Active Rehab an interview with WebExercises Co Founder David Cruz | Podcast Ep. 105

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. This week we have a great episode is an interview with Web Exercises co founder David Cruz. We talk about bridging the gap and building relationships with other healthcare providers. We talk about active care and rehab in your practice. We talk a little bit about continuing education and more. Dave is a great guy and he does an awesome job in this interview that you do not want to miss. All right. And as promised, we are here with Dave Cruz, co founder of Web Exercises. Dave, thanks for coming on today.

Hey, my pleasure. Thank you for having me. Really been looking forward to this for a while.

You got it. And you and I were talking a little bit pre roll about we have tons of stuff, stuff in common. I think a lot of chiropractors, a lot of people listening are going to feel the same way. And it's, you know, interdisciplinary communication, marketing technology and active care and rehab, which seem like maybe wildly different things, but I think both of us have really put a chiropractic focus on it. And for anybody that's not familiar with you and or web Exercises, I'd love it if you kind of filled in the gaps. What got you involved with chiropractic to begin with and kind of catch us up to speed with where you're at today.

Sure. No, no, no, Absolutely. So graduated from Life west back in 96, so can't believe it's been over 20 years at this point. Majority of my practice was sports medicine and with an orthopedic group where I did a lot of rehab for the docs there. And what became clear about 12, 13 years ago was at least for me, I felt that getting people to move was just so important in exercise and stretching, whatever it might be, whether it be something simple they do for some sedentary person, just getting them to move a little bit better, or maybe you're working with an athlete and there really wasn't anything good out of the market that just helped convey that to the patient once they left. I mean, we were all dealing with those stick figures that everybody uses, but everybody curses and you copy them over and over again. They're terrible. So I thought there was, you know, maybe a better way to do this. And software engineer happened to be a patient of mine and that tended to be a problem. Sorry. And the software engineer was a patient. So what we did was, hey, how about we start looking at making it a better way for patients to get exercises? Can we do it through the web and well, in 2005, it was a little slow with dial up. So we had some challenges, but, you know, we figured out a solution to just get patients involved more at home seeing some exercises that they're supposed to be doing with some clear instructions. And that was kind of really, that it was more of a self serving, how can it help my practice? But as it turns out, it really turned into a whole separate business. And so we've been going strong for about 12 years now.

That's awesome. And with your history kind of working in a interdisciplinary or a multidisciplinary clinic, you know, a little, a little while back at this point. So really as, you know, as what I'd consider a trailblazer, or once you get beyond five or 10 years ago, that was pretty few and far between. So what were some of the biggest, you know, maybe one or two the biggest challenges and one or two of the biggest opportunities that you personally saw, kind of working with other physicians day in and day out?

Yeah, good. Let me, let me circle back and there's just. So we're all in the kind of same playing field in the sense that I know that there's a lot of different individuals in that same. Some chiros that are listening right now do a lot of rehab, others are interested in it somewhere in between. And the one thing I want to say is that exercise and rehab is one of what I believe one of our core principles. Going back to BJ Palmer and his clinic, they actually had a gym and an exercise facility there. And a lot of times if I lecture, I'll throw up an image of this. And so we know from the early days of chiropractors in the 1900s, that exercise was a critical component to better health and wellness overall. And so I look at it as doesn't matter whether you are a sports guy, whether you're a wellness guy, hey, exercise is good for everybody. And so with that said, and you know, more specifically kind of what you're talking about in a relationship with other medical professionals, exercise is a great bridge because it's a common language. Medical and ortho, that's what they understand, that's what they know. And it becomes a great talking point. It creates a great bridge in that me personally, I used to work with the local college in the training room during the football season. So I got to know the ortho for the team at that point in time. But there's a lot of different ways it's relationship building. Just like with anything they. When I say they, whether it be md let's talk more about an ortho. I mean, they're what they do, but really they don't know a lot about what we do. And most are very open to chiropractic and the benefits of it as long as we speak their language. And I found that going in with a clear plan and this is how we're going to treat from an acute stage, this is how we're going to work in rehab. I mean there's again, it's a common language, it's a common bridge to creating those relationships. And even, you know, if anybody's, I know you are much, much more of an expert than Ike as you have a whole, you know, system on this. Jeff, in my experience, one of the best ways is when you see a patient, just generate a quick little narrative and send it to the ortho and start that communication, let them know what you're doing and then send a follow up. And from there that's where at least they'll start to get to know your name and start to build that relationship. And then one day walk in a couple of these narratives of patients that you've seen that are also patients of theirs. See if you can set up a lunch, meet with them, have a lunch, you get to know them. It's relationships. They want to know you as a person. And once they know what you're doing is somewhat evidence based and you're doing what's consistent and you're given some exercise and stretches, it's a real common language and the relationship can grow from there.

Yep, no doubt. And I think that you touched on a couple items in there that I think are super important. And it's like completely coincidental, but literally, I just got off the phone with a new member of the evidence based chiropractor and he was like, oh my. The clinic. He was working associate documentary in the clinic he was working in, practicing in currently. He told me that yeah, we send those eval notes, but they never sent the re eval note. And I'm like, you got the social proof that you exist down pat, but you got to show the improvement, you know what I mean? And I could not agree more. I mean, case notes, research, kind of that evidence based portion you touched on and then meeting the doc, building trust and rapport. Those are the three tenants that we kind of talk about all the time. And I absolutely could not agree more with what you just said and as it relates into the exercise front and really with web exercises. I know, I agree again with what you said that hey, there's a lot of common language through exercise, but historically chiropractors have had difficulty accessing it other than kind of the archaic handouts. And sometimes they have a time and a place. But I would love, if you don't mind, I'd love for you to tell a little bit for any docs that are not familiar with web exercises. Like, what does it entail? What does it mean? What do you guys have up? How many, like, what kind of doc could look for it and what could they look for if they visit?

Yeah. So web exercises is just a way for providers to make it simple to create exercise programs, share those programs with patients, and kind of check also how the patients are doing when they're not in the office. And if you're a sports doc and you know what rehab to do, we've got 3,4000 exercises for every body region at all different levels. Yeah. So if you want to go in there and choose, you know, you know, your specific exercises, boom, you have them there. But what I found is that a lot of docs don't have a big background. They have a little bit, but they want to learn more. And so what we've done is we have protocols. We have some 50 protocols that make it really easy in different phases, from an ankle sprain to a shoulder problem to a low back problem. And make it really simple. So they can search by a certain condition or even pull it up by an ICD9 code. And then they're going to get about six or so exercises for that protocol. Those have instructions, video they can print for their records. They can easily put it in their EMR and then they can email it to their patient. Their patient gets a nice experience. They have a mobile friendly browser. So whether it's an iPhone or Android, they can see the exercises with clear video. And then the cool thing is that they can actually give you feedback to the provider how their exercise is doing, did they have pain or not? And then the provider can see that and actually print that for the chart notes as well. So we try and keep that kind of a full 360 approach. So the care doesn't end when they leave, when they walk out of the door, it really continues on and just helping them be more successful. Because, I mean, their success is our success. Right. And so if we can give them the tools to be successful when they're not in our office, which is, you know, 98%, 99% of the day, they're not in our office. Right. So let's just make them More successful.

That's awesome. And you know, and with that, I mean, that's like a crazy amount of data and a crazy amount of exercises. So let us peek behind the curtain a little bit. Like, how long has it taken you guys to get all that built? And quite frankly, I didn't know about some of the, you know, kind of the pre built protocols. I agree. A lot of docs, they might, you know, hit up a weekend and get some information during a seminar. We'll talk about education in a moment. But they might get a little bit, but they might not feel that like absolute confidence really implementing in their practice. So I think, you know, having some protocols on there is just genius, especially with a library that big. But as you went through that build process, what was that like? I mean, that must take quite a while to put together a lot of.

Gray hair because of it now. Yeah, but with any business, whether it's software, whether it's chiropractic practice, if you're not evolving and growing, you're devolving. Right. And it's the same with software. I don't have any software background. I know clinically what I know and I know what I want to convey that digitally. Fortunately, that patient, who's still my lead programmer today, is very talented and he was able to create a system of kind of what I envisioned. But it's a constant, ongoing process. We're constantly, we shoot new content, you know, five, six times a year, we're constantly doing updates. And just like with any business, right. If you're not working on your business, then it's not going to grow and flourish. So just like with the practice, if you're not grown from a business standpoint, from a professional chiropractic standpoint, hey, you're going to be left behind. And it's kind of the same thing. We're constantly updating, changing based on what works, what doesn't work, and constantly learning. Right. Always learn. Right. So whether it's academically or business, yeah, no doubt.

I think it's always watering that garden. And with that we kind of touched on it. But I know both you and I travel a ton and really education is kind of the core of what we both do. And I know you guys have been working on some education components for docs to be able to do. While it's still nice to travel and get in those CES in person, obviously, I think from a digital perspective, that's the next horizon within chiropractic is really being able to do more remote and being able to access some interesting courses, some interesting topics and learning at your convenience. You know, kind of that Netflix style, so to speak, where you can, you know, pop it on and check it out. So if you don't mind, tell all the listeners out there, again, I know you guys have had some exciting things going on behind the scenes regarding an education platform that's, that's getting out there in the world and let us hear about it a little bit.

Yeah, so education is the key to everything, whether again, your business or personal growth or whatever when it comes to a product. I mean, if you don't educate, it's a widget, whatever that product is. Right. So we've started with education for our providers in really trying to help the practicing clinician, the guy in the trenches that doesn't have a huge background in rehab, how can we provide some good education that gives them the understanding of what exercises to do for the neck, back, some shoulder, knee and just some really direct application on Monday morning. And so we've started some education that in that way. And we also, that was through webinars and we also launched a webinar series which is free for anybody, even if they're not a WebEx member, WebExercise member. And we do those twice a month and we get some of the best thought leaders of the industry. And we've been doing that for the past year and a half. We get, I mean, sometimes excess of a thousand registers and it's, it's really just education based. It's, we're not doing a lot of sales on it or anything. It's, it's, how can we give some great information to make clinicians just better educated to get better outcomes and if we can provide a little education to help that and help them and help patients, great. Right. With that said, what was really clear is people became very, and are very interested in this and were also interested in ces. So over the past six, nine months, we actually build out our own online learning platform called MYCE courses. It's called mycecourses.com and really we look at this now as the hub of education. So if you're a clinician and we look at clinicians, you know, to some degree a little bit the same. If you assess somebody and apply treatment with your hands or some modality and so forth, that's, that's what this platform is about. How can we just create better education with great speakers and great content? There's going to be, there's non CE content currently. We're currently working Through PACE accreditation we have Cairo Content, Cairo CES beginning first quarter next year and moving on from there. But it's really just what I feel so critical in that to become a better clinician or business person, how do we make that information quick, digestible and from really experienced people in the industries that are doing exactly what all the everybody's doing which is going to their office and treating patients and providing the best service they can. Really, really trying to up the bar with, with just some of the best speakers out there.

Sweet. I love it. I mean I think a lot of, you know, it's kind of funny obviously when we started, you know, we first met just a couple months ago and it was like, man, there's so many parallels between kind of what you and I have been, have been doing. And I thank you for all the work that you've done. I think that the rehab, the technology behind it and really upping the game for all the providers out there is super important. Obviously taking that torch with the education and bringing that into again technology driven solutions for the practicing docs, it's just right up my alley. For anybody out there who maybe was unfamiliar, the few of you who are unfamiliar with what Dave was up to and web exercises, where can people learn more? What's the best place for them to be able to head to learn more about you web exercises or the upcoming courses? Where are a few key tent poles for people out there?

Yeah, really simple. It's just webexercises.com webexercises.com tell you what, I'll give everybody on the podcast my personal email if you have a, you know, so you don't have to go through support or anything. It's easy, it's just. D. Cruz dcruzebexercise.com Shoot me an email if you have a question or our online education platform it's just mycecourses.com awesome.

Love it. Dave, thanks for all that you have done and continue to do. Thanks for being a guest and I got a feeling we'll be chatting again soon.

Hey, thank you so much and really appreciate you having me on.

We appreciate you joining us for this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor.

Learn more tips for explaining explosive practice.

Development@The evidencebasedchiropractor.com youm can also join the Premier MD monthly membership enabling you to.

Use what you just heard to maximize.

Results in your office.