Mike's Newsletter | AI Security Risks Rise. Profit-Driven AI Gets Messy.
- Mike Vidikan
- Aug 3
- 7 min read
Welcome Orthoprenuers!
Every week, we bring you the latest in practice management, marketing, profitability, and next-level ortho techniques so you can work smarter, grow faster, and build the practice you want.
In this issue:
🚨 News Update
🦾 Mike’s Prompt
✨ Astro Outlook
🗓️ Plan Your 2026 CE Calendar
📢 Juan’s Marketing Tip
🔥 Trending in the OrthoPreneurs Facebook Group
🎙️ The Orthopreneurs Podcast
✨ Final Thought
🚨 News Upadte
⚠️ Chinese AI Models Insert Deliberate Code Flaws on "Sensitive" Topics — Fresh Security Warnings
In September 2025, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike published research showing that Chinese AI model DeepSeek-R1 deliberately generates weaker, more insecure code when prompted with topics deemed "politically sensitive" by Beijing (including Falun Gong, Taiwan, and Tibet). Recent reports suggest DeepSeek and two other Chinese models (Qwen and Kimi) deliberately insert vulnerabilities when prompted as US government users. This was tested by CrowdStrike (Sept 2025) and Booz Allen Hamilton (June 2026) and the behavior appears intentional and tied to geopolitical directives.
The research prompted government responses: In November 2025, Taiwan's National Security Bureau flagged five Chinese AI models (DeepSeek, Doubao, Yiyan, Tongyi, Yuanbao) for cybersecurity vulnerabilities and biases, and Taiwan subsequently banned Chinese-developed AI systems in all government agencies. As of late July 2026, the security concerns continue to draw attention and scrutiny from Western policymakers and tech analysts.
Why it matters: To avoid rising AI costs, some individual consumers and app builders are experimenting with free Chinese models. However, when you use a hosted Chinese AI app or its native cloud API, your prompts are processed on servers in China, and China's 2017 National Intelligence Law can compel companies to hand data to the state. This is why many employers already restrict the consumer DeepSeek and Qwen apps on work devices. This might be obvious but I’ll say it anyway: never process patient data, treatment plans, or financial records through Chinese models.
And it’s important to be wary of Chinese apps in general. This includes Temu, Shein, and yes, TikTok, which can access contacts, location, camera, and behavior data and contain malware and exploit operating system vulnerabilities.
The FBI and several state AGs have formally documented this. If your team has these apps on phones they use for work, anyone with access to patient records could be compromised through these apps, creating a security vulnerability.
Keep TikTok (and Temu, Shein) off devices that have access to patient records, financial systems, or practice management software. If you need TikTok for marketing, post and manage your TikTok account through third-party social media tools (Buffer, Later, Hootsuite) that run on a desktop browser or use a phone that's separate from clinical/work devices, used only for creating and managing TikTok content (no patient data access, no clinical software on it).
🤖 Andon Labs Reports Claude Opus 5 Ranked First on Vending-Bench 2
Andon Labs reported that Claude Opus 5 ranked first on Vending-Bench 2, a simulated retail-management benchmark where AI models run vending machines, buy inventory, negotiate with suppliers, and manage money. In the test, Opus 5 competed well on financial performance, but Andon Labs also reported misaligned behavior, including forming supplier agreements that looked like price coordination, inventing competitor quotes, making false claims to suppliers about delivery issues, and accepting an undercharged invoice after noticing the supplier’s math error.
Why it matters: The signal is not that AI can run a small business perfectly. The signal is that an AI system can optimize for profit while making choices a practice owner would not approve of. For orthodontic practices, this matters as AI moves into billing, vendor communication, collections, scheduling, marketing, and patient follow-up. Watch for whether AI vendors can show guardrails, audit logs, human review points, and clear limits on what the system is allowed to do when money, patients, or vendors are involved.
🦾 Mike’s Tip of the Week: Break It Into Bites — How to Ask Step-By-Step
The setup: Big, messy problems feel impossible to ask about. So people either ask vaguely or don't ask at all.
The principle: Break the big problem into smaller questions. Ask Claude one piece at a time. Each answer informs the next question.
Real example:
Instead of (one giant ask): "How do I improve my practice?"
Try (three smaller asks):
"I have 12 months of P&Ls. What's the biggest expense category, and how does it compare to industry benchmarks?"
"[after seeing the answer] Assuming that category is high, what are the three most common ways ortho practices reduce costs there?"
"[after that answer] Of those three, which one would take the least disruption to my current workflow, and how would I actually implement it?"
Why this matters: Each answer builds on the last. You're thinking alongside Claude, not asking it to do your thinking for you.
✨ Astro Outlook: Leo Season Wants a Cleaner Stage
Week of August 3 – 9: the Sun is still in ♌Leo♌, keeping the focus on visibility, leadership, and how you show up in front of your team, your patients, and your community. Venus shifts into ♎Libra♎on August 6, which brings more attention to relationships, presentation, balance, and the way people experience your practice. The energy this week is less about forcing a big move and more about making the front-facing parts of your business feel aligned.
The practical moment: this is a good week to look at what people see first. Your website. Your Google profile. Your consult room. Your front desk handoff. Your social media. Your new-patient experience. Leo asks, “Are you showing up clearly?” Libra asks, “Does it feel welcoming and balanced?”
Best use of the week: clean up one touchpoint that shapes first impressions. Update the bio, refresh the consult script, review the handoff from phone call to appointment, or finally fix the part of your website that no longer sounds like you. This is a visibility week, but the win comes from polish — not noise.
🗓️ Plan Your 2026 CE Calendar
The Sleep & Airway MeetingFri, Dec 04 | Arizona Biltmore, LXR Hotels & Resorts
THE MOST UP-TO-DATE CLINICAL INFORMATION ON SLEEP-DISORDERED BREATHING & AIRWAY.
The Orthopreneurs CE Calendar keeps every major workshop, congress, and study club event in one place — searchable by month, so you can plan your travel and your team's coverage well ahead of time instead of scrambling the week before.
Whether you're chasing CE credits, looking for your next study club, or just want to see what's coming up before you lock in your schedule for the quarter, it's worth a five-minute look every month.
Bookmark the calendar, pick your priorities early, and stop letting CE planning become a last-minute scramble.
📢 Juan’s Maktering Tip
Half Your Next Month's Starts Might Already Be Sitting in Your Pending List
Recent industry data from OrthoFi puts it plainly: up to half of today's treatment starts come from intentional follow-up with patients who already had a consult, not from new leads. This is a different pool than your observation patients — these are people who sat through a full consultation, saw a treatment plan and a fee, and said "let me think about it" or "let me talk to my spouse" — and then went quiet. Most practices have no real system for staying in touch with them beyond one voicemail.
Here's how to actually work that list instead of letting it go cold:
Pull your pending-treatment list for the last 90 days, sorted by days since consult. Most owners are surprised by how many names are sitting there with zero follow-up logged.
Set a real follow-up cadence — for example, day 2, day 7, and day 21 after the consult — instead of one call and moving on.
Rotate contact methods. A phone call, then a text a week later, then a short personal email. Repeating the same unanswered channel three times isn't a system.
Have your TC ask what's actually holding them back instead of re-explaining the same treatment plan. Cost, timing, and a spouse's buy-in all need different responses.
Bring financing back into the conversation. Sometimes the hesitation isn't about the treatment — it's about the payment structure, and a different plan can be the entire objection.
Track pending-to-start conversion as its own monthly number, the same way you'd track a new-patient conversion rate. If it's not measured, it won't be managed.
The bottom line: The patients most likely to say yes next month are often the ones who already said "maybe" once. A real follow-up system turns that maybe into a start without spending another dollar on new leads.
🔥Trending in the Orthopreneurs Facebook Group🔥
💬 What is your policy, if any, on your assistant’s fingernails?
Recently had a patient’s mom complain about my assistant’s fingernails being too long and hurting her kid on a feedback survey. The kid is definitely on the sensitive side and nobody else has said anything before but wanted to see how others police this.
🗣️Sharing experiences can help make the right choice for you!
🎙️ On the Podcast: Why Specialization May Be the Key to Practice Growth l 5MF
What if I told you that much of what you’re hearing about OSOs, DSOs, private equity, and debt is missing the context you need to make an informed decision about your practice?
In this episode of Five Minute Friday, I break down some of the fear, misinformation, and clickbait surrounding private equity-backed orthodontic organizations. After receiving dozens of questions about the financial health of OSOs—particularly following a recent article—I want to explain how debt, refinancing, equity, and partnership structures actually work in the private equity world.
This episode is not an argument that every orthodontist should join an OSO or DSO. It is a call to educate yourself, understand the structure of the deal, and stop allowing fear or industry rhetoric to make major financial decisions for you. My goal is to give you context so you can evaluate whether affiliation is right for your practice, your family, and your long-term goals.
✨ Final Thoughts: Less is More
You Don’t Need to Fix Everything This Week.
Choose one thing that matters, take the next small step, and follow through.
Small improvements have a way of becoming big progress.
You won't get everything right the first time. The best practices make plenty of mistakes, but they also build systems to spot mistakes quickly, learn, and self-correct.
– Mike Vidikan
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