I have always been excited about business. When I was growing up, my Dad used to give me business and personal development and entrepreneurial books to read. As I demonstrated an understanding of the material, he would increase my allowance accordingly. This process went on for over 10 years, with hundreds of books and concepts. At 17 I started my first business and at 23, I sold it to help pay for naturopathic college.
Despite this background, I learned first-hand how difficult it is to build a 1:1 practice in the health and wellness industry. It was well over 18 months before my business partner and I told home any significant salary from practice and we were working 7-days per week.
This industry is unlike other elements of the healthcare space in that our services are rarely deemed necessary by consumers. Despite countless surveys that suggest that people would access an ND, chiro or psychotherapist if they could, most do not direct spending towards these services unless it is paid for by insurance or their health has deteriorated to a point of desperation. This model doesn’t service you as a practitioner, but perhaps even more importantly, it doesn’t service the people who need your perspective and training as purveyors of preventative health.
As a clinician entrepreneur, I eventually learned how to turn the financial table on a large-scale practice and eventually went on to run and scale a micro practice in the heart of downtown Toronto. In transitioning from 2500 to 250 sq. feet, I increased my income by 10 times and reduced the hours I spent in practice by 60%.
The Clinician Code is the culmination of this experience and my role of as the CEO of a Digital Health start-up that digitally audited almost 3000 practices across North America. From this experience I believe that the systems and innovation that go into how we practice are as important as the skills and training that we bring to the table as practitioners.