Next up in our 5 Questions With… series is SolutionStart.  I’m personally very excited to share this interview with SolutionStart President & CEO, Jimmy Georgiou, as he is a fellow Charlotte, NC native.  Plus, as you will see, SolutionStart offers some innovative services and products to solve technology problems for dental practices.

Michael Dunn:  Tell us about SolutionStart.  What service(s) do you offer?

Jimmy Georgiou:  I founded SolutionStart in 2000 as a network technology provider with an emphasis on customer support.  Within a short time we identified a technology shortcoming in dental practices.  Specifically, inadequate network designs most commonly used in business are ineffective in handling sophisticated dental technologies.  SolutionStart continually strives to develop better network solutions for the dental industry.  We didn’t get to be the best by chance; we examined the issues, analyzed how we could address them from every angle, and implemented a proven methodology to resolve them efficiently and effectively.  Our mission is to provide complete solutions for every dental practice’s technological needs, empowering our clientele to focus on patient care.

MD:  How did you start SolutionStart?  What was your “a-ha” moment?

JG:  During our first dental practice network installation in 2000, we set up a standardized network the way networks should be deployed and configured based on the best practices at that time.  We installed the dental practice management software over the weekend and on Monday, things just didn’t click.  The doctor was disappointed.  I was frustrated. I then realized I could stick by my guns and be a networking company or become very specific to the dental market and deliver a solution.  We chose the latter and redesigned and reverse engineered the network in order to facilitate the unique needs of the dental practice.

MD:  What makes SolutionStart unique compared to similar service providers?

JG:  We understand dentists and what their needs are.  We understand the dental practice, how it functions, and we offer solutions to allow dentists to focus on their patients and the office staff to focus on their work.  I don’t consider SolutionStart a managed service provider.  Rather, we are a dental solution that just so happens to use technology as the conduit to provide what the dentist wants and what the office needs from an operational standpoint.

MD:  What trends do you think will have the biggest impact on the dental industry in the next 5 – 10 years?

JG:  HIPAA Compliance.  That’s it – the biggest change in the next 5-10 years.  It will completely alter how practices function and how they secure their patients’ data: transmission (email), storage (encryption), and processes within and outside the practice. The other side of that is EHR (Electronic Health Records).  As software and technology become more standardized to meet compliance, data will be more readily available.  The banking systems did that many years ago.  Think about an ATM – one used only to be able to retrieve money from their own ATM.  Now money can be taken out of any ATM around the world with a minimal charge. Doctors need to assume the responsibility to ‘go paperless’ and all-digital, while implementing mechanisms to secure that data.  Dental vendors need to be focused on finding the correct solutions in order to empower these offices to face these challenges.

MD:  What’s next for you and SolutionStart?  What can we look forward to?

JG:  My last sentence ties in directly with this – that’s exactly what SolutionStart is.  No different than it was in 2000, we are finding a way to be a solution to dentists’ challenges in their practices.  The true challenges dentists are about to face is the amount of knowledge needed to ensure compliance, break into the EHR world,  and run the future of dentistry while managing the business and taking care of patients.  This is quite a task for a single-doctor or small practice, hence the influx of corporate dentistry. We hope to empower all dentists, regardless of practice size, to be able to deliver the same type of operational, business, and compliance systems that a larger corporate dental operation can do while still leveraging their love and passion for taking care of the patient.  SolutionStart is very excited about the future of dentistry!

I really appreciate Jimmy taking the time to answer these 5 Questions with SolutionStart.  If you have any questions of your own for them or would like more information, please contact them directly.  And as always, I welcome your comments and feedback.