Nine outpatient PT, OT, and SLP clinic owners now sit with SPRY's product team every quarter and review SPRY EMR features before they ship. Their job is to flag what's wrong before it reaches the clinics using it.

The problem that started this

A biller at a multi-location practice once walked me through how a single missing phrase in a SOAP note triggers a denial. Not a wrong phrase — a missing one. The claim goes out, gets denied, and the billing team spends the next three weeks recovering money the clinic had already earned. We didn't flag it. I didn't know the phrase mattered.

That's not a bug. That's a knowledge gap. Which payer rejects which wording, what a front desk actually does when two patients arrive early and an authorization is expiring, why a Medicare note reads differently from an auto insurance note — none of this lives in a codebase or a dataset. It lives in the heads of clinic owners who learned it by losing money and evenings over 20 or 30 years.

That gap doesn't close with a survey. It closes by putting those people in the room before the decisions are made.

The board

Today, I'm introducing the SPRY Clinical Advisory Board — nine clinic owners and operators running outpatient physical, occupational, and speech therapy practices across the United States. They join Minal Patel and my co-founder at the same table, meeting with our product team every quarter to review features across AI documentation, SPRY RCM, billing workflows, coding, and clinical operations before those features ship. Several of them were running practices before SPRY existed. Their job, formally, is to tell us where we're wrong.

Meet the nine

Sharon Gutwin:The RehabGYM, Williston, Colchester, and Barre, Vermont Sharon has built The RehabGYM across three Vermont locations and is known by her team as a hard worker and a champion for higher reimbursements. She joined because she believes in SPRY's vision for the future of EMR — her word for the group was "voyagers," which says everything about how she approaches this. Jersey number: 11.

Cody Hartley: BEST Physical Therapy, Renew Physiotherapy, and Fitness Physio — Multiple States (Raleigh, NC) Cody oversees practices across multiple states and describes his leadership style as transparent, accountable, and team-first. He joined because he sees SPRY Physical Therapy Software as a genuine innovator leading change in the outpatient EMR space. Jersey number: 6.

Jonathan Hodges: Nevada Physical Therapy, Reno, NV Jonathan lifts weights, does woodworking, and manages one of Reno's established outpatient PT practices. He joined to have a direct impact on the clinical efficacy and utility of SPRY as it relates to both improving clinical practice and management — his words, and he meant them precisely. Jersey number: 94.

Stacy Hund: Set Physical Therapy, Atlanta, GA and Washington, DC Stacy is a PT, a business owner, and a mother of three who her team describes as driven, compassionate, and resourceful. She joined the SPRY Clinical Advisory Board because she cares about the future of physical therapy and wants to support the clinicians and practice owners doing great work every day. Jersey number: 19.

Carlos Martinez: CAM Physical Therapy and Wellness Services, 6 locations across Maryland Carlos runs six Maryland locations and is described by his team as a fair and honest leader deeply committed to clinical excellence. He joined because he believes in SPRY's commitment to transforming the physical therapy profession through AI-powered documentation — so clinicians spend more time with patients and less time on notes. Jersey number: 17.

Ken McKenzie: 30-year PT veteran, 25-year clinic owner, Colorado Ken built and ran Premier Physical Therapy in Westminster, Colorado for 12 years before selling in April 2026. He brings three decades of clinical experience and a quarter century of ownership knowledge to the table. He joined because of the personal relationships he developed at SPRY and a genuine desire to contribute what he has learned. Jersey number: 23.

BJ Pataria: Motion Physical Therapy and Rehab, Stockton, CA BJ reads, runs, and programs — and his team describes him simply as a workaholic, which in this context is a compliment. He joined the board to help shape the future of EMRs for PTs, and he means it at a technical level. Jersey number: 23.

Tom Porter: WESTARM Physical Therapy, Lower Burrell, PA Tom coaches his kids in sports, plays golf, and manages a large group of clinicians he describes as people he cares about individually. He joined because he believes in the power of collaboration between clinicians to improve technology — not just for WESTARM, but for the therapy community at large. Jersey number: 6.

Keith Glasser: Keith has been building his practice for 23 years. He's obsessed with systems that scale — value-based care models, step-by-step processes, the mechanics of what actually works operationally. He speaks French, Spanish, and Hebrew outside the clinic. Inside it, he speaks the language of someone who's spent two decades asking how to make the profession function better. He joined because he sees SPRY building toward that answer — and because he wanted to be in a room with other operators asking the same question.

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Why a board — and not another survey?

Feedback after a feature ships can make it less wrong. It can't remove the assumptions baked in before a line of code was written — assumptions about workflow, timing, and what actually happens in a clinic at 8am on a Monday. The only way to remove those assumptions is to challenge them before the decisions harden.

A named board with public accountability is structurally different from a survey. Jonathan Hodges's reputation is attached to SPRY's next documentation release. Sharon Gutwin's name is on the announcement. hat's not decoration, it changes how seriously we take the conversation.

What this means for the product?

SPRY EMR runs AI documentation, SPRY RCM, prior authorization, scheduling, and patient engagement on one platform. Clinics currently see 95%+ clean claims on first submission and 50–75% fewer denials compared to baseline. Claims close in 12–23 days on average.

Those numbers come from operational improvements. This board's job is to find the next round — the ones that only show up if someone with 25 years of payer experience reads the logic and identifies what's missing.

When Carlos Martinez reviews a billing workflow in his six Maryland locations, he's reviewing it against the reality of running a multi-location SPRY Practice Management deployment under real payer pressure. That's the kind of review that changes a feature before it ships — not after.

What this means if you run a clinic?

Features that reach you have been argued over by people running practices. Owners who've sat through Medicare audits, who do 30 evals a week, who know exactly which report they check on Monday morning and which one they ignore.

If you've told SPRY something isn't working, this board is how that conversation moves from a support ticket to a product decision.

A note on how we launched this

We gave everyone a jersey. Each number means something personal — a birthday, a high school number, a lucky number someone has carried for decades. That was intentional. I want to run this like a team that shows up for the outcome, not a committee that produces recommendations.

You can learn more about the board and its members at SPRY Clinical Advisory Board announced

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the SPRY Clinical Advisory Board?

The SPRY Clinical Advisory Board is a group of nine outpatient PT, OT, and SLP clinic owners embedded in SPRY's product process. They meet with our product team quarterly to review and advise on features across SPRY EMR, SPRY RCM, SPRY Practice Management, and clinical workflows before those features are released.

Who is on the SPRY Clinical Advisory Board?

The nine founding members are Sharon Gutwin (The RehabGYM, Vermont), Cody Hartley (BEST PT / Renew Physiotherapy / Fitness Physio, multiple states), Jonathan Hodges (Nevada Physical Therapy, Reno NV), Stacy Hund (Set Physical Therapy, Atlanta and Washington DC), Carlos Martinez (CAM Physical Therapy and Wellness, Maryland), Ken McKenzie (30-year PT veteran, former owner of Premier Physical Therapy, Colorado), BJ Pataria (Motion Physical Therapy, Stockton CA), Tom Porter (WESTARM Physical Therapy, Pennsylvania), and Keith Glasser.

Why did SPRY create a clinical advisory board?

Post-release feedback can only make a feature less wrong — the workflow assumptions are already built in.We created a structured boar with named members and public accountability so that clinical and operational expertise shapes product decisions before they finalize, not after.

How does the advisory board influence SPRY's product?

Board members review features across AI documentation, SPRY RCM billing automation, coding workflows, and SPRY Practice Management tools on a quarterly basis. They have authority to reject features before release. Their input directly shapes what we ship and what we redesign.