You spent years in dental school honing your clinical skills to provide excellent patient care. It’s added up to about 15,000 hours of training. However, most dentists are not formally trained on the business and leadership skills required to successfully run a dental practice. That’s why The Pathway, in collaboration with Emory Executive Education has developed a Dental Business Certificate Program to teach you the fundamentals of practice ownership.
The Dental Business Certificate Program is a course focused on providing dentists with enhanced leadership, business, and analytical skills to develop and maintain a thriving dental practice. The program includes 78 CEU credit hours and features 8 leading experts across disciplines like leadership development, HR, analytics, finance, and marketing.
With the flexibility of online courses, the program allows busy dentists to complete the certificate over several months, and culminates in a graduation hosted on-campus at Emory University Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, Georgia. The curriculum is organized into three core modules, specifically paced to increase the likelihood of practice success.
A successful practice has successful people. Module 1 focuses on developing critical people and leadership skills for managing a dental team. Topics like emotional intelligence, talent recruitment, establishing workplace culture, compliance, and performance management provide dentists with the skills needed to improve staff relations, boost retention, and cultivate high-performing teams. With strong leadership and HR abilities, dentists can spend less time on staff issues and more time delivering excellent patient care and growing their practice. This module gives dentists a foundation for effectively leading others and getting the most from their teams.
In Module 2, dentists learn critical business acumen to effectively manage and grow their practice. Learning strategic skills in areas like business planning, pricing, legal formalities, financial statements, forecasting, budgets, and key performance metrics gives dentists greater control over the financial health of their business. With the ability to evaluate budgets, cash flow, profitability, and other key indicators, dentists can confidently make data-driven decisions to reduce costs, maximize revenue, and position their practice for long-term success. This module arms dentists with business and financial knowledge to complement their clinical skills.
Next, we provide strategic insights into building the dental practice itself. Dentists learn how to market their services, optimize inventory, analyze marketing data, and strengthen their brand reputation. With skills to promote their practice and deliver an exceptional patient experience, dentists can attract more patients and boost revenue. This module also focuses on personal development, work-life balance, and giving back to the community — critical abilities for dentists to avoid burnout and sustain a thriving practice long-term. With well-rounded knowledge spanning marketing, optimization, analytics, and self-care, dentists finish the program equipped to succeed in all aspects of their dental business.
Three months post-program, we’ll host an online follow up session to see how attendees have implemented course learnings to their practices. At this point, participants have gained strategic insights and tools to strengthen their role as clinician, practice leader, and business leader. This is your time to tell us how you’re doing, ask questions, and find solutions to any roadblocks with the support of our instructors.
The Pathway designed this certificate program to fill the business education gap in dental school. Whether you’re just opening a scratch start or you’re looking to improve the business side of your established practice, the curriculum equips dentists at every stage with knowledge to shape the future success of their dental business. Reach out today for upcoming course dates for our Dental Business Certificate Program course.
With over 20 courses, 15+ seasoned mentors, and new Pathways being added to our curriculum, you can explore new ways to enhance your offerings and gain the confidence to treat patients with the high quality care they deserve.
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