explore AI in healthcare, AI doctors, ambient scribing, human oversight, regulation, and why the future of healthcare should not be built around efficiency alone. Disclaimer: The views expressed are the guest’s own. This conversation reflects personal experience only and is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified clinician before making treatment decisions. In this episode: * Dale’s personal experience as a patient and patient advocate * Why patients need better support outside the clinic room * The communication and coordination burden placed on patients * Why patients do not always disclose what they are doing outside standard care * The risk of online medical misinformation * AI doctors, ambient scribing, and human oversight * Why great patient care is also great business