Dr Lynn Hurst of Candid: In Light Of The Pandemic, Here Are The 5 Things We Need To Do To Improve The US Healthcare System
An Interview With Luke Kervin
We need a generation of entrepreneurs and innovators in academics and healthcare. What currently exists is stale and oftentimes looking backward, with a culture of protectionism over creativity. We must curb the ever-rising cost of higher education, which is currently unsustainable, growing worse every year.
The COVID-19 Pandemic taught all of us many things. One of the sectors that the pandemic put a spotlight on was the healthcare industry. The pandemic showed the resilience of the US healthcare system, but it also pointed out some important areas in need of improvement.
In our interview series called “In Light Of The Pandemic, Here Are The 5 Things We Need To Do To Improve The US Healthcare System”, we are interviewing doctors, hospital administrators, nursing home administrators, and healthcare leaders who can share lessons they learned from the pandemic about how we need to improve the US Healthcare System.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Lynn Hurst.
Dr. Chester “Lynn” Hurst is the Chief Clinical Officer and Co-Founder of Candid: the first orthodontist-directed telehealth company, with a mission to provide accessible, affordable, quality, and safe oral healthcare to everyone who desires a beautiful and healthy smile.
Dr. Hurst is the author/innovator of Candid’s patent-pending treatment planning prescription (CandidRx-2019) and has been a Board Certified Orthodontist since 1993, with licenses to practice dental medicine in 14 states.
Prior to Candid, Dr. Hurst held academic and administrative roles at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Dental School, UNLV School of Dental Medicine, Roseman University of Health Sciences College of Dental Medicine, and is the founder of Hurst Orthodontics and Texas Orthodontics.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into our interview, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and a bit about what brought you to this specific career path?
My roots did not encourage education, let alone higher education, so my graduation from college was a first, as were my doctoral and postdoctoral degrees. I’m thankful that so many of my friends and family supported my aspirations, financially and emotionally. Perseverance and the search for excellence are two character traits that define my personality and professional career.
At the age of 11, I fell off my bicycle and chipped my two front teeth. Since my parents had no dental knowledge and I had never been to a dentist in my life, we went to the dentist’s office closest to our home. At that appointment, my front teeth were restored with a silver filling material (dental amalgam) and I spent the rest of my adolescence and early adult life with two unattractive front teeth. During those formative years, I decided that I wanted to be a dentist and I never looked back. It wasn’t until I was in dental school that I realized the area of dental medicine that caught my interest was the specialty of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics. The rest is history.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
This is a tough question because so much has happened during my 35-year career. That being said, the most compelling stories are the stories of my patients’ journeys during treatment, or more importantly their life stories as a result of their commitment to improved oral health through orthodontic treatment. Although, I will admit that the thousands of patients I treated (possibly tortured) with braces will have a different treatment journey story than the thousands of patients I have more recently treated with clear aligners.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Early in my practice, I took a potential referring dentist out for lunch at a mom-and-pop Italian restaurant and did not know that this business did not take credit cards. When I went to pay for our lunch, I was informed of this, had no cash, so my guest had to pay for lunch. I was so embarrassed. Today this doctor is one of my best personal/professional friends, who occasionally reminds me of my faux pas.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Never give up and never accept mediocrity,” best represents my life story. I am a recovering perfectionist, but far from perfect.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
The last four years of my professional life have been committed to the innovations of a new telehealth model at Candid within the space of dental medicine. Our vision is to reimagine the delivery of oral healthcare in an accessible, affordable, quality, and safe manner. I am proud to say that we are currently providing our services on a daily basis to thousands of patients across the U.S.
How would you define an “excellent healthcare provider”?
An excellent healthcare provider is one who chooses clinical excellence/proficiency over profits for their patients.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. The COVID-19 pandemic has put intense pressure on the American healthcare system. Some healthcare systems were at a complete loss as to how to handle this crisis. Can you share with our readers a few examples of where we’ve seen the U.S. healthcare system struggle? How do you think we can correct these specific issues moving forward?
COVID-19 is a perfect example of how the U.S. healthcare system struggles. When healthcare decisions are driven by the government and politicians, the patient will almost always lose. When healthcare decisions are driven by the informed patient, the patient will almost always win. One size or one model of delivering healthcare is an imperfect solution for a country as large and diverse as the U.S. Innovation and multiple models of delivering healthcare are where we will find the answers to our healthcare system struggles.
Of course the story was not entirely negative. Healthcare professionals were true heroes on the front lines of the crisis. The COVID vaccines are saving millions of lives. Can you share a few ways that our healthcare system really did well? If you can, please share a story or example.
The innovative model of delivering telehealthcare pioneered by Candid is one close example of the kind of creativity needed in medicine and dental medicine. However, we need federal, state, and local governments to encourage, rather than discourage this type of innovation — otherwise, we will continue to be stuck in the same rut we have been in for far too long.
Here is the primary question of our discussion. As a healthcare leader can you share 5 changes that need to be made to improve the overall US healthcare system? Please share a story or example for each.
- Improve access to care
- Improve affordability of care
- Improve competency/proficiency/quality/safety of care (Best practices)
- Healthcare leaders/organizations/providers must be open to innovation and new models of care
- Government must be open to innovation and new models of care
Let’s zoom in on this a bit deeper. How do you think we can address the problem of physician shortages?
We need a generation of entrepreneurs and innovators in academics and healthcare. What currently exists is stale and oftentimes looking backward, with a culture of protectionism over creativity. We must curb the ever-rising cost of higher education, which is currently unsustainable, growing worse every year.
How do you think we can address the issue of physician diversity?
We must curb the ever-rising cost of higher education, which is currently unsustainable, growing worse every year.
How do you think we can address the issue of physician burnout?
We need a generation of entrepreneurs and innovators in academics and healthcare. What currently exists is stale and oftentimes looking backward, with a culture of protectionism over creativity.
What concrete steps would have to be done to actually manifest all of the changes you mentioned? What can a) individuals, b) corporations, c) communities, and d) leaders do to help?
- Individuals — short-term, we need healthcare colleagues to think outside their boxes of protectionism; long-term we need to recruit entrepreneurs/innovators into the health sciences.
- Corporations — collaborate with academic and healthcare institutions to expedite innovation and inspire new models for delivering healthcare.
- Communities — can be incubators for new and innovative models for delivering healthcare.
- Leaders — be open to real and meaningful change or get out of the way and allow others to innovate and create meaningful change.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Redefine dental medicine as an integral part of medicine and healthcare, moving away from a culture where dental medicine is considered a luxury, rather than a necessity.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Follow @livecandid on Instagram and Twitter, connect with me and follow us on LinkedIn, and check out our website and blog.
Thank you so much for these insights! This was very inspirational and we wish you continued success in your great work.
