by Dr. Trista Felty Abbotsford, British Columbia PCSO Trustee on the AAO Board of Trustees.
The AAO has continued to work on offering meaningful member resources and support. The Wharton-AAO MBO program just celebrated its second birthday, and over 1,400 participants across nine cohorts have graduated from the Wharton-AAO MBO program over the past two years. These graduates consistently rate the program extremely highly. Based on participant feedback, to make the program even better the AAO is adding three live-virtual webinars hosted by Dr. Anil Idiculla. There will also be a new tool to enable participants to take immediate action to improve their practice beginning with the January cohort! In each webinar Dr. Idiculla will be joined by a cohost; first Dr. Renee Doyle, then Dr. Dale Anne Featheringham, and then Dr. Bill Layman, who will wrap up and prepare participants to take action. The program covers eight essential and up-todate business topic areas, including building an intentional culture, leadership, people management, financial management, and marketing, all taught by Wharton’s world-class professors and AAO instructors who are all orthodontic industry experts.
The program is exclusive to AAO members and their office managers. The program is entirely online, with new content released each Wednesday that you can complete at your convenience. AAO business coaches will support you throughout the course and will lead online peer-to-peer discussions about the content and how to implement it. Participants have confirmed that the content is relevant for both orthodontists just starting out and for seasoned orthodontists looking to take their practice to the next level. The most recent cohort kicked off on January 31. https://www2.aaoinfo.org/ wharton-program-registration/
The AAO Staff Shortage Task Force has created a variety of resources to help you find and train new employees. The online toolkit is full of job posting tips, customizable job templates, and marketing resources. Get the word out about your job openings with templates for social media posts and emails. There is also a downloadable poster, a direct mail piece, and much more that you can use to reach out to parents, patients, and others in your community. An easy-to-order Career Fair Toolkit is available for purchase in the AAO Store.
If you have hired someone with no dental experience, AAO has created some basic training videos and guides to give them an introduction to the terminology and equipment they will encounter in an orthodontic practice daily. These can be used with staff members in every role in your practice. The first video is open access. To view the others, just register your staff in the AAO Ortho Staff Club, and they will receive their own AAO login, which will give them access to these videos and more. All videos and downloadable guides explain concepts in lay language and define orthodontic terminology using visual models, photos, and animations where appropriate.
The AAO is now accepting submissions for the 2024 Ortho Innovator Award. Now in its sixth year, the Ortho Innovator Award is part of an ongoing effort to support innovation among orthodontists and industry suppliers. Businesses considered eligible to enter the competition are those offering new products or services for orthodontic treatment or orthodontic practice management.
The AAO Committee on Technology is looking for a bright idea that will help advance our specialty. If your innovation is a product that revolutionizes orthodontic treatment or can improve practice management, enhances the patient experience, or offers a unique marketing approach, we encourage you to apply.
Applicants seeking investors may submit their interest in being considered for the 2024 AAO OrthoTank start-up pitch event that will take place live at the 2024 Annual Session in New Orleans. The OrthoTank start-up pitch event is inspired by the popular Shark Tank television show and provides a venue for selected start-ups to pitch to a panel of judges for possible funding support.