Summary:
The 2025 ADA AuDacity conference will feature a cross-disciplinary panel of private practice owners—including an optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, and audiologist—sharing business and patient care strategies that audiologists can adapt to strengthen their practices.

Key Takeaways:

The panel, sponsored by CareCredit, highlights lessons from outside audiology on marketing, managed care, advocacy, and practice management.
Attendees will receive the Private Practice Thrival Guide with additional insights from panel doctors.
The 90-minute general session takes place Friday, September 26, 2025, and is expected to draw over 500 participants.

This year’s Academy of Doctors of Audiology ADA AuDacity conference will feature a unique panel of clinician/practices owners during the General Session on September 26, 2025, titled, A Dentist, an Optometrist and a Veterinarian Walk into an Audiology Conference.

Doctors who own a private practice—from dentistry and cosmetic surgery to veterinary medicine and optometry—face similar challenges and opportunities. This panel, sponsored by CareCredit, consists of four successful doctors who will share strategies that “worked for them” so that audiologist/practice owners can adapt these best practices to their specific patient base and community dynamics.

“We are ecstatic to be able to host this session,” says ADA Executive Director Stephanie Czuhajewski, MPH, CAE. “This innovative panel will allow AuDacity attendees to step outside our specialty to understand how other private practice owners successfully deliver exceptional care while managing a thriving small business. Topics to be discussed include managed care, marketing and community outreach, advocacy efforts that advance professional objectives, removing financial barriers to care, effective use of assistants and extenders, and scheduling strategies.”

Insights from the Outside: Attracting New Patients

Jessica Lawley, VP client marketing, health and wellness at CareCredit, agrees. “During one of our focus groups at last year’s AuDacity conference, participants asked us how dentists, vets, and optometrists manage and build their businesses,” she says. “To share these valuable insights and ideas, CareCredit is pleased to bring four top doctors to the stage for a General Session. CareCredit is also giving the session attendees the book, Private Practice Thrival Guide: Practical Wisdom from Successful Colleagues, featuring practical advice from the panel doctors and several more and will have the panel at our booth after the general session to answer questions.”

Panelists will include board-certified optometric physician Brianna Rhue, OD, FAAO; cosmetic dentist Brian Harris, DDS; Melissa Carnes Rose, AuD; and veterinarian Kathy Wiederkehr (Wentworth), VMD.