The future of clinic management and patient care

Welcome. Today I'm joined by the founders of DappleOS, Suzie Hoitink and Luke Fuller. Suzie has built a highly successful chain of cosmetic clinics and was the first to bring nurse-led clinics to Australia. Today she runs HT&K Advisory. Luke has started multiple telehealth businesses. Together they have founded DappleOS to bring clinical excellence, operational efficiency and commercial performance into one platform. So clinics don't just run, they perform and grow. So Luke, Suzie, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Hi.

So let's start with the big picture. Clinics have changed enormously in the last 20 years and the way they run is changing again. So what does the future of clinic management actually look like? Suzie, we'll start with you. Well, I can speak from experience because I'm that old and I have had a clinic. So we first started our clinics back in 2005 and I think the industry was just so different back then.

And the management style was very different back then. And the interesting thing about us is that we grew quite quickly into multi-site. And that's where, in terms of how we manage our clinics, that's where you really notice the biggest difference. When you're small and it's just you and you have a couple of clinicians join you and somebody on your front desk, that's very much about training by apprentice style, monitoring your systems and your processes.

In terms of just having it in a single clinic, it's nice and easy to manage. It's when you scale. If you've got a crack in your systems and your processes, that becomes very wide when you scale. So I think now that we're seeing in our industry many, many more clinics that have multi-sites or large organisations, those clinics really need to run differently and make sure that they're actually not just enabling their clinic to function in terms of treating the patient and all the processes that are involved in that, but actually that they're driving performance.

And that's probably the biggest difference about managing a clinic now is absolutely about driving performance. And is that why you started Dapple? What was missing when you were running those clinics that Dapple solves today? I think what was missing when we were running our systems was a consolidated viewpoint with a consolidated platform from which to run them. So we were doing what everybody else is doing still, which is running their business off fragmented systems.

And the casualty of that is efficiency. It's data is probably the biggest casualty. Compliance often falls by the wayside when that happens. So I think that in starting Dapple, it was really having sold our business and then working as a consultant for five or six years. I could not believe that these high performing clinics were still running off systems that essentially the CRM system was designed for a spa or even a gym.

So there was a compliance thing. But what really got it for me was that we had these principal doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals running their businesses and they were blind. Yeah. Absolutely blind for what was happening, where the opportunities were, where the opportunities were being lost in this. So Dapple really came about how do we consolidate everything from your compliance, from your marketing, your reporting, everything into one place to make you truly powerful.

A truly single vision or viewpoint for your business. And what's one feature that Dapple has that you wish you'd had years ago? And that actually is hard, but I would say it's having the treatment planning within the system is the biggest one for me. So we started Clear Complexions. We really didn't look at what other clinics were doing. So from the very first client that I saw, we put those clients onto a three-month treatment plan.

It was all on paper. The concept was very sound. We put you onto a treatment plan and we write a skincare prescription. You follow the treatment plan for three months. We review you at the end of three months. We write another treatment and skincare plan. And that was what we called the prescriptive cycle. And that's really what retained patients. And our patients didn't know any different from that. So that was just how we operated at Clear Complexions.

And it really did mean that like when we sold, I was still treating my very first patient that I ever treated was still coming to us. And that was because we never let her out of the cycle. You know, she stayed and was very addicted to us always being very current with what she needed. The problem was this was all done on paper. Yeah. Ends up in the bottom of a handbag somewhere.

In a filing cabinet. For her, she took this home, this treatment plan, to your point, bottom of a handbag or got lost. Yep. So for us, it was a carbon copy of what we had written stayed in the patient's physical. No way. What are those? No. I know. I know. You're too young. [Unclear] the paper you’re holding. Yeah. Stayed in the patient's physical notes, the paper notes. So that at least was visual to us.

So we could always keep up for where this patient is up to. The problem was, is if we wanted to change the plan, then that was a, you know, that was another written. We had to rewrite the plan. Yeah, of course. Or track it. Which of course happens all the time, but the problem was tracking it. So if that patient, we had no way of knowing if the patient was following that plan or not.

And if they didn't make an appointment and said, I'll call you. Life happens. Complete disconnect. Connect. So having the treatment planning and the skincare prescription now in the system linked to the scheduling, linked to the invoicing, and obviously linked to that patient's notes, it just makes us so much more powerful to create an ecosystem. So I wish I had that in the system. Actually, on that note, can I have one more favourite before you say yours?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Only because you just reminded. I've been thinking about it. Yeah, yeah. Only because you reminded. And I hope I'm not stealing yours. Mine's the 30-second summary. Oh, that's a good one. So the A, and just because you were saying, the reality of in a clinic is that, and I'm a clinician, you run really hot. You're back to back to back. God willing. You're back to back to back. Don't even have a lunch.

And you've got clients. Yep, no. Eat while you go. Yeah, exactly. Your utilisation's high. You've got to write notes. You've got to do everything. One of the features we brought into Dapple from the very beginning was the 30-second summary. And the concept of this was because they're working on fragmented systems, you don't know where to go to find the information about the patient you're about to bring in. Yeah, of course. And so what we've done is not only consolidated everything onto a patient view, but I can be cleaning up from the patient I just saw and I can play an audible AI-generated 30-second summary of the patient I'm about to bring in.

So clever. It literally just scans that patient's notes and pulls out of it what you need to know about that patient, including treatment, treatment history, where they're up to in their skincare plan, where the opportunities are, what might have run out, what have you been sampled. But it also picks up on social nuances. Oh, amazing. So our industry is a relationship industry. Of course, yeah. Service-based. Absolutely. And people come to us not really for how we make them look.

Yeah. It's for how we make them feel. Certainly how we make them feel about how they look, but it's also how we genuinely make them feel as a person. Absolutely. I'm sure it's one of those things too that they always remember you and you don't always remember them and so it's a nice little prompt. How can you? Yeah. How can you? And when you're back to back to back, the casualty of not having that information available to you is not only the relationship that might – you just don't remember things you should remember or they expect you to, but it's also the opportunities that are lost.

Remembering that you gave them a sample of vitamin C serum last time you saw them. So the 30-second summary is like just put it, what I need to know, in front of me, put it in my ear while I'm quickly tidying up. I walk out and I can say, Jane, how was your son's birthday last month? Was it good? What does that do for a relationship? Plus I remember I gave her the vitamin C sample because I've just been told I did.

Yeah. So I think that's probably my second favourite thing. No, it's a good one. I wish I had. Amazing. And so when they get that treatment plan, are they having access to that? How is that process within Dapple? Yeah. How does that look like? That's the power of the ecosystem. Oh, 100%. Yeah. So like I think when we set out to create Dapple and still now and our vision very much is we want to give our customers, well, give them the ability to have a great digital experience.

You know, having online booking is not revolutionary anymore. It's not premium. Yeah. It was. And then having an app is, if it actually does more, an app should not just be allowing people to book. Yeah. I always relate it to, look, I travel a lot for work, right? And I choose, actively choose to stay with a brand of hotels because they have a great app. I can check and check out all the rooms.

If it's easy, you stick with it. It's easy, right? So we've really thought of how do we enable clinics to create loyalty above just, you know, it's a great clinic, right? So the app is key to this whole experience for our customers. Firstly, it's fully branded. Oh, amazing. Meaning it's not to brand a Dapple. Oh, sorry. It's branded to the clinic. Fully customisable. Fully customisable. Oh, that's amazing. It literally looks like they've invested in developing their own app.

Because, you know, we're really proud of a Dapple brand, right? And our customers are proud of their brand. They invest, right, they invest a lot of time and energy into making that brand theirs. So we wanted that to shine through. So the app can be branded. And in the app, firstly, you can view your plan. So you can view what was discussed. And it's sequenced month on month. What we're trying to do there, and I always remember back when I started in clinics, is patients would walk out, and you probably remember this too, with a bag.

It'd be a bag with a whole bunch of brochures. Yeah, homework. Yeah, homework. And then the clinic. It's overwhelming. Yeah. And not only that, the brochures are not the clinic's branding. They're the manufacturer's branding. And the patient would go, well, oh my God, like, what is this? What do I do? What am I booking? So what we wanted to do is fix that. So I can walk out of a clinic with the branded app.

I can also view it on the website. And it will tell me month one, what do I need to book? And it can also tell me why. So if Suzie's my clinician, Suzie can say laser genesis Luke is for XYZ. Oh, amazing. I can optionally see how much, if so choose. And then I can book. And the booking process is not, I click a button, then I go to this booking experience where I've got to pick the treatment again.

Yeah, scroll through a long laundry list. It goes straight through, yeah. Yeah. There's also, I can repurchase my skincare and my products. Is that, so what the patient will see is what we did in the clinic, building their treatment plan with them and then their skincare prescription. It's a continuation. So it is, it's continued. It is that collaborative care extending beyond the clinic. Look, I want to shift now into a topic that everyone's talking about, especially in this industry and it's the AI.

So Luke, I want to talk to you about this because I know there's a lot of curiosity around this, especially in the healthcare space. So what are you building in Dapple? What exactly is it and how does it work? Yeah, that's a really great question. So when we started building Dapple, we had aspects of AI in there from the beginning. So that was a 30 second summary and ambient listening. Where we are now is obviously AI is advancing every single day.

We've been considered in how we bring it in because we didn't want to just bring it in to say we've got it. Yeah. It's got to have meaning. It's got to actually have value. Value, yeah. Also too, for AI to be effective and offer great experiences and add value, it needs to have data or what I like to call needs to talk to a system of record. So what Dapple really is, is we capture so much data from what happens in the room to what's happening at the front desk, to what's happening on marketing, even to what's happening on your website.

Yeah. This is all intentional because all of this context gives Dapple, which is your system of record, the ability with AI to give really powerful insights. So where we started with AI, what, 30 second summary in the insights agent. We're now bringing out a whole suite of AI agents for different roles. And I'll talk to some of these. Before I do, but it's really important to also think about how AI is being used and where your data is going.

So I think really important with Dapple and AI in our product is we keep all that inference or the AI running within Australia. So we keep that in Australia. And we also do still apply a lot of sensible safeguards around it. And that's key. You know, I should not just be going to ChatGPT and putting in clinical data. Yeah, medical information. Yeah, absolutely. That's leaving Australia. And also too, we've got an AI policy and we, with our AI, will not use it for clinical decision making.

AI is a tool to help improve performance and productivity. Yeah, operate. So what we're doing first is, you know, I always like to think of whatever problems we're solving. And the first one, and we've seen it so many times, you walk into a clinic and you have a look at their inbox in Dapple. Or it might be on their old system, right? They're using a mobile phone. And they've got a mixture of new clients and existing clients messaging them and going, hey, I want to book in for something.

I need to reschedule. Usually by the time you see that message, your opportunity is gone. So remember, you're relying on the front desk who's busy running the clinic during the day. So it's always said in our minds, how do we solve that? You know, how can we help them lock that revenue in? So our first agent coming out is called the concierge agent. And what that does is that works across all your channels, Facebook DMs, Instagram DMs, email, SMS, app message, and phone calls.

And it is the first responder really to answering, can I book? How much is this? And importantly, you know how we talked about the clinical context before, the clinical relationship? It knows that. Because remember, Dapple. Also, if I've had a consultation for a certain treatment, I can book in and it knows that. And it knows that. Whereas if you haven't, I can't tell you how much it is. I can't talk about it.

So it knows that and [unclear]. The compliance piece. So clever. Yeah, we really wanted to be considered and make sure we're offering a solution that hits the compliance requirements. You know, there are a lot of other solutions in the market that don't know that context. And we hear clients say, look, I need somebody to do that. So that's a concierge agent. And what can it do? It can book. It can reschedule.

It can answer questions about what's on their treatment plan. It can answer questions about what's on their skincare plan. It knows what packages it is.