Leading Through Innovation: How EverFlex Is Redefining Physical Therapy at Scale

In this episode of Tales from the Pros, Michael Georgiou and Eric Lawrence sit down with Andrew Cherry, COO of Movement for Life, to explore how innovation actually works inside a legacy healthcare organization.

Andrew shares how COVID, clinician burnout, and access challenges forced Movement for Life to rethink traditional physical therapy delivery and why waiting on off-the-shelf solutions was no longer enough. The conversation dives into the cultural, operational, and leadership shifts required to build EverFlex, a custom platform designed to improve patient access, support clinicians, and create measurable business impact.

From change management and internal buy-in to AI’s role in reducing decision errors without replacing human care, this episode offers a candid look at what it takes to lead through uncertainty and why patient experience, not revenue alone, became the guiding metric.

Whether you’re a healthcare leader, operator, or founder navigating innovation in a regulated or legacy industry, this episode delivers practical insight into building technology that scales without losing the human element.

🎯 Highlights You Won’t Want to Miss

• Why Movement for Life chose to build instead of buy healthcare software
• How COVID accelerated telehealth and exposed its limits in physical therapy
• The real challenge of change management inside large organizations
• Why AI should enhance clinicians, not replace them
• How EverFlex generated meaningful ROI in a low-margin industry
• What “PT vigilantes” really means and why ownership mattered
• How patient experience became the driver of sustainable growth

🎧 Listen and Subscribe

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6QkUtrcNllUkqtq1fjlwnZ
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tales-from-the-pros/id1371067192
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Imaginovation/podcasts
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/talesfromthepros

💡 Key Takeaways

• Innovation in healthcare requires cultural and leadership alignment, not just technology
• Solving patient access and clinician burnout must happen together
• AI is most valuable as a decision-support tool, not an automation shortcut
• Building custom software can reduce tech sprawl and improve operational efficiency
• Patient trust and engagement increase when technology feels human
• Measured ROI matters, especially in time-for-money industries like physical therapy

🗂 Topics We Cover

• Physical therapy innovation at scale
• Telehealth and remote therapy monitoring post-COVID
• Change management in healthcare organizations
• AI’s role in clinical decision-making
• Patient access, affordability, and experience
• EverFlex’s impact on clinics and clinicians
• Leadership mindset shifts required to innovate

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Andrew Cherry and Movement for Life

03:19 Technology gaps in physical therapy

06:45 COVID, telehealth, and access challenges

09:10 Patient experience vs revenue growth

12:39 Culture shifts and internal product ownership

16:02 Change management and leadership buy-in

20:35 Fear, innovation, and starting the work

26:22 AI’s role in enhancing, not replacing clinicians

32:42 EverFlex ROI and clinic impact

37:30 Where to find Movement for Life and EverFlex