We're a tiny company about to launch multiple new websites, all in the same general business category. Each site will serve an individual practitioner in that category.  Is there any structure other than parent/child -- perhaps a dashboard, tool, or software program -- that would let us administer/manage all these sites from a single spot? We believe separate installations would be best for our clients but need to find labor efficiencies for ourselves as we have a very small staff. Your advice?

What type of items do you want to administer from a dashboard?  User accounts?  Security roles?  Pages?  Modules?  Web stats?

Some things make sense to administer from a cross-portal dashboard (user accounts) while others may not (pages).  Some can easily be performed/monitored outside of the DNN UI (web stats).
 
You might find that an auto-login module is all you need to effectively do what's needed across different portals in the same DNN instance -- such a module would let you (an ADMIN or HOST)  jump from portal to portal without having to log in each time.
  
If you want to replicate site structure across many portals, look into using portal templates.  Basically you create your "model" portal and make a template from it that you apply to new portals at the time of portal creation.  This can include predefined pages, skins, security roles, modules and in some cases even the content within modules.  Read more here:  http://www.dotnetnuke.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=9ZyeXoymc04%3D&tabid=478&mid=857

 
-mamlin