Join us for an enlightening conversation with the distinguished Dr. Alejandro Badia, a world-renowned hand surgeon and healthcare advocate. Dr. Badia’s journey from his immigrant roots to becoming a leading medical practitioner in Miami is truly inspiring. Learn how a childhood experience with his grandmother’s rheumatoid arthritis ignited his passion for hand surgery, leading to his extensive training at N.Y.U. and a transformative fellowship in Pittsburgh. Dr. Badia provides fascinating insights into the evolution of medical practice, the complexities of Medicare and Medicaid, and his relentless pursuit of high-quality healthcare services.
Dr. Badia’s transition from group practices to establishing the Badia Hand to Shoulder Center is a tale of perseverance, specialization, and strategic branding. We discussed the challenges he faced when opting for a solo practice model and the importance of fair compensation and specialized outpatient care. Discover the thought process behind the innovative OrthoNOW model, which aims to rectify the inefficiencies of traditional referral systems by providing immediate and specialized orthopedic care. The journey of building a highly efficient surgical center and the significance of having on-site hand therapists for patient recovery are also highlighted.
In this episode, we explore the pricing and operational hurdles of OrthoNOW and its shift to a licensing model for national growth. Dr. Badia shares his valuable insights on the role of social media in patient education, medical sales, and building a successful practice. From his rewarding experiences on medical missions to his advice for aspiring medical professionals and sales reps, Dr. Badia’s wisdom is invaluable. Tune in for a lively discussion, including a lightning round on his latest reads, T.V. shows, and dining experiences, and gain practical tips from a seasoned medical expert reshaping the healthcare landscape.
Meet the guest:
Alejandro Badia, MD, F.A.C.S., F.R.C.S.I., is a hand and upper extremity surgeon, author, and healthcare entrepreneur in Doral (Miami), Florida.
Badia studied physiology at Cornell University and obtained his medical degree at N.Y.U., where he also trained in orthopedics. An A.O. trauma fellowship followed a hand fellowship at Alleghany General Hospital in Pittsburgh in Freiburg, Germany.
He runs an international hand fellowship, served on the review board of a hand surgery techniques journal, and previously organized a yearly Miami meeting for surgeons /therapists devoted to upper limb arthroscopy and arthroplasty. This international meeting was held at the renowned Miami Anatomical Research Center (M.A.R.C.), which Badia co-founded in 2005. In 2008 he created the Badia Hand to Shoulder Center, having previously co-founded the Miami Hand Center, and Surgery Center at Doral. In 2010, he launched OrthoNOW®, the first immediate orthopedic care center in South Florida, later franchising the concept, which can now be licensed to orthopedic colleagues and healthcare systems.
He is currently seeking the optimal strategic healthcare partner. He is the past president of the International Society for Sport Traumatology of the Hand (ISSPORTH), is a member of several orthopedic societies (AAOS, A.S.S.H., AAHS, E.W.A.S.), honorary member of more than ten international hand surgery and arthroscopy associations, and served as honored professor at the prestigious Philadelphia Hand Course in 2012. Having lectured in all seven continents, he focuses on improving healthcare delivery in the orthopedics and sports medicine realm.
Dr Badia has outlined his journey and delved into the major challenges and hurdles of delivering Healthcare in the U.S. through his Amazon best-selling book, “Healthcare from the Trenches,” published during the COVID-19 pandemic, and similar issues are discussed in his biweekly 20-minute Podcast, Fixing Healthcare…from the Trenches.
Connect with him:
Website – https://drbadia.com/
His book
Follow him on:
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@badiahand?lang=en
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbadia/
Instagram –https://www.instagram.com/badiahand/
YouTube and Podcast – https://www.youtube.com/@drbadia
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Episode Transcript
00:07 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, Samuel, founder of a revolutionary medical sales training and mentorship program called the Medical Sales Career Builder, and I’m also host of the Medical Sales Podcast. In this podcast, I interview top medical sales reps and leading medical sales executives across the entire world. It doesn’t matter what medical sales industry from medical device to pharmaceutical, to genetic testing and diagnostic lab you name it. You will learn how to either break into the industry, be a top 10% performer within your role or climb the corporate ladder. Welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast and remember, I am a medical sales expert, sharing my own opinion about this amazing industry and how it can change your life. Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, Samuel, and today we have with us another special guest, and he goes by the name of Dr Alejandro Badia.
01:09
Now, this was an awesome episode. You know Dr Badia is. He is a advocate for the healthcare system and he’s dedicated his whole life to it. He’s a hand surgeon, got into a practice, found his way, ultimately started his own practice, became a big thing in Miami and he’s been very successful practicing for over 15, 20 years. Now he’s at a point in his life where he’s sharing with the masses on how to even look at surgery. You know, for example, if you’re experiencing hand pain and a primary care has looked at it and given you a diagnosis, what’s really going on. That supersedes and not supersedes, but what’s really going on that dives even deeper and gives you an understanding that maybe your primary care physician doesn’t even have. This is the kind of work Dr Bia does, in addition to providing a level of healthcare service that kind of bypasses the challenges of working with Medi-Cal and Medicare that so many practitioners experience.
02:11
It’s a jam-packed episode. We talk about social media, we talk about being a hand surgeon, we talk about medical sales reps, we talk about the state of healthcare. We get into it all. It’s one of these episodes that, if you’re a surgeon hearing this right now, tune in If all. It’s one of these episodes that if you’re a surgeon hearing this right now, tune in. If you’re a medical sales rep, you already know you have to listen. If you’re someone that wants to get into the industry, this will only do you a good service and a favor of listening. So, as always, we do our best to bring you guests that are doing things differently in the medical sales space and I really hope you enjoy this interview.
02:40 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
So give us the story you know, so give us the story you know, with your yaya and everything. Talk to us. I don’t know if you know, but I’m a proud immigrant. I just heard a podcast with Scott Sigman, who has another excellent podcast interviewing orthopedic surgeons, and it was a guy from Iran, actually Iranian Jew, who escaped, and his was much more impressive because he came, you know, 17 years old, but I came as a baby, settled in New Jersey.
03:08
Family in Cuba were many physicians, so I had that in my DNA. My dad started education all over. He was an electrical engineer. He had to start school all over, so I always admire what he did, you know, studying nights, having two young, you know, babies in this country as an immigrant. But you know it’s a typical story, right? So that story is important because my grandmother, my paternal grandmother, who’s from Valencia, spain, my entire family still lives in Spain. My dad’s side lives in Spain and she had horrible rheumatoid arthritis and I remember she liked to sew and she got to the point where she couldn’t do it and so, anyway, at some point I was about eight years old, we went to Columbia Presbyterian and I remember that day very vividly and I sat in his office and we went to see a hand surgeon, orthopedic hand surgeon, and he had, you know, all these certificates, all over the room.
04:09
And we actually saw him, not in like a patient example, actually his office office. And I’m sitting there in a nice chair, my feet are dangling, can’t even touch the ground, and I said to myself, wow, I’d like to do this. I don’t know, but I was very close to my grandmother, so that was always in the back of my mind when I did my orthopedics at NYU. After my Cornell undergrad work in physiology. Then I went to NYU for med school and I stayed there because Bellevue Hospital was the main training hospital and that was an amazing experience.
04:40 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah.
04:41 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Very hands-on of course for residents experience. Yeah, uh, very hands-on of course for for residents. And uh, when I applied for my fellowship, turns out that my men, my main mentor in hand surgery in pittsburgh, named john brigley, had trained with that guy in manhattan okay so obviously, some years after I was there, because I was only eight years old, he’s not. He’s not that much older. Wow, okay it was probably only a few years after that that he did train come to think of it and anyway.
05:08
so that person’s name is Bob Carroll. Bob Carroll is like a full, almost a full one-page obituary in the New York Times that I remember reading. So I never got to tell Dr Carroll the story but in a way, you know, he was my sort of grandfather of hand surgery and the other you know. The rest is history. I applied for an upper extremity fellowship in Pittsburgh, so that was with John Bridley, and then I settled in Miami because you know, that’s like the Cuban Mecca, right.
05:39 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So you know, so much has changed in how medicine is practiced, to what I’m assuming, to what a med student expects life will look like, versus what actually happens. I think it’s transformed over the last 30 years. You know, I think, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m thinking. In the beginning it was I’m going to, I’m going to graduate, I’m going to have my own practice and I’m going to do all these things, and I think now it’s much more. I’m going to graduate, I’m going to have my own practice and I’m going to do all these things, and I think now it’s much more. I’m going to graduate. I’m probably going to join Kaiser, a medical group, and I’m going to work from 9 to 5.
06:09 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
I’m playing, but take us to where you are, that’s true, but I think that some people believe that the pendulum is potentially swinging Because physicians now, granted, this generation, could be a bit different, you know, but we tend to be a little more independent-minded, right? We don’t? You know, we don’t need somebody I mean, we, you know just to get through organic chemistry and then get into med school. You know, you have to be somewhat independent-minded and when you have, you know, let’s face it a bureaucrat or somebody kind of telling you what to do, that doesn’t go well with physicians. So I’m not sure how bad it’s going to have to get before doctors will revolt. I’m seeing the underpinnings and in fact, I want to proudly announce maybe the first time in sort of a podcast is that I have a partner coming who is entrepreneurial minded. He saw this. He’s had offers from big hospital centers and there’s nothing wrong with that. But why does somebody else have to control your destiny?
07:20 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So let’s talk about it. I want to highlight this issue, but you know our listeners. Some of them want to get in the medical sales industry. Most of them are medical sales professionals and some of them are physicians and leaders of medical device and pharmaceutical companies. I want to highlight the issue that we’re talking about. Go back to right before you started practicing. What was your idea of what being a physician is going to look like? Were you thinking you’re going to be a solo practice or were you thinking to join a group idea of what being a physician is going to look like, were you?
07:45 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
thinking you’re going to be a solo practice or were you thinking to join a group? No, I think coming out is very tough to hang a shingle. You could do that years ago, but I definitely didn’t want to join. I mean, I did interview around with some big groups. I was in Pittsburgh. I was limited with funds as how many places I could go visit? You’re not going to sign or join a group unless you visit and honestly, I just couldn’t afford it. So I actually went to Houston. That was a big multi-specialty Kelsey Seabold Clinic and right away I said, oh, this ain’t for me. They, they. They said, yeah, we need a hand surgeon, but if you don’t mind, we’d like you to see you know patients with back pain and you know, unless you’re a spine surgeon, nobody. But if you don’t mind, we’d like you to see you know patients with back pain and you know, unless you’re a spine surgeon, nobody. Nobody likes to see you know. So it’s just, it’s just not my field, it’s not fair to the patient for me as an upper limb specialist.
08:35
So that was out. Then there was a group in New Orleans, on the other side of the bridge, jefferson Parish, and they were like 8, 10 orthopedic surgeons. They didn’t have a hand surgeon. So, you know, I looked at that. But again, I wanted to go somewhere to use my Spanish and I joined a guy who was very busy. He was solo, and we created what was then the Miami Hand Center. A year later, a third guy joined who came from academia, came from Washington University, and I talk about this in my book, I think in Chapter 3 or 4.
09:08
Sure, sure, so you know, creating this group and eventually became five surgeons. And you know, you get five surgeons in a room. There’s always going to be a difference of opinion. So after 13, 14 years, I decided to start my own thing because I had a different vision. We were in network with all these insurance companies, which meant we had way too many patients. We’re getting paid very poorly for each of them. That’s okay when you want to. In any specialty, you want to come out, you want to hone your skills, and that’s fine. Uh, in any specialty, you know, you want to come out, you want to hone your skills and that’s fine. But you know, 15 years into it I said, boy, you know what? I don’t want to average seeing 80 90 patients in a day so you went.
09:52 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So you went 15 years in that model before you said it’s time to do something different. So I mean, I’d like to imagine that there was a pivotal moment that you said okay, something’s changing, can you can? You go and be on that, or did it not happen that way?
10:07 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
We had disagreements with mainly the most senior guy, so I was the first one and I tend to be. I don’t know, it’s funny. I never saw myself as a rebel, but I guess that part of me was coming out. Then I was the first one to leave and as soon as I left, I mean within six months, the two other guys left and then the fifth guy, so we were all solo. I don’t know if it was a pivotal moment, rather than. I think in any profession or any job, you want to be paid fairly. And what happened? When you start looking at these contracts, these in-network contracts that these insurance companies were giving, and we’re like the top of the food chain in surgery. I mean, you know, microvascular hand surgery is kind of the most specialized thing, yeah, yeah, very specific and it was absurd.
11:03
I started looking at that and by that point I had done so much surgery. I mean it’s not like. I felt like, okay, I’m really, you know, fortunately well-trained, had a lot of experience, had great partners. You know, that was one thing that I missed going alone. But I was already, well, you know, very confident with my skills and I said, you know, I want to be paid fairly. Then I realized and this is, this is sad I realized that where I was being paid fairly was mostly people coming from emerging economies, third world countries, in many cases the more affluent, who were coming to see me in miami. Because that’s the great thing about being in miami, right, it’s not, it’s not really an american city, right?
11:40
it’s like another it’s another capital, latin america is what it is, and now it’s a New York haven and that’s where I’m from.
11:51
So I was kind of ahead of that curve. But I realized that those patients who were flying in my competition was really you know, the Mayo Clinic, hss in New York, where I was chief of hand surgery for a while, baptist, which had a big international program. I said, what I’m doing doesn’t require hospitalization. So I got to the point where I was basically doing everything in an outpatient surgery center and I was able to give these patients a lot of individual attention, which they’re not going to get necessarily when you go to the famous, you know the Cleveland Clinic. I mean, those are great hospitals, don’t get me wrong. But you know, if I’m going to scope somebody’s wrist or, you know, do a rotator cuff, do they really need a big, cumbersome, expensive hospital? I don’t think so. So I started creating this model and at the same time as I was working I actually was smart about it for a change. I actually built the center while I was working at the other place and then slowly started transitioning.
12:55 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, so what was the name of the other place? It was called Miami Hand Center. Okay, and so Ortho, now you started building, or Badia?
13:06 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
no, ortho, now is interesting, that’s an afterthought okay okay, no, it was, it was it was called I. I couldn’t call it doral hand center because to begin with I was leaving. And people, how are they going to find me?
13:17
right and and I was solo, so I I didn’t feel right calling it. You know a center like that, so I had to put my name in it. And then I I had a very um, I had lunch with somebody in boston who actually gave me the idea of calling it, but the uh hand two shoulder center yeah, so that’s where it came from, okay, yeah but now if you look around, uh Samuel, if you look around the country, a lot of hand centers, philadelphia, indiana, they all took.
13:45
So somebody said to me I remember early on they said you should, you should trademark that name. And I go, that’s silly. Oh my god, I wish I had uh.
13:53 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So now, many yeah yeah, I started that, I literally started that, wow, that I didn’t know, that I did not know so it was actually a fraternity brother.
14:03 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
It was his wife, who I’d never met, never seen her again. We had lunch and we were throwing around different ideas and she kind of came up and I said that’s it. So Badia Handesolder was built. I didn’t want to go backwards, meaning at Miami Hand Center we had everything. We had a lot of diagnostics. We had everything, we had a lot of diagnostics. We had a two-room, tiny, pathetic little two-room center that was unbelievably busy, more than small hospitals. Our best year we did 4,700 cases in one year. Wow, in a two-room center.
14:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right.
14:36 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Okay. So it would go around the clock many times. So I said when I built my new center, I said I can’t go backwards. So I started, I partnered with a very good company called Titan Health and unfortunately they sold to one of the bigwigs. And that’s unfortunate. That’s consistent with what we see with healthcare, because I was very happy with them as a partner.
14:56
And then we were recruiting other surgeons, which was incredibly hard. Doctors are, I don’t know you could put it to them on a silver platter and they they don’t see it. I, I I’m kind of baffled as to why, but anyway, it was very successful. Um, at one point, unfortunately, they were sold and then. So then we were physician owned completely obviously. At that point I built my office, which is across the hall from the surgery center, called surgery center at doral, and then, of course, all hand, all hand surgeons really want to have a hand therapist near them. Office, which is across the hall from the surgery center, called Surgery Center at Doral, and then, of course, all hand surgeons really want to have a hand therapist near them because it’s a critical part of recovery. Sure, so we have a therapy center.
15:34 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Got it.
15:35 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Now they’re going ortho now.
15:37 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, where did that come?
15:38 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
in. Okay, so that’s an easy one. Samuel. What I realized as a hand surgeon, and then every other specialist who’s listening to this podcast, think about this when a patient comes to see you, how many places have they gone before? In my specialty, I would say an average of two, two and a half. I’d say A lot of people. Three, a lot of people. Four Meaning if they’re bleeding, it’s significant. They go to an ER. Then the ER if it’s a work injury, they’ll send them to an occupational health center. They can’t do anything for them. Then they might send them to an orthopedist, but that orthopedist says, ooh, I don’t really do digital nerve repairs. So now I’m the fourth doctor. Now think about the first three physicians. They all need to be paid, but they didn’t solve the problem.
16:30
It’s like you come in to see me for an eye problem yeah, I’m a physician, I don’t know anything about the eye and then I probably send you to the wrong person because that ophthalmologist maybe doesn’t really treat glaucoma, maybe only does you know retina, right, because I don’t know any better. So now, so that’s the problem is with ortho. Now I realize that not only the emergency room, because they’re busy, they’re taking care of really sick people, that’s, you know, femur fractures, but ankle sprains, presentation of back or knee pain, simple hand injuries, like I was seeing, all of those things were being treated in a very expensive and prolonged manner. So I started OrthoNow.
17:16 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
What is the pricing model of OrthoNow? How is OrthoNow a patient that needs those services? How is going to OrthoNow better than the traditional?
17:29 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
having insurance cover it and the like. Well, no, with insurance. So OrthoNow is a network and in fact that’s one of our challenges. Is some of the smaller insurance companies trying to get them to understand. But it’s so hard to have a dialogue with those people, even when you tell them that you know they’re saving money, obviously. So OrthoNow is a walk-in center. We have incredible data analytics going back 14 years now and the data shows that 70% of people who walk in or limp in to OrthoNow come in for pain, not necessarily injury. Now, come in for pain, not necessarily injury. So we don’t even use the term orthopedic urgent care because pretty smart people go oh, I’m not going to go there with my knee pain that I’ve had for six months because it’s not urgent, but no people like ortho now because it’s so convenient.
18:21
So the number one ICD code is right knee pain, literally right, it’s acronylar. Right knee pain, almost month after month, is the most common presenting diagnosis. Now it’s not acute usually. Sometimes it is could be, could be a, you know, an acl tear we see. You know soccer players or football players, uh, but but no, most of the times it’s just, you know, a little meniscal tear, maybe some patellofemoral syndrome where they need a little bit of therapy. They might need an injection. So if a patient, if we’re not on their insurance plan, the amazing thing is people will leave many times. I’m like, wait a second, you’re still going to pay a copay or deductible, but they want to use their insurance right and and we’d like to be on all the insurance plans, but again we can’t because it’s a hard dialogue. So those patients would pay um somewhere around 250, 280 dollars. That includes an x-ray and evaluation by an orthopedic clinician. I mean, that’s pretty good.
19:23 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so then, okay, Because I’m thinking, when you created OrthoNow, you saw the need. The business obviously did very well, and here you are today. But I want to understand what did? What were patients seeing that that they started to say you know what, I’m going to OrthoNow. And then when did it become, in your eyes, a model that all these other surgeons would pay attention to and potentially replicate?
19:47 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Well, so first I want to say that it wasn’t for a number of reasons. It wasn’t all that successful. For many years I was kind of hemorrhaging money, to be honest but I didn’t want to give up. I didn’t want to give up on this dream, and I think that’s the same with many startups.
20:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Part of it is.
20:02 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
You have to remember. I’m not a businessman, right, I said it. I’m not good with P&L. I spent a lot of money on healthcare and then I franchised it. Terrible idea for anything that’s complex.
20:14
You know, it’s not a gym, it’s not flipping a hamburger, it’s, you know, specialty care. So I franchised it, thinking that my colleagues would say, okay, I’m too busy to start my own. You know, ortho walk-in center, urgent care. If you will, Um, I’ll just pay. Uh, I didn’t realize that my colleagues were were not the really smart ones would say, oh well, I’ll just do that myself.
20:44 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right.
20:44 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
But they’re busy, so most of the times they didn’t do it. And then other people just didn’t see it or didn’t want to pay. Doctors don’t like to buy from doctors. So all your orthopedic sales guys who are listening to this probably understand this. Doctors don’t like to buy from doctors. Probably understand this. Doctors don’t like to buy from doctors. So if you have a product that an orthopedist came up with, you’re better keeping that low profile if you’re trying to sell it to another one of my colleagues, and it’s unfortunate.
21:14
um, it’s, it’s part of you know what I, what I call cats, colleagues and collaboration, which is a chapter four in my book. Um, so, so, uh, ortho, now you know, you know, but it was, you know, little by little, it was doing better. We got rid of franchise model. We have a licensed model now, but, but I do want to make another announcement, besides my partner coming, which is to but the hand to shoulder I I have my first in-person meeting with two very forward-thinking healthcare businessmen who are investor operators and we’re in due diligence now.
21:54
Okay, so exciting things are coming, if you’re interested in Ortho now going national, contact me in two months, okay, I like it we haven’t signed, but I think we’re going to do it. These guys are very smart. They see the huge potential. I mean the potential is it’s almost it’s like limitless when you think about it. I mean, who doesn’t need orthopedic care at some point? 80 percent of human beings have severe back pain at one point in their life. Right 80 percent.
22:23 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right.
22:24 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Yeah, ok, so that’s one thing that we do so.
22:28 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, ok, I want to capture one thing. You know, like, like we said a little bit earlier, that there’s issues within health care, just how it’s ran, and we can go on at so many different tangents. But from a bird’s eye, 30,000 foot view, how would you just state the issue with healthcare right now, today? What’s the problem and why is it an issue?
22:51 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Too many middlemen. That’s it in a nutshell. So you can be a little more granular with it and you can say, for example, what is this obsession in our system with pre-authorization, with authorization? Let’s just say, an insurance company or a referring entity, an employer, who, frankly, should do healthcare on their own, but that’s another story. But once somebody has shoulder pain, it’s not too hard to decide who they need to see, right, okay, you’re an orthopedist? Okay, great. Do you do a lot of shoulders? No, I really. You know I’m a foot and ankle guy? No, okay, but you shoulders. Once that person is, you know, authorized or whatever, referred to me, let me do what I know how to do. I see.
23:42
Now, it doesn’t mean we don’t need oversight because there are bad apples in any profession, sure, or you know we do make mistakes, right, so you need some oversight.
23:52
But to control costs, this concept of putting these little barriers or hurdles every step of the way, I now realize that part of the thinking is that people, whether it be patients or, you know, providers, which I hate that term if there’s all these hurdles, maybe we’ll give up, but you know what Doctors aren’t like that and if a patient has a real problem they’re not going to. So what’s going to happen is you’re going to make them spend all this time and effort and prolong something that can get more complicated because you have to jump through these hoops, so that I mean, that is just one sector of the middlemen that we, the middlemen, are sucking money out of the system Gotcha, completely sucking money out of the system. And we have pediatricians, you know who are making you know, one hundred twenty thousand a year, after you know 11 years of education and training and getting woken up in the middle of the night by hysterical mom, to make that kind of money. I mean, shoot, you know, you’re better off being a you know, a successful jet ski mechanic.
24:56
I’m in miami, so every time I get hit, the visual is hilarious, okay, so it’s true it’s it’s so many, you know, I mean um, it’s so many, but but the problem is that pediatrician or or myself, the, the substructural surgeon, I mean our reimbursements being impacted by all these people who are really superfluous to health care delivery why did?
25:24 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
why did it get here? Why do you think there are so many middlemen? What’s driving that?
25:28 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
People saw the opportunity and they still do. I mean there are people who realize I mean I’m not even getting into fraud. I mean I’m embarrassed to say I practice in Miami where 50% of the Medicare fraud nationally is in this county. Wow.
25:43 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I know that I did not know.
25:44 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Wow, oh I didn’t know that I did not know, Wow, oh, yeah, okay. So that’s just. I mean that’s fraud, but it goes. Obviously fraud is a smaller part of it, sure, but if you’re anything that you’re doing that’s detracting away from the patient-physician relationship is often going to be unnecessary. Let’s just be honest and I realize you know there’s opportunities and people you know I mean, I look, I’m not knocking the orthopedic industry. The reps do very well, but a lot of them do better than the surgeons.
26:25 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And yeah, that’s true, this is true.
26:41 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
You know and maybe you know, maybe that’s our. This is true. You know what I don’t know? What is it now I don’t know? Fourteen hundred dollars to do a knee replacement. But what the public doesn’t know, that includes 30 days of the global period, meaning if that patient you know doesn’t do well or they’re a pain in the ass and they’re coming to your office every week with some little complaint, you’re not getting paid for that. And that’s your time and your expertise, right? So people think, oh, 1400, okay, I, honestly, I I look at it, go 1400. You have to be a fast surgeon. You better do your total lean under an hour, because I know what it costs me to run my office per hour. I’ve done kind of the rough calculation so it gets to the point where you know, unless you’re making a certain reimbursement, you’re barely making money.
27:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And would you say that this entire thing was driven by the agenda of the insurance companies, or was driven by the manufacturers, or was driven where? Would you and I don’t want to say blame, but I just want to. I just want to. I want the audience to understand, from your perspective, a clear understanding of what most likely was kind of driving this and continues to drive it.
27:54
I hope you’re enjoying today’s episode and I want to let you know our programs cover the entire career of a medical sales professional, from getting into the medical sales industry to training on how to be a top performer in the medical sales industry to masterfully navigate your career to executive level leadership. These programs are personalized and customized for your specific career and background and trained by over 50 experts, including surgeons. Our results speak for ourselves and we’re landing positions for our candidates in less than 120 days in top medical technology companies like striker, met, medtronic, merck, abbott, you name it. Would you run an Ironman race without training and a strategy? You wouldn’t. So why are you trying to do the same with the medical sales position? You need training, you need a strategy and you need to visit evolveyoursuccesscom, fill out the application schedule some time with one of our account executives, and let’s get you into the position that you’ve always dreamed of well, we, we, uh.
28:53 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Look, our own government is, I’m sad to say, is a big driver. It is because cms has been cutting, medicare has been cutting reimbursements every year for 20 years. There’s no other profession on the planet where you actually make less money every year, despite inflation, despite everything else. Right, right, the problem is blue cross and that whole cast of profession on the planet where you actually make less money every year, despite inflation, despite everything else right.
29:11
The problem is Blue Cross and that whole cast of characters. All base the reimbursements on the Medicare rates. So once you drive the business down, then physicians got to the point where, you know what, I can’t hang the shingle anymore. And then the hospitals who still get paid you know they’re’t hang the shingle anymore, uh. And then the hospitals who still, you know, get paid. You know they’re struggling too in many cases, but uh, they’re. They realize, you know what. Let’s just hire the doctors, um, and then, and then that’s that’s why that’s what’s happened um, and then it’s a vicious cycle, because now you have many doctors who say you know, you know what, it’s five o’clock, it’s quitting. That’s, that’s not the spirit of private health care, private practice, you know, remember Marcus Welby. You know, growing up I mean that kind of model of that dedicated physician you know we’re losing that because because we’re, they’re employed and they have to be employed because, with reimbursements coming down, expenses go up.
30:16
Expenses go up in everything. I have a couple guys working on my air conditioning here today. I mean they’re not cutting their rates in 2025, right, but in healthcare we are, and so I think we’re going to get to that, and I said it before you know. I don’t want to offend any people, but it’s just such a powerful statement when you say I can’t breathe, and doctors are going to be saying that. I get it you know, you know, enough is enough.
30:40 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So, I think it’s going to happen an issue what is the most I don’t know how to say it but most successful solution you’ve seen so far for doctors to almost combat this continuing to happen?
31:01 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
well, in the words of, uh, george bush, uh, senior, you know, just say no, right, okay, I’ve done that and I right I’ve done that and I know the physicians who’ve done that are doing pretty well. Sure, we have to. We just have to say you know what, we’re not going to accept these rates. So I it was painful for me because I, I go and I do medical missions for free, right? So obviously, you know, I’m not like many doctors. I have a charitable bone in my body, but I don’t like it when Medicare. So that was the last straw. So last year I opted out of Medicare. So you want to see change. You see virtually every doctor say no, I can’t do that anymore, I’m sorry.
31:47 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So what’s?
31:47 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
the challenge.
31:48 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So you know, I’m sure there are some of you listening to this right now and they haven’t made this move yet, this move that you’ve made and some of your colleagues have made, and they’re anticipating the challenges of making this move. In your opinion, what’s the biggest if you say you know what, I’m not taking Medicare anymore, I’m done with it. What is the biggest challenge you will face as an entrepreneurial surgeon?
32:14 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
I’m facing it now, Many people will just not come to see you. So that’s the problem If you don’t have a reputation yet people are going to say, okay, well, I heard you’re very good, so I’m willing to pay something out of pocket. I mean, it is my hand. It’s kind of important, right? Just?
32:31
a little bit, you’d be surprised how many people actually have the money. Don’t do that because we’ve been so brainwashed in this country. Just yesterday I sat with my office manager to talk about our health insurance. I hate paying that bill because you know all of my staff. You know they have a deductible unless they have a really significant medical issue. A lot of times we’re not even using our insurance. But now our insurance apparently won’t renew because they said we spent too much last year. Wow, yeah.
33:04
Yeah, but you know, I don’t think, I don’t think Humana is, you know, struggling right. So now we’re going with one of the other big ones. But what physicians have to realize is we have a skill right. So, yes, you might have to suck it up for a little bit, but if you treat your patients with compassion, you spend time with them, you’re a good physician. Treat your patients with compassion, you spend time with them, you’re a good physician. It’s a little bit difficult at first, but you can do it without that. You have to charge reasonable rates, but most doctors aren’t willing to take that. We’re very risk averse.
33:46 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure, Now you’ve done it, though I mean you have successfully accomplished what you’re living in.
33:52 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Yeah, and quite a few other people yeah.
33:54 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And one thing that is obvious if anybody looks you up and for those listening, please look him up You’ll see Dr Padilla, he’s well known that social media can play to your advantage is the most it’s ever been. And let’s speak specifically to what. You’re charging people directly and you need to be more known for people to understand that you have this great service and you’re better at it than you know whoever else. You have to put yourself out there. How has social media played into your success that you experienced today?
34:43 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Well, I think we’re only seeing it more recently. I think I’ve been doing it for a number of years and part of why I did it was really very well-intentioned. I’m passionate about patient education, so I do medical education, meaning in two weeks I’m speaking at a meeting in Cali, Colombia, and I’ve been doing that for many years, even though I have zero academic title right, I have no, I’m not even clinical professor anywhere. But we don’t have to be right so you can do that. But the one thing that I think we neglect and now it’s changing, as you pointed out what we neglect is educating the end user of healthcare.
35:23
Who is that? The patient. So I can talk about, you know, scapholunate ligament, injuries of the wrist. But if I could put it in simpler terms and explain to patients that so-called wrist sprain that they told you in the general urgent care by the family practice physician well-meaning, who’s not going to be able to pick that up, you have to know that there’s a possibility when you fell, you know, on a basketball court with your hand like this, that you may have torn a scaphalunate ligament. So I explain to patients with graphics, with simple terms, what that is, Because you know an educated patient is a better patient.
36:04
They’re going to be more compliant with care. They’re going to seek the right person. It could be me or my, it doesn’t have to be me. I want people to just not make all these steps to get the right treatment. I love it, and that is what social media has done. So now you’re right, Samuel. Now I’m starting to get people who then, through social media, will now find me. It’s very easy. I mean, you just Google my name and you’ll get my website On my website.
36:34
I answer personally. So if you say it says ask Dr Medea, I answer. I pride myself on that.
36:40
I answer personally every single one. Now I copy if it’s an international patient, susan’s my international patient coordinator. If it’s a local patient, either Raphael or Andrea will schedule them. If it’s you know, somebody wanted to come shadow me and observe. Then there’s somebody else, but I answer myself. So I think that, physicians, if you want that kind of practice, you’ve got to be hands on. So I’m checking, you know, my emails, you know, at midnight, before I go to sleep, because there may be that patient who needs me, and I think it’s a worthwhile tradeoff. I think it is. I enjoy that practice of medicine because they didn’t find me in a book.
37:22 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right, right.
37:24 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
They’re coming to me because they did a little research and that’s very rewarding for a physician absolutely, absolutely, and when they do well. I mean, I’ve had a phenomenal week. Uh, Samuel and sergey, I was in new york, I got stuck in new york and then I I flew straight tuesday morning, I went straight to the or because I had two international patients and I couldn’t, I couldn’t move yeah definitely, and they did, and there were two huge cases and they just did phenomenal and to me nobody, no insurance company, no attorney, no bureaucrat could take that away from me.
37:57 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Hey, come on, and that’s the one thing I think us doctors you know have to.
38:00 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
I love it. I love it yeah.
38:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
How much time you know? How much time would you say? How do I say this? How much time would you say you spend on your social media efforts? And it’s a two part question. When did you, what happened that you realized that this social media, to spend any time at all, is absolutely worth it? Like what happened.
38:23 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
A few years ago. Like I said, I’m starting to get a little bit of the ROI, so to speak. Only in the last six months to a year I had an unfortunate thing where I had a young talented person who wanted to go into medicine and long story. But I found she was actually better at that, she was very good social media and she suddenly resigned, didn’t come in, wrote a letter literally Sunday night. So it’s amazing how important it is to have people like that. So now we’re kind of training internally some folks who are picking up the slack.
38:58
But you have to be involved, and I always was. I mean, you cannot farm it out. So I’m writing a. I don’t know if it’s going to be an op-ed or it’ll certainly be on LinkedIn, but I’m writing an article. It may tick some people off, but I’m talking about the prevalence of cottage industries in healthcare and that’s what I mean by the middlemen. I get 10, 15 messages a day of people wanting to do my social media. There’s only so much, right, but there’s all these people and and you know they’re not free, right. So the question is, how much money do you have to to do that, to get somebody who’s gonna? Uh, you know, I don’t know. Put you on podcasts, for example. There’s people who write to you, but they’re, you know, when medicare is cutting you every year, there’s not that much left over. So the message to people listening you got to do a lot of it yourself, that’s it. And there’s great people who do that. I mean, I mentioned Scott Sigmund before Corey Calendine. You can look him up.
40:00
You’ve probably seen him, corey does a phenomenal job, mostly with joint replacements, but he’ll do other things as well. So there are people out there doing it, but we’re actually, unfortunately, a very select few, and I personally think that we should collaborate more, you know, with the people who are doing that, and it’s going to benefit everybody.
40:22
It’ll benefit other colleagues who aren’t doing it. That’s fine. That’s fine In the end if it benefits patients. Ultimately, I think healthcare costs can go down with this because now people know the type of physician they need to see, the type of treatment, and I think that’s a win-win. Dp is spent on health care Right Twice as much yeah, twice as much as the next country, and you know that means there’s less left over for you know education of our kids, or you know the environment or what have you?
40:59
Right so these are really important issues and I’m always amazed that the public doesn’t engage more with it. I make the joke, you know, if I can get a cute cat and do something a video with them. Or you know I’m in Miami. You know, find a sexy girl, which is easy, I just throw a rock in a bikini and then I’ll get. You know, I’ll get a million views. I wish we’d see more engagement.
41:22 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
But I think you kind of called it out though, in that you know you, dr Sigmund, dr Calendine, you know you, dr Sigmund, dr Calendine, you know you’re doing. You guys are kind of driving the effort from the doctor’s perspective of doing the social media and how valuable it can be. And as long as you continue doing it, I mean, let’s be honest, everything is going this direction right. I mean, once upon a time LinkedIn was kind of cool and if you had a profile to get jobs, great. Now it’s a standard. It’s a standard if you want to get employed, and surgeons are using it left and right to get the message out and it’s working. So I think everything’s going the direction and you just got to keep doing it and hopefully that inspires.
41:58
I really do believe the newer generation of surgeons are starting to see the value. I mean I’ve seen guys in fellowship programs having a whole audience and a following before they even get to their first hospital. So it’s, you know it’s, it’s, things are happening now. In that vein, I want to talk about the time you spend. Would you say, an hour a day, two hours a day, a couple hours a week, you know? Just throw a number out there for those.
42:22 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
No, it’s one, I know I’d say it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, I’d say it’s one to two hours, meaning just checking it. You know you’re learning, right, always learning. You get ideas from other people, but you also learn. I mean, I learn stuff even in my own sort of field once in a while, which is amazing, but it takes time to put together, whether it be a video or a series of pictures of that interesting case. And then that’s where you helps me because they can take that material and create it.
42:56
But I’ll often do the tags right because I know what the tags are better than they do. So that takes my time. So you’ve got to be willing to devote some time. But I think it’s a good thing and, like you said, with the generation coming now it’s going to be standard. It wasn’t a few years ago.
43:14 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
No, it’s standard now.
43:16 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
You know I mean. Now you go to a restaurant. I know people who don’t. You know, look for a restaurant on Instagram. You’re right.
43:27 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That’s how important it is now, I think. I even think COVID accelerated all of it.
43:32 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
So it’s so important now Okay.
43:35 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So you’re on the Medical Sales Podcast, so we can’t not talk about medical sales reps. All right, so let’s come back, and I love what you said.
43:41 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
I was just with one about an hour ago. You said what I was just with a medical sales guy Okay, there you go, there you go, he’s become a good friend of mine. We had to go pick up. It’s thundering. We made it just in time. My boat was in for repairs, as usual, and he helped me bring it back. But their vital part. He was helping me actually with a case that I have of a shoulder replacement that’s got a little fistula and he’s doing a lot of wound care.
44:17 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So you know we all learn from each other. I love it. I love it, okay, but you said something that I hear a lot. So you know we, you know, besides the medical sales podcast, we have a whole program where we help professionals get into medical sales positions and we train professionals to be the best of sales reps you can be, and you know we screen who we help.
44:32
So you know, a lot of people say I want to make money, I want to, I want to, I want to work with the smartest people in the world, which are surgeons, and I want to, I want to help people, and, and that’s great. But we often hear the money thing and and, and we have to be careful because we have to say, okay, I appreciate that Everybody wants to make money, but where is your heart, where is your work ethic and who do you really want to help? And then we get into conversations of well, what industry, what specialty makes the most money? You said something earlier. You said you have reps that make more than surgeons these days. Talk to us about that. What is the specialty where you see that and what is that actually? Like you know, I’m sure they’re not just a rep. Just being a rep, it’s probably an exceptional rep. So talk to us about who’s making that kind of money and how are they showing up. That allows them to experience what they’re experiencing.
45:22 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Well, first you have to be good. Obviously you know you just have to be good, meaning you have to know your trade. You have to know your trade, you have to know your, you know your implants, your devices and for that you really got to know. It’s amazing how much in orthopedics the reps know. They know the anatomy, they know the pathophysiology many times. So it’s quite impressive.
45:43
But for them to get to that point, I think it’s hard, just even as a surgeon, is when you’re, when you’re doing it your own. In other words, you’re like you’re like the plumber there’s only so many you know sinks that you can unclog Right, sure. So so the way you know the reps just use a very general term, but really is when they they get involved in distributorships where they’re doing multiple, hopefully associated products. Because it doesn’t make sense multiple, hopefully associated products because it doesn’t make sense. You’re calling on different physicians, you want to do something in a certain niche and then you’re doing different areas and then you’re hiring people because you can’t be everywhere.
46:20
So one of the things about orthopedics which I think the public doesn’t realize is for many of the things that we do, there is somebody there from industry supporting the scrub tech, bringing the stuff you know, making sure it’s sterilized, appropriate linen, helping in the OR. I find them invaluable. I do a lot of shoulder replacements and there’s some of these. I mean, there’s a guy named Austin who has helped me with shoulder replacements and it’s totally invaluable. But the way for a guy like that to really make big bucks is he needs to expand and then he can’t be everywhere, so he’s got to make sure he trains the younger folks, or people to expand his net, and that’s the slippery slope.
47:08
If you train them but they’re not really ready, then you’re going to hurt your own business. So you got to be careful with that, and I’m seeing that a little bit now with a very big company I don’t want to mention, but they’ve grown so fast that some of the people aren’t necessarily quite as qualified to help me.
47:27 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, take us there. Take us there. Take us to what that looks like, of course. No, don’t name any names.
47:32 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
I have a regular um, you know, a regular rep from that company there, you know, almost every week with me, right, and then they get so busy he ends up going elsewhere. Um, and it’s, it’s not like my schedule’s at known. I mean, I pretty much operate every other Tuesday sometimes, you know, but every other Tuesday, you know, I run three rooms and I, you know, I do multiple cases, right, so if that person prioritizes being there with me, but when they’re not, and then they have somebody that they brought on and that person is in his experience, that you know that can hurt their business, right, because there is competition, right, you know, god bless, we’re in the United States, we have. You know, I love the free market.
48:19 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, hey, it is what it is.
48:21 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Almost every level right.
48:22 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, yeah, every single level.
48:24 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
So that’s what I’m referring to. But in order to, you know, everybody wants to do well, economically right. To do that you’ve got to cast a wide net, but you’ve got to maintain the quality.
48:35 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure. No, that’s critical. I see that completely. So let’s now I want to take it to.
48:42
You’re on social media and it’s giving you a level of publicity that allows people to not just know who you are and what your service is, but actually know more about the value of your services, so they’re more educated as a patient. Medical sales reps are doing the same thing. They’re putting themselves out there, especially the good ones, and it’s almost like they’re becoming more known too. You can see people doing this, I think. One rep told me they have a really good social following. They went to one of those conferences with a bunch of surgeons and the surgeons were like hey, hey, hey, because they saw them on social media. Do you think it’s? Is it in your opinion, is it realistic to be a rep and say, you know, to get access to these surgeons that are difficult to get access to, whether they’re private like yourself, or hospital? I’m going to make a profile, I’m going to put myself out there, I’m going to spread content and that’s going to help me, or do you think it doesn’t quite work that way?
49:37 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
That’s a good question. I never thought about it quite that way. My gut response would be if you’re educating the public right because it’s out there, right, the public right Because it’s out there, right. But obviously your target and you can, and with you know, with hashtags and links you can kind of focus it a little bit. But if you concentrate on explaining how that particular product fits into the whole ecosystem, it could be better than others, or just different, or certainly comparable. Maybe you know better price. Then I think there is a role for that and you know, like I said, I learn a lot from the orthopedic industry guys. So I think that’s fine, I think that’s a smart approach.
50:30
I mean, obviously you just commented on somebody who has become a bit of a celebrity amongst colleagues. The problem with social media is you don’t often know, because most people go through it quickly and they’re not necessarily liking stuff. I like when people share. If people like this podcast, to me what’s valuable is it takes just as much time to click share to your group as to like. Like is like. You know. I don’t know. I don’t know about you, Samuel, but I don’t have that big an ego.
51:01 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
He’s telling you guys to share, share, share, share.
51:04 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Please be listening Go ahead Because that’s how we spread the information. Yeah, that’s true, and if somebody in the industry world is passionate about a product and can point out what the differences are, then surgeon users would see that, but even some of their patients. You know what the driving force is for me in a particular pathology that I treat, which is called basal joint arthritis, and I’m gonna give them a shout out because they’re a wonderful small company. Okay, there’s a company in port huron, michigan, named biopro, and biopro for years has had this implant that was first invented by a guy who basically did I think, think what the first total knee in the country. This guy was so ahead of his time I mean he died 20 years ago and they’re a small company and they want to keep it that way Very niche products in foot and ankle and hand and wrist and they still do some joints for their loyal followers, to be honest, but they’re never going to be, you know, stryker or Smith Nephew or anything right.
52:14
But they have this product called the Modular Thumb Hemi Implant and it’s for basal joint arthritis. That is the most common site of osteoarthritis in the hand and certainly the most disabling. You would not believe if you go to any hand surgeon around the country, almost everyone of them will say we’re going to resect the trapezium, which is a bone to base your thumb. We’re going to take a tendon, we’re going to use it to weave and bring stability to it. You’re going to be in a cast for a month. I mean, it is one of those things where, yes, occasionally I have to do that surgery, but through a small incision to put, okay, you don’t walk on your hands a little. In my Cirque du Soleil, patients walk on their hands. But other than that, um, the point is that why not do the dogma amongst us hand surgeries? Oh no, those implants fail because there were some papers early on that weren’t.
53:11
But in Europe, if you have basal joint arthritis, in some countries I, my colleagues, have told me 80 percent of people get that implant okay now, that is something that you have to educate the public about, and I’ve done that, I’ve done that and and just last, just no, this week, while I was stuck in new york, we had a lab, a cadaver lab. Uh, the the local uh rep was here. One came down from canada, canada. The rep in Montreal came down with the surgeon who was, I think, scheduling his first one for next week.
53:44
So the point is that a lot of this advances occur because of social media, because it’s, you know, basically it’s free, right, it’s free, it just takes a little time and it’s a patient-driven. So most of the people people come to me for that aren’t referred by their primary care doctor. In fact, I get almost no patients from other patients and any doctor you talk to and I I’m willing to bet even my internal medicine colleagues probably would tell me that the best patients they get is really from other patients. Wow, okay, so this paradigm shift that we’re seeing of basal joint arthritis is really coming because of efforts I and a few others, but predominantly myself in this country are making towards telling people why rip out the trapezium?
54:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Wow, because, there’s a better option. Yeah.
54:39 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
That’s going to be patient driven.
54:40 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, no, you’re OK. So I hear that, I hear that I’m on board, but you being the target for a medical sales rep, what would you if you got on? You know social media, by the way, doctor. What is your most common platform? Just what is it? Which one? I’d say it’s even between instagram and linkedin.
55:02 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Okay. So let’s say you get on linkedin late to tiktok and I need to step it up with tiktok I’m right there with you, okay, so let’s get it.
55:09 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You get on linkedin and you see a rep that’s trying to get your attention. What would you need to see that would make you say I’m going to give this individual a little bit of my time because I like what I see?
55:18 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
that would make you say I’m going to give this individual a little bit of my time, because I like what I see when people just approach you honestly and say you know I followed your work and I think this would be something that might be of interest to your practice. If you don’t mind me, you know, coming by the office or sending you something by email. Maybe I like that. I don’t like to do everything through you know I email Maybe I like that. I don’t like to do everything through. You know I don’t like communicating a lot through social media because then you have to check. I’m very but that’s me, so everyone’s different but I like email. So I usually tell somebody send me a PDF of that product so I can look at, send me maybe a short video being used. But in the end, you know, doctors, reps were all different people right, I tend to be a very open, accessible person. I pride myself on that. I actually get upset when I’ve had staff in the past kind of block somebody at the front.
56:11 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, yeah, god bless you.
56:13 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
God bless you yeah, no, but I I teach my kids that I I tell them a great story. When I was at NYU Medical Center and after the library Closed at midnight, there’d be three or four of us, maybe doing biochemistry. We’d go to a small Classroom and there would be a guy Walking, whistling Dixie and cleaning the rooms and coming In. I would look at him and I would watch His work, ethic and his spirit. And I said to my kids listen.
56:37
I admire that guy more than one of my surgeon colleagues who’s a shower post, who’s rude to people, who doesn’t take pride in his work, doesn’t care about his closure, skin closure, um it’s, you know, not everybody has the same opportunities, right right, but doing the best that you can and having integrity, that’s what I try to teach my kids and it’s the same with how you treat.
56:59
You know other individuals, so I tend to be, you know, oftentimes a little too open, because you know you’ve got to be selective with your time. Sure, that’s just me, so remember every doctor’s different. I don’t think there is a formula, Samuel, about how to approach somebody with a new product idea, but you don’t know until you try.
57:23 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
No, no, you’re absolutely right. I’m going to switch gears a little bit. So let’s go back to that medical sales rep. Let’s go back to your favorite medical sales reps. You know one thing that a narrative that exists in the medical sales world is you know, to truly be an asset to your surgeons, you need to almost live their lifestyle. So, however, whatever they’re doing, you need to be doing however busy they are, you need to almost live their lifestyle. So, however, whatever they’re doing, you need to be doing however busy they are. You need to be that busy. What would you say to that? And if you think about your favorite reps, is that true?
57:48 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Well, listen, you know physicians go into this it’s, you know it’s a calling. I wouldn’t expect somebody in the industry side to necessarily have that approach. If they’re being covered by one of their colleagues, their weekend is theirs. If the patient is not necessarily there, I like when they ask me, how’d that guy do? We did the total. That was really tough. That total shoulder we did. That’s important.
58:16
But I don’t expect, and I don’t think most physicians would expect, people on that side of the equation to have that kind of dedication.
58:23
But certainly you have to be, you know, available, you know affable, all of those accessible, all of those A’s. What’s important is that sometimes you’ll show up for a case and the surgeon’s not going to use your product, and you know that’s happened to me several times with a particular product. That you know. I literally apologize to them because their time’s valuable too, but it just wasn’t a good indication. And so you, you know I think you have to be willing to take it on the chin that way. But you know, in terms of the dedication I mean, yes, look, a lot of times they have to be there earlier than we as surgeons to get their trays in, get them sterilized. It’s hard work. It’s hard work, but I think it’s rewarding because you are having a direct impact on a patient. I think it’s very rewarding. Now, if you like to sit in an office all day and work on a computer, that’s cool, but that’s not for me and I don’t think most of the medical salespeople like that either.
59:29 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right, right, well said, doctor. We’re going to bring this to a close doctor. Before I do, though, I want you to share, please, anything you have for our audience. Like I said, the majority of people listening are people that want to get into the industry, medical sales reps that are there, the leaders of the way and, of course, physicians. So, please, any message you want to share.
59:48 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Well, I think you have to understand the whole healthcare ecosystem and it’s changing and it is problematic. We touched at that at the beginning. You find a copy of my book here. Hold on, I. The only reason I want to give a plug to my book is because I think I do a pretty decent job kind of summarizing the different components. So this is something that you could find on Amazon.
01:00:12 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
We’re going to put in the show notes. Folks. It will be in the show notes. Everyone Go ahead.
01:00:16 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Perfect, and so I’m happy to say that just this week we got it into a Google Books. So you can get it on Amazon Kindle or you can buy it Me. I’m old-fashioned, I like to curl up with a book, but you know this generation likes to. So the Google version just came out, but it’s like six bucks, I think, or Kindle’s $4. But we are going to have an audio book Now.
01:00:46
The first one will be kind of AI, and if I see that people are interested in that, then I’m going to take the time and read it myself and do it. And that’s going to take some time, a little bit of expense, because you’ve got to have all the technology set up. But I would highly suggest people read that because it gives great background. And there’s a whole chapter on government in health care hospitals. The biggest chapter, the most painful one, is insurance. The most painful one is insurance. There’s one, so, and then there’s the last one is more some predictions, including the 26 contributors, about what we can do to fix it. Obviously, I have a podcast. I’ll be candid. I’m not sure I’m going to continue it. It gets so little to me in my mind, it seems to get so little engagement of yours, that I’m just not sure it’s worth my time. I I’m willing to do the time, but if people don’t engage, no, it’s true, so I’m not sure.
01:01:49
And then my website is just as easy as just Badia, D-R-B-A-D-I-Acom. I think most of my social media is at Badia Hand.
01:01:55 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, so Instagram or Dr.
01:01:57 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Badia. So my LinkedIn is at Dr Badia, I believe. Okay, so that’s you know I’m an easy guy to reach. Most people will find that I’m very responsive. I pride myself on that. But you’ve got to care and you’ve got to engage, otherwise you know, there’s no point. This is not a passive profession by any means.
01:02:19 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Couldn’t have said it better. Last thing we’re going to do doctors have a lightning round. Are you ready? Ok, all right.
01:02:26 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
All right, I’m going to ask you four questions.
01:02:30 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You got less than 10 seconds to answer. First question is what is the best book you have read in the last six months?
01:02:40 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
What is the best book you have read in the last six months? Elon Musk Elon by Walter Isaacson biography.
01:02:47 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh, I’m checking that out. I didn’t even know that was available.
01:02:52 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Okay, I’m hoping I have a biography. By the way, I’m reading his third one now on Jennifer Doudna. She’s the one who really the main developer the CRISPR enzyme, the gene splicing and everything. So that’s called Code Hunter.
01:03:08 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh, that’s cool. I’m checking them out. Thank you for that. Okay, what is the best TV show or movie you’ve seen in the last six months? Ten seconds Wow 10 seconds wow um I just saw one called your honor. It’s about a judge who was a lot of integrity, um, and but kind of yes, yeah, I only know that one, because it’s brian cranston and breaking bad is my favorite show of all time, so I know what you’re talking about okay, uh, now remind me I’ll send you a If you remind me.
01:03:40 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
I’ll send you a drawing. Samuel, email me, I’ll send you a drawing that my daughter did, a pencil drawing of him.
01:03:47 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Consider it done. Consider it done. Eisenberg, absolutely, there you go, I can’t wait to see it. And then, best meal you’ve had, we, best meal you’ve had. We want the location, the restaurant and the item. In the last six months, oh man, and you’re in Miami. So this is going to be tough, I know, I know it’s going to be tough.
01:04:04 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Man, I just went to a place last week that knocked my socks off. Okay, it’s right down the street from my center in Doral, which is just west of the airport, and it’s called Casa Mariano, casa Mariano. It Casa Mariano, casa Mariano. It was started by an Argentine guy, so you’re going to have a lot of good meats there. An Argentine guy and a Bolivian guy, and I’ll tell you I was blown away. And the item God. We had a short rib that he did. We had a fish dish. There were three desserts. I try to avoid eating desserts, but he there were. He treated us to that, so I had to eat them.
01:04:44
Uh, I mean, everything was good. Everything was good it was. It was amazing. I’m actually going back there tuesday for uh, for a dinner meeting.
01:04:51 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It was that good okay, that will be the show notes folks. So that will be in the show notes. And then, last but not least, what is the best experience you’ve had in the last six months?
01:05:00 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
No, I can’t even go back six months, I’m going to go back two weeks. I just did another medical mission in Bolivia. The only critique I had it as there were actually too many surgeons for the number of ORs we had. So, but so I did some cases, I assisted on some cases, I watched some cases, but that’s the first thing that comes to mind. I mean, I think, as I’m already ramping down in my practice, I’m certainly not going to stop being a surgeon and I’m going to do more and more medical missions as time goes on.
01:05:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It’s amazing. Well, Dr Padilla, it was a pleasure having this time with you today, learning about how you’re doing things and all the innovations you’re bringing to the world. We can’t wait to see what you’re going to go on and do. And again, thank you for the time.
01:05:45 – Dr. Alejandro Badia (Guest)
Thank you.
01:05:45 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And that was Dr Badia. You know he’s passionate. I love what he’s doing, I love the fact that he’s put himself out there. I personally believe that the advent of social media is going to continue to change everything. Right Now are the times where one person can single-handedly stand toe-to-toe with an entire organization of over a thousand people because of the advent of social media. You know, once you create a medium that reaches and connects with people and gives them consistent information that allows them to make better choices, sky is the only limit, which is there is no limit, and I really think that’s what Dr Padilla has put himself in front of.
01:06:27
But the reality of that is it’s a challenge, right? You kind of have to know where you want to be, what lane do you want to pick, then you have to know what actually moves in that lane. Then you have to know what am I saying and how do I need to say it so that my audience can get the most value. You all know what I’m going to say when it comes to getting into medical sales. You know what I’m going to say when it comes to being a better performing medical sales professional. Evolvysuccesscom get there, fill out the application, talk to one of our account executives. But if you’re someone out there that’s looking, we specialize in medical sales, but our passion is getting the right message out there in the most powerful way, and we happen to do medical sales because we absolutely love that industry. I absolutely love that industry.
01:07:29
But the reality is, if you’re someone with a message in the healthcare space, why not collaborate with entities that can help you get the word out? So again, visit evarvistestcom. Felt an application. Let’s have a conversation and make sure you tune in next week for another episode of the Medical Sales Podcast. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and remember I have a customized and personalized program that gets you into the medical technology industry as a sales professional or any type of role for that matter. Become a top performer in your position and masterfully navigate your career to executive level leadership. Check out these programs and learn more at EvolvesAssesscom by visiting our site, filling out an application schedule some time with one of our account executives and allowing us to get you where you need to be. Stay tuned for more awesome content with amazing interviews on the Medical Sales Podcast.
Medical Territory Manager!
I was a Regional Sales Representative for Long-Term Care pharmacy services. I had dreamed of getting into the med sales industry when I went into my career as a nurse, but the pharmacy sales job came to me, and I had just settled. Fortunately, I had a job shakeup that allowed me to determine that now was the time to pursue my original vision.
I absolutely would not have this position without Samuel and the Evolve Your Success community. A lot of people my age would just stop trying, but EYS believed in me.
EYS allowed me to break into the industry in 90-Days after I had been trying on my own for over two years! I had lots of recruiter screenings, and a few interviews with hiring managers, but I was never offered a position.
Before EYS, I didn’t realize I was doing the bare minimum to get hired. I was applying everywhere, hoping to get noticed and waiting. It just wasn’t working! I didn’t know that that was not enough to compete in an industry this sought after, and against people who knew what I didn’t know about the process.
Of course, I had to think hard before making a financial investment that’s reasonably substantial. But when I read the testimonials of real med sales reps on the site and learned that I wasn’t the only one taking a chance on my success, that EYS was sharing that risk also, I knew I had to do it. Though you might be able to cobble together some of the steps of getting a role in med sales from online research on your own, you just can’t know what you don’t know!
The process of going through EYS presents this insider knowledge to the student, as well as giving you a progression of difficulty as you obtain the information, and you begin to master it. Not only that, but they give you access to amazing mentors and instructors, allow you to practice your interview skills, and teach you how to market yourself through social media and your own website! I cannot stress enough that EYS was the factor that made the difference in my successfully landing my dream job! The support, structure, and knowledge gained was invaluable!
I would recommend this course to ANYONE looking to break into medical sales
Thank you so much, EYS! This journey has been life changing and has resulted in the successful culmination of my 18-Year ambition! 
Sports Medicine in Phoenix! I extend so much gratitude to the Evolve Your Success group as I land this role and get ready to pursue my dream job. I am a Physical Therapist who became a little stuck in the profession due to issues with reimbursement and the difficulty for continued growth upwards. I turned to EYS to assist me in learning about the medical sales industry and gain knowledgable mentors who were able to help coach me in this process. I am a strong believer in surrounding yourself with the best and good things will happen. I did work hard, but with the support of my mentors and other colleagues going through a career change, I felt a sense of community and it confirmed my drive to get into this industry. I have already learned so much through the interview process, and feel very blessed to have had the resources this group provided. I have made lifelong friends and I cannot wait to continue to follow others’ journeys to pursue this incredible field. I urge you to give Evolve Your Success a try to gain mentorship, guidance, and support through any career transition.
and am excited to make a difference in patients’ lives as a Pharmaceutical Sales Specialist.
! Though I truly enjoyed working as a physical therapist, I can’t wait to start my career in the sales world as a Clinical Account Executive.
. I owe this opportunity to Samuel, the program, and the incredible mentors at EYS.
