Michael Dermansky

In Episode 33 of The Business of Allied Health, host Barry sits down with Michael Dermansky, founder of MD Health and a veteran in the physio space with over 23 years of experience. Michael shares his journey of realizing that traditional short-term "band-aid" physiotherapy wasn't actually changing patients' long-term lives—leading him to pioneer structured, long-term transformation programs and customized clinical Pilates.

Michael breaks down why clinic owners need to think like engineers rather than scientists, how they engineered systematic product lines instead of trading time for money, why length-of-stay and consistency are the ultimate leading indicators of clinical and business success, and why every clinician stepping into business must learn the basic language of accounting, marketing, and operations.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction: Meeting Michael Dermansky, founder of MD Health and industry veteran.

00:46 The early realization: Why traditional short-term physio leaves clients no better off long-term.

02:18 The 2-year grind: Testing new product lines, renting church halls, and moving away from standard consults.

03:00 Engineering human physiology: Designing a 3-month complete transformation program based on healing timelines.

05:10 The evolution from church halls to dedicated spaces: Transitioning to group clinical Pilates and customized models.

06:37 Clinicians as engineers: Why stepping away from one-on-one dependency creates real scale and better client outcomes.

09:29 The core metric: Why length of stay and patient consistency are the ultimate leading indicators.

11:00 Internal accountability: Using software flags and team oversight to catch dropped reassessments early.

14:43 The unpopular business truth: Why clinic owners must learn the basic language of finance, accounting, and marketing.

17:03 Final thoughts and parting advice on building unique, outcome-driven healthcare models.