Dr Andrew Greenland: 0:00

So welcome to Voices in Health and Wellness. This is the podcast where we have honest behind-the-scenes conversations with practitioners who are shaping the future of care. Today's guest is Dr. Niko Tejada, a physical therapist and founder of kinetic rehabilitation. Nico represents a new generation of clinicians, deeply clinical, deeply curious, and not content to simply inherit the system as it is. He's focused on movement, performance, and recovery, but also on how technology and innovation can genuinely improve outcomes rather than just add noise. So with that, I'd like to welcome you to the show, Nico, and thank you very much for joining us today.

Dr Niko Tejada: 0:33

Thank you, Andrew. It's a pleasure to be here and I appreciate the opportunity and yeah, hope this chat can be helpful to every anyone listening. And yeah, let's get started.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 0:43

Let's get started. So perhaps we could start at the top. Can you tell us what originally pulled you into physical therapy and tell us a little bit about your journey as to how you've ended up doing what you currently do?

Dr Niko Tejada: 0:53

Yeah, so I guess growing up, I've always been interested in health and wellness. I guess just on a personal level. Uh grew up as a soccer player and just interested in fitness and working out and eating well and all that stuff. Um, going through high school, loved the sciences, and you know, it was just something I was naturally good at. So yeah, right around, I guess, like the age of 15, 16, I just decided, you know, what's the most, I guess, holistic and naturalistic approach to, you know, dealing with a lot of these orthopedic injuries that I grew up with, and you know, I saw people, you know, going through. And I thought, you know, this is a passion that I think I could follow for the rest of my life. And, you know, ever since I've just been one building block at a time, one percent at a time, just working towards it, and it's led me to here.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 1:39

So sorry, carry on.

Dr Niko Tejada: 1:42

No, yeah. So, like I guess I started um in high school and then I graduated high school, went to Florida International University uh to get a bachelor's in science and physical education with a sports and fitness track. Um, so that kind of informed my formative years of you know just training and being around other professionals and you know, just the basics of what it what it means to be a movement specialist and what it means to be a healthcare professional and what the field looks like.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 2:12

And thinking about to early on, what did you think a PT um would look like and how has that changed over time for you as you've kind of experienced it?

Dr Niko Tejada: 2:22

I guess since the beginning, and just like as a person, I'm very open-minded. So even though like there were preconceived notions of what physical therapy was, I never attached myself to that personally. But definitely going into the field, there is this kind of belief that um physical therapy is just something you get after surgery. Um, you know, it's like a kind of continuing care following an orthopedic uh intervention by a you know, MD, a medical doctor. Um, and you know, it's just kind of like a complimentary care to your primary care physician or something else. Um and since then I feel like it's evolved both here, like in the United States and here in Florida where I practice to become a direct care. Uh, so patients can come directly see me without a referral. And so I feel like that's the biggest change that I thought going into it. I thought I'd always be part of like the hospital system and the bigger picture. But you know, in practice, I'm kind of more of an individual working with the network uh of professionals around me.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 3:24

And was there a moment when you realized that traditional pathways in this space were not going to be enough for you personally?

Dr Niko Tejada: 3:32

Uh yeah. I mean, definitely going through it, like you we do internships, so we just kind of shadow, I guess your more traditional here would be like a core rehabilitation, which was the first one I kind of shadowed, and then Memorial Healthcare around here in Broward County is another big hospital system. So I got to see, you know, how the traditional care was, and definitely didn't see myself as a part of it going through school. So I already, you know, kind of um independently kind of studied and looked at other people that what I wanted to do, and you know, just followed their journey and tried to make those steps to become, you know, like independent and and you know, truly care about the patient instead of you know just trying to maximize efficiency for these healthcare companies.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 4:19

So think about to your training. What parts of the training prepared you well and what parts didn't prepare you at all for what you've kind of evolved into doing now?

Dr Niko Tejada: 4:27

Yeah, so I would say at the University of Miami, which is where I got my doctorate in physical therapy, is definitely where I got most of my, I guess, independent thinking from, in that although they they do treat and they do have a hospital system that they, you know, help individuals with in the community, they ultimately um you know focused on teaching us the fundamentals and let us be creative in in the way that we that we communicate or you know the the solutions that we the creative solutions that we have to come up with in today's you know society and healthcare climate.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 5:04

And looking back, what beliefs about rehab or recovery have you already had to unlearn through your own kind of personal development in this space?

Dr Niko Tejada: 5:14

I would say the psychosocial factors are probably the determining factor of many physical rehab, unfortunately, right? Because like if people had unlimited time and resources, of course, they would prioritize their health and eat right and do all the right things. And if they had the time and education to do all these things, of course, that would be the ultimate solution to a lot of these even physical ailments. But the truth is, yeah, I think today um the consumer can be educated, but is ultimately misled in a lot of ways. So the biggest thing for us is like education and you know, just trying to find ways to practically eat right and work out in a way that's not gonna break the bank or just waste your time because you're hurting yourself more than helping yourself.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 6:03

So moving on to kinetic rehabilitation, can you talk us through it um what the business model looks like and what problem you're trying to solve when you initially created it?

Dr Niko Tejada: 6:12

Yeah, so um, I guess starting off, like as a new graduate, you know, you don't really have much option of uh of being an independent uh practitioner because that's realistically from a I guess from a patient care standpoint, you're not ready. And from a business standpoint, you're definitely not ready. So going through it, you know, it was working for other private healthcare practices and learning from them and you know, picking the brain of my mentors and just trying to to understand what it takes to like run a successful business that puts the patient first. And that's what I think kinetic rehabilitation is trying to trying to do. You know, we're a smarter way to move, I think, you know, in the physical, in the in the in the mental and the emotional, as much as we can. So I think the goal, the goal ultimately was to empower patients and empower healthcare practitioners to kind of practice on their own. So one of the ways that I do that is like I'm pretty lean in the way I operate in terms of I'm trying to use uh new new things in the market, such as technology and just like the flexibility of this new world, such as like this space that I'm in right now, is just a rental for the hour, and it's you know, um, it's in a nice place, and it's uh allows a company and someone like me that's an independent person to ultimately see clients very soon at a low cost and yeah, provide be able to provide competitive prices to other bigger healthcare companies that you know own the space and have to have huge overhead and things like that.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 7:55

And who are the clients that you feel you do your best work with? Are there any particular things that you specialize in or you with your approach? I mean, I'm just trying to think about your your best clients, the ones that you're most happy with working.

Dr Niko Tejada: 8:09

I would say that my approach is like anyone that wants to get better, of course, you know, has to be open-minded to like the things that I'm gonna uh suggest because they probably are doing things wrong if they're in pain and moving in pain. So definitely my the most people that are willing to learn and willing to move um and do things are definitely the ones that see the most success. But I think the problem, and I think that's one of the things that kinetic also tries to establish is that you're treating the whole body. And like, yes, I specialize, I do I work on every joint from like your jaw to your hands to your feet and everything in between. And I think like working on all of that and approaching, you know, on my initial evaluation, I'm looking at everything. I'm not just like, yeah, you might have complained about one thing, but realistically, um, you lived a long life, and there's probably multiple injuries that are affecting this, kind of like a, you know, and I like to tell my patients like Jenga, right? You know, there might be a little piece here in your ankle or in your knee that's leading to all these imbalances. And if we approach it from a more global perspective, then I think that's what um leads to my patients feeling better. But yeah, sometimes I might you might come in complaining about elbow pain and I'm working on your hand, you might not understand, but yeah, that's kind of like why I like my patients to be open-minded and try to, you know, try to go deeper and figure out these problems on a bigger level and not just it hurts here, just work there.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 9:28

And what makes your approach meaningfully different from a traditional PT clinic? Is it that holistic angle or there are other things that you do that would look um different to you know a patient who's you know shopping around for different PTs?

Dr Niko Tejada: 9:41

Yeah, I would say it is that global approach and like holistic approach that a lot of times physical therapy puts the burden on the patient and they say, Hey, you don't stretch enough, hey, you don't exercise enough, hey, you don't do these things enough. And like it's almost like you're you're just beating someone down instead of like inspiring them. And I would say like that's where my that's where my expertise and skill comes in is I meet you where you're at, right? If you're a professional athlete, okay, I'm gonna meet you where you're at and try to overcome that goal, and that's my movement as a movement specialist, what I've been trained at. But at the same time, I've also been trained at helping the person just learning how to get up or roll in bed, right? And I will approach that situation with the patience and respect it deserves, and I feel like it shines through um in my bedside manner, and people actually feel like you know they're being helped instead of just being judged um for their weaknesses, right? Because ultimately that is my job. I have to point out your physical weaknesses, and I feel like you can relate to that, right? You're always talking about people and how could they be better and how they're messing up and how whatever it just gets it can be it can get like a beat down, and that's why people sometimes don't want to see us because they just feel like they're just being uh you know, um just being told what to do or told how to feel, and ultimately I don't do that. I give the space to the patient to tell me how they feel and why they're feeling it. And a lot of times it is not just physical but psychosocial that comes out, and and then we can approach it, right? Once you gain the trust of a patient, and I feel like this goes for any healthcare professional. If you if you gain the trust of the patient, now we're on the same page, now we can work towards the goal, and we're not we're not trying to pull away from each other, but working together towards a goal, and I think that's what leads to patient goals being met and outcomes being met and people feeling better and feeling like they they're respected and we do our job.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 11:31

Thank you. Um, do you think your mindset as an entrepreneur developed before or after you became a clinician? I'm gonna come to the kind of innovation stuff in a minute, and I'm just curious about the entrepreneur piece.

Dr Niko Tejada: 11:42

I would say, I would say my dad isn't is like my my inspiration from the entrepreneur side because my mom worked in healthcare, so she was a orthopedic physical um sorry, surgical technician, so she kind of helped with the orthopedic surgeries, and that's kind of where I got my I guess healthcare medical side. And my dad has always been, you know, kind of more of the hustle grind graphic designer, marketing kind of person. So I'm definitely a mix of both of those. So I guess you could say it started from there. Um, and I've just always followed it and always listened to to the advice given to me by my parents and any other mentors going through life. Like, I just definitely think that in today's society, like you yeah, just being an employee for a healthcare company is just not where my heart lies and never never was to begin with. But obviously, entrepreneurship was always the route. Just it's just I never knew it would get it would keep going this far, especially with all this new technology. It's crazy.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 12:41

So, how do you decide when to innovate versus just sticking to the fundamentals of your night, your core training?

Dr Niko Tejada: 12:47

I would say I actually follow the fundamentals to a T that it looks unorthodox. I would say like because of the healthcare constraint, like the time constraints, the resource constraints, the fact that patients have to jump around from physical therapist to physical therapist leads you to not be able to practice to your fullest degree. And so when you take physical therapy to the fullest degree and you're meeting with patients every week, two times a week, three times a week, you know about their personal life, you know all this stuff, and you're practicing physical therapy to the way it was taught in school, yeah, it looks unorthodox to the to what is being practiced, 99% of clinics out there. So I am following it to a T, right? If you if you go through the physical therapy lessons, it says work on every single joint from arm to neck and establish both sides strength. But yeah, that's just one pat one bullet point on a slide that realistically your teacher is just gonna skip over because it's not practical to 90% of you that are just gonna go work at a as an as an employee for a healthcare company and the patient's gonna be bounced bounced around and you're not gonna be able to do that because yeah, just the constraints of what the healthcare system has right now.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 14:00

Thank you. So you mentioned um technology and new techniques. So, what's kind of hot at the moment, and also how do you avoid um innovation becoming a distraction?

Dr Niko Tejada: 14:13

That's a good question because definitely in the physical therapy field, there's you hear a bunch of things like um dry needling, red light therapy, you know, hot, cold, a bunch of different modalities. Uh, shockwave is like the newest and greatest thing. Laser. We can go on and on and on cupping. And yeah, to cut through the noise is I think goes back to those like you want to be working on the movement impairment or joint impairment system that is going wrong. You should not be looking at all these modalities that reduce pain to be the solution to your problem. And in that case, then you are just like doing symptom management. And it goes back to like, I guess, like the opioid crisis, like the those, those, those techniques of physical therapy and the opioid crisis was kind of at the same time, in that you know, we were just treating the symptoms, and that's great. I mean, obviously, you know, when something comes to me and they just had an injury or ankle sprain a day ago, yeah, I'll use those modalities and you know, whichever ones that I can afford realistically, right? Like, that's what I'm gonna do, and that's why some of these bigger um healthcare companies, you know, appeal to the person, appeal to the to the consumer because they promise that, hey, I'm gonna relieve pain with all this stuff, but then they never address the root cause of why um there's this like biomechanical impairment, you know. And I say, like, that's where you got to kind of meet people in the middle, right? Like give them pain relief, give them kind of what they want, but at the same time, I like to one of my favorite movies is Inception. Like, I want to convince them that my idea of fixing their movement impairment is like what they want and aligns with their goals. So I feel like that's that's the magical skill of us, you know, trying to convince people, you know, what of what we want is what they want, and align that, and that's what cuts through all the BS. And I think that's you know where we got to kind of meet people, but it's kind of hard to do when people have their guard up, especially when you know the healthcare system has burned them before.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 16:10

Thank you. I'm smiling because it's one of my favorite films of all time. But um I'm sure you don't work in uh covert ways like trying to implant ideas into people's brains. No, I don't think um so where do clients struggle most before they ever walk through your door?

Dr Niko Tejada: 16:27

Where do the clients suffer from the world?

Dr Andrew Greenland: 16:30

Where do they struggle most with thinking about your kind of patient population as you think of them now? Where are their biggest struggles?

Dr Niko Tejada: 16:36

It's the fear avoidance behavior. It's when it's when it's when they've had surgeries in the past, when they have these like conceived notions of motion or they can't run, right? Like my doctor told me I can't run, my doctor told me I can't squat, my doctor told me I can't, I can't, and like now everything becomes like I can't do these things, and it's like, yes, like how much of course is like life should not be super painful doing a squat or running or doing these things, but ultimately, like you do have to live life and be a little bit uncomfortable. And sometimes like we have these realistic expectations of what progress really is, right? Because I feel like what I meet people is sometimes, especially like busy professionals or people who are athletes, whatever, at a point in life when you were focused on your a goal, you kind of turn off the sensors of your brain of like physical impairments. If your family can't eat or something, and you have to go work triple shift or something, then you're not worried about your knee pain. And then eventually, one day, you know, hopefully in your life, like you have time to worry about your physical ailments, and now it seems like a mountain, and you want to just fix it. So you want either surgery or you want this injection, you want to go to physical therapy first time and just like be done with it. But in reality, this has been a problem that's been brewing in the background. But of course, your brain is a supercomputer that can just numb parts of it and heighten other parts when it needs to to survive. But now that you're not in that survival mode, right? Now that you're in that parasympathetic mode, now it's kind of like you beat yourself up because wow, I should have been doing this five years ago, should have been doing this six months ago. And I'm like, no, you know, let's just start where we're at and like take it from there. But that's like the hardest, that's the hardest challenge. The hardest challenge is like saying, hey, this is where you're really at. Look in the mirror, be like, hey, I'm okay with where I'm at, and then the next step is this, and my goal is gonna come here, but it's not gonna come tomorrow because I have to be realistic and and make the small adjustments that are actually gonna get me to where I want to be.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 18:39

Thank you. If somebody shadowed you for a week, what would surprise them most? And perhaps it might be a more conventional inverted commerce um therapist watching what you do. What would what would what would surprise them, do you think?

Dr Niko Tejada: 18:52

How much I care about my patients? How much like I actually like when I'm telling them things and and doing things like I go above and beyond than most people would, in a way that they might, in the beginning, mistaken as like, oh, I'm just trying to, I'm just like telling them what to do, or you know, being too blunt. But I feel like by the end of the week, they would realize that wow, this guy is trying to actually look out for people because they would ultimately see that the people that do listen do get better, do fix their injuries, and you know, don't relapse.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 19:27

Thank you. And what do clients misunderstand the most about recovery or movement? Is it because they've sometimes been told by the doctors that you can't do this and this that and the other? Or is there anything else that they just generally misunderstand about injury and their recovery?

Dr Niko Tejada: 19:44

The nervous system is like more impactful than any any joint, any arthritis, any tendonitis, any your nerve sensitivity could have mistaken you for like you thinking that I'm breaking your knee. If you're if your elbow is not straight. In 10 years, let's say, if I try to straighten it, you're gonna think it's gonna break, but there is no structural damage. It's just that nerve and that sensitization in your brain is so on a low threshold that people mistaken it like that's what they run away from and that's how they compensate. And if people were to kind of just like understand that this mind-body connection is more of just like a nervous system thing, and if they kind of just like learn how to regulate their nervous system, because again, now we have we can go into like the whole pharmacological pharmacological implication of this, but yes, a lot of the times you're on you're super caffeinated, you're super just like wired up that you're never really able to distinguish what what arouses you, what inhibits you, what you know, they're all over the place, and they don't even like they don't even realize that yeah, that plays a role on how your joints feel. If you're always aroused, if you're always on this excited state, your muscles are always gonna be tense, you know. So if they were just learned more about that than rather about all the you know, my my my joints are bone on bone or it cracks every time, or or this MRI or this X-ray, like yeah, that's important, but that's just a snapshot in time, and you need to be more in tune with your body, and that comes with doing the little things that you've been told since you were a baby about your posture, about all these things that you just refuse. Honestly, it's the it's the refusal to take responsibility for like, you know, you've done this, you've been told you know you're supposed to be doing this for years, but they can't come with the realization they want the shortcut. There is no shortcut, just start from where you're at, and I promise you're gonna get closer to where you want to be faster than you think. They they they underestimate the the macro of these small changes, and they want the micro change right now. And this delayed gratification is just the biggest problem, the biggest problem. They need to learn that that's what they should be chasing at all times. You know, like I still work out and I'm still chasing things, I'm still not perfect, I'm still trying to improve my movement, I'm still in pain. If I ask anybody on the side of the road right now, if they're in pain, they're all gonna say, yes, because your brain's gonna always prioritize and gonna want to do something new. If you if you're just doing something like, you know, if you're just on an island doing nothing and you have no reason of being, you're gonna find a new something. You're always gonna your brain's gonna always prioritize a new pain, a new, a new struggle to try to overcome. Because I don't know why, but that's what that's the way we're wired. I figured out.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 22:34

And what part of your work feels the most you, the most Niko?

Dr Niko Tejada: 22:41

I'd say just like like right, there's a there's a moment when I treat somebody and the kind of the joints and the whole leg and the whole everything just sets right into place. And I'd say like right in that moment when I figured it out, it's like a Rubik's Cube to me. Right when I figured it out, I just feel like a kid, and I just feel like I just completed it, and the person feels the immediate relief, and I'm just like, this is this is uh everything I ever wanted to be when I was a kid. I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to have fun doing it, and I feel like in that moment everything clicks, and I feel like yeah, I could do that for the rest of my life and teach people for that for the rest of my life.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 23:14

Amazing. So obviously, um, kinetic is a business, and I'm just curious to know what from your perspective is working particularly well in the business side of things.

Dr Niko Tejada: 23:24

Um, I would say like the the flexibility of creating a brand. I would say most physical therapy businesses when they start just look at like patient volume, their margins on how much they're making, and like their location, or like you know, the real estate aspect of just like owning a practice and I guess like getting a mortgage and doing all that stuff, um, and hiring employees. But I would say like I'm doing like the complete opposite in that I'm trying to broaden my reach as much as I can. Um, I'm trying not to own and have anything to tie me down or employees to tie me down because I think ultimately like in this new age of healthcare, the real the I guess I guess like the real money is in information and brand like recognition in that like people need to be educated by the right people. Like I feel like we as healthcare professionals, we get into this field because we want to help people and we want to help the person that's right in front of us that we can see and very and and relate with, right? But in reality, like as people are getting to people who need our help are being reached by people who are not healthcare professionals, like fitness influencers, especially in the I'm just talking about the physical therapy field, but this could apply to all the fields where they're just getting you know unfiltered knowledge about like science from non-scientists that don't know the literature and are just saying whatever is like hot and and people are getting hurt because of it. And it's our responsibility, it's my responsibility to ultimately educate the people and get them to trusted people, trusted other physical therapists. Like, I want to, yeah, there should be a more of a yeah, I guess like the court of public opinion should side with us and not be like so into like the the popular audience, the popular view. I mean, you have like celebrities recommending what to eat and what nutrition and the diets and the the what to put on their face and what to rub on their skin. Like, what are we doing? There should be rich, there should be like super famous dermatologists, you know, that are that are the ones that are represent all these things for the skincare. There should be, you know, people that are fitness professionals should be vetted. There should be, you know, somehow we need to regain the space. And yeah, I feel like we're too involved in the in the micro to see the macro changes that are occurring right now. And I feel like once we once we focus on that and we can establish that and we control the narrative, if we can control the narrative, then we can control the flow of attention and and ultimately where people go and where they trust to go. Because right now it is these institutions like you that just have the people's attention and and garner their trust right now. But we have to take that for ourselves and take it from them because no one else is going to do it for us.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 26:24

You you mentioned brand there, which is obviously massive. Could you tell us a little bit about what you what your brand is, what it stands for, and the messaging behind it? Because I'm really interested in this.

Dr Niko Tejada: 26:33

Yeah, so kinetic is it's kinetic, like kinetic energy. Um, so movement energy. I'm a big believer in action, and that like you know, there is no, you know, thought is great, and you know, philosophy is one of my favorite subjects, but without action, you know, there's there's nothing. Um, so kinetic energy, but it's IQ, and that's the logo, and that's IQ is for a smarter way to move. So same thing, like, you know, in in how I teach my patients is a smarter way to move. I'm just the most efficient, you know, I guess the shortest cut that I know to moving better, as well as, yeah, like I previously mentioned about the business structure and how we as healthcare professionals should move, it should be smarter, it should be, it should be with greater, greater goals in mind and and should be not so limited to to a location or or a group of people. Like we need to stand for these ideas and these morals and these and these things that that we believe in. We know we know is true and will help people, but you know, they're being influenced in the wrong way, and it's leading to mass, you know, injuries and problems down the road that we're gonna have to deal with again, us, because ultimately we're gonna have to be the ones that burden the sh uh, you know, carry the carry the burden of of all these things that that are going on, like uh like yeah, the steroid, the mass steroid use in like young people. Like I already know. I already know in 20, 30 years, these people's bones and muscles and ligaments and tendons are gonna be ruined, and you know, I could do something right now to educate them instead of spilling businesses to profit from them later. Like, I don't want to do that. I can't.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 28:10

What's being more difficult in um you know establishing the business, the brand? Um, is there anything that you it's been harder than you expected, or there are any sort of challenges, bottlenecks, or obstacles that you're currently working through or have had to overcome in the work you do?

Dr Niko Tejada: 28:25

Yeah, um I would say like, but they're just like like yeah, hurdles that I thought that I kind of want to say no. I kind of want to say no in that like I've taken it all in stride and I've kind of always been ahead of the curve, I'm not gonna lie. Like I graduated, undergraduate in three years. I immediately went into physical therapy. I you can ask any of my classmates, like they always knew I was gonna do this. Like it's kind of it's kind of I've taken it to stride and like I don't let it, I don't let hurdles become hurdles. I just that's like you know, just just an action I need to take, right? Like I don't I don't let it I don't frame it like that in my head, if that makes sense. So yeah, there's things that I have to do. Um, but I don't look at it like it's challenging. I just say like, okay, this is just my if I get a flat tire, I'm just gonna fix the flat tire, right? It's not a challenge, it's just a just a task.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 29:22

So if I gave you a magic wand and you could fix anything that you wanted to in the business, you from what you're saying, you wouldn't need to use it, you save it for another day.

Dr Niko Tejada: 29:31

Uh yeah, I would save it for when I have a real problem. I would say like there's just yeah, just time. Time needs to do its thing, right? Like you can't some things you can't rush, like this. You know, I can't tell you, hey, let's do the meeting yesterday. No, it has to happen today, and it's gonna happen today. And um, when it comes and when the time comes, for me, I'll be ready. That's that's how I feel.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 29:52

And speaking of time, if your demand suddenly surged overnight and you had a massive influx of new referrals, what would happen? Would anything break? Or how would you kind of cope with that?

Dr Niko Tejada: 30:05

No, I don't I don't think it would break. I think I would just I would find solutions. I mean, at that point, if it if it really was an influx, I would just yeah, I would get help. I have a network of people. I don't think I'm alone in this. Definitely made connections. Um and realistically, there more patients is is not is not a problem, really. Like, we'll definitely figure it out. If it's not just me, if it's other people. Again, I'm not in this for my own personal gain. I really do think um, yeah, that people just need better care and a lot of their problems would kind of go away in a in a in an easier way than than what they're going through right now. So that's my life's mission, and I'm not really gonna be pressed by the the business side of it. Of course, like will it will it affect my my margins, I guess, or or my profits or my revenue or things like that? Yeah, sure, but it's not gonna affect me on my personal life mission that is always gonna continue no matter what.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 31:08

So think about the future. Where would you like to see Connecticut in the next six to 12 months? What does success look like to you?

Dr Niko Tejada: 31:16

Um, success looks like just helping more people. I mean, like getting my brands to grow bigger um is is is the goal right now. Definitely just reaching out to the community and finding people who are like-minded like me, like you said, right? These these patients might influx, and I need to have people around me that are that are ready to answer the call. Um, as well as yeah, just growing my growing my reach and helping people figure out that they're not alone in this, you know, if they want to find a space and a community where we actually care about figuring out the root cause to these movement problems that we've had, and we're willing to be holistic and open-minded about the way we approach it and try to find the truth. I think I think everybody can kind of get behind that because I'm not gonna ultimately say there is one way to move or there is one best way to do something. It's kind of that curiosity that's always gonna fuel me because I know that in a hundred years we're all gonna be doing something different. So, you know, it's just about continuing that scientific discovery and never stopping, never stop, never stop trying to learn, never stop trying to connect with others. And I think just continuing to grow um is gonna be the goal. There is no there's no moment, there's no event that's gonna signal success for me. It's just gonna be the more people I can help and the more people that are on my team.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 32:36

And do you see um digital tools, educational group formats playing a role in the future for you or the the the sector?

Dr Niko Tejada: 32:44

100%. I mean, are we talking one year, two years, three years, ten years? I think eventually we're gonna be able to do PT through like VR. Like people are just gonna put on a virtual reality and it's gonna be able to sense all the angles. And I'm just gonna, you're just gonna be in a room and then I'm gonna be somewhere else, and I could like appear to you and move. And it's already like in some of the national conventions, they're already like uh talking about it. So that's like five, ten years down the road, but closer, there's definitely motion analysis in that like videos, and now the AI is getting really good at like measuring angles of like your joints and stuff like that. So for screening, especially for screening, that's that's the best part. Um, is that like let's say you had a let's say you had a chat bot or like a large language model, right? But it was only based off physical therapy research, right? And let's say you chatted with this thing and you told it all its things, and you know, at 24-7, concierge, AI buddy that you know just analyzed your movement, and then eventually you went to go see a healthcare practitioner, and they already had this whole history and this whole thing of watching you work out, of watching you move, and that makes our time much more efficient, right? So now I can apply my interventions appropriately without having to screen, without having to ask, okay, like what medications do you take? What? No, no, no, no, you know, all that screening and all that follow-up post is also handled by technology, right? Like if if if the session is being recorded, like I sometimes use metaglasses, right, to record them doing their exercises or just any explanations, and I upload it to a drive in which they can have access to. But if an AI had to that plus companion pre and post, I mean, um, Medicare is finally approving this year remote therapeutic monitoring RTM. And so, like, this this stuff is already being you know experimented with. Of course, you know, it's gonna take a while for it to all make sense, and you know, you're gonna need huge data centers for medical technology. I mean, I can't imagine for all these hospitals and everything, what they're gonna need to have, because in the future that's what medicine's gonna be. It's just gonna be an information thing where whichever whichever hospital or you know, whichever um whichever healthcare practitioner has the biggest picture is gonna be the one that's gonna treat the best. Right? Like if if I have this small, if I have only 15 minutes to do a history versus someone else who has your whole cryptocurrency of your whole life since you were one year old and in a thing, they're gonna they're gonna they're gonna be better than me no matter what. Even if I am the best physical therapist, the the one with more information is gonna beat me.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 35:32

And finally, Nico, what would you like your clients to say about kinetic five years from now?

Dr Niko Tejada: 35:38

I would say that it was a first of its kind, and that and that and that he had a vision and that he you know followed it through, and now everybody practices like this. That's what I hope. That's what I hope because I ultimately don't want to be the only one to do it. I ultimately ultimately want everybody to just this is the way to practice, and this is the way that you're gonna make your patients better. Ultimately, that's realistic, that's cost effective, that's yeah, you know, patient-focused, patient-first, patient-centered. Um, and I think it'll also improve profits for these these companies because the people are gonna get injured less and less surgeries and less all this stuff. So, you know, win, win, win, win, win. We gotta just continue to like innovate because I mean, you know, if medicine was still the same way it was 20 years ago, we'd all be not not doing so great.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 36:31

For sure. And with that, Niko, I'd really like to thank you for joining me today. It's been such a great conversation. Really appreciate how you've openly shared the vision and realities of what you do. I think that's important because that's where the learning really lives for us as practitioners and listeners to this show. So thank you very much for joining us.

Dr Niko Tejada: 36:45

Really appreciate that. Hope to inspire everybody out there. Thanks.