Follow the link below to an article I wrote for Dental Products Report.

Things like cloud computing, data mining, self learning virtual brains, data base marketing, artificial intelligence and fully automated e-services.

via A glimpse of the future – DentalProductsReport.com.

I am a huge fan of e-services. That is using digital data in creative ways to reduce or eliminate busy work such as confirming appointments, checking eligibility or re-activating non responsive patients. Most dentista are already collecting digital data as a by product of using a Practice Management System. However most are not using e-services. I believe that for the most part they aren’t using e-services simply because they don’t know they can.

The following video from Dentrix helps explain how it works.

Another nice service from Care Credit. Follow the link below for the fair lending requirements, there are all kinds of issues you need to know to avoid possible allegations of discrimination.

Fair Lending Requirements – CareCredit® Patient Financing for Doctors and Practices.

I have always been a big fan of Care Credit. It just makes sense that if people have an easy pre-approved financing option available they will choose better care with less worries about cost. Here are the results of some research.

Five years after opening a Care Credit account the average family:

• Makes 25% more dental visits.
• Accepts 44% more dental services per year.
• Visits the practice 62% more often.
• Accept 282% more recommended dental services.

Care Credit increases practice production 25.3%

Coaching was one of the services we saw at the technology Summit last week in Utah. Coaching is not a hot brand new service, it was introduced a few months ago, but it is pretty exciting.

Coaching uses the numbers you generate by using a PMS (in this case Dentrix) and then analyses them for you. That means you do not need to select and run reports, or more often try and get an overworked team to run reports. You do not need to try and figure out what the report numbers mean, whether your numbers  are average or good and then what to do about them. That is all part of the coaching service.

For example a coaching report will:

• Use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – to better Analyze Your Practice and show you how reports can help you track and analyze these crucial numbers more effectively, and provide suggestions for improving your KPI results.
• Optimize Your Schedule – eliminate these costly scheduling gaps by reconciling appointments with production goals.
• Increase Case Acceptance—review unscheduled treatment plans, analyze treatment plan statistics, and increase overall production and case acceptance.
• Maximize Continuing Care—continuing care is critical for both your patients’ long-term dental health and your practice’s long-term financial well-being.

The new Profitability Coaching is delivered by experienced Dentrix coaches and is customized to each dentist’s unique practice management needs. This coaching program includes important topics tailored to help dentists and key team members…

via Dental Software – Dentrix.

Rick Willeford CPA has been tracking  the finances of selected clients over time. It is kind of like a dental Dow Jones. Follow the link to his blog and the whole story.

After the first quarter ended on a high note, it was disappointing to see April and May drop so. However June came on strong, …

Willeford Group Advisors Blog

This is not digital but it is a cool new dental product. It is nothing more than a button anxious dental patients can use to stop the drill if they are fearful or in pain. Trials have shown patients do not push the button very often, in fact they stop the procedure less with the button that with the old fashioned “raise your hand” technique. The result is happier patients, lower stress and increased productivity. HT Kirk Greenway.

That was easy…ooops wrong button.

Patient apprehension and hence pain perception is related to locus of control. In dentistry, the locus of control is with the doctor. While the patient is assured that when they raise their hand the dentist will stop, they still do not have the locus of control, even though they trust their dentist. Without the locus of control, many patients have anxiety that directly relates to their perception of pain. The more anxiety, the more it hurts.

via Product.

Once we transfer the data from paper to electronic paperless records, we no longer need a single physical place, like the front desk, to gather the information. An administrator can gather the data where ever there is a computer. That could be at the front, in the back or even in a different building! The computer becomes the Data Center of the practice. The practice is Front Deskless.

The term Front Desklessness is quite provocative but not very descriptive. The concept could be more accurately called: An Alternative Approach to Dental Office Management and Work Flow Using Integrated Paperless Records. That may be a more descriptive title but it sure doesn’t grab you like Front Desklessnes.

Since Front Desklessness is catchy but not well defined all kinds of misconceptions have come oozing out of the woodwork. The term does not mean that no one does the duties of the front desk. There is still a person. It doesn’t even necessarily mean the office doesn’t have a front desk. There is still a place. There is no one way to practice Front Desklessness. Front Desklessness is simply a way of managing the workflow of a dental office made possible by computers and technology. It is still a thing, just a different thing.

How to go Paperless:

Good charting software has many features here are five of the most important.

Good charting software eliminates all paper. That means the software must accommodate all the bits of paper data we have stuffed in our patient folders and it must have a method of importing virtually anything either with a scanner or file import function. If some bit of paper, possibly a lab slip or patient letter, must be stored in a folder then you have lost one of the primary benefits of an electronic chart.

Another important feature is full integration. That means that each item is entered one time and then transfers to where ever else it is needed electronically. For example a procedure will progress from diagnosis to charting to treatment planning to scheduling to treatment to insurance to payment. This is called single entry. If the user has to re-enter information such as procedure codes, tooth numbers or fees at any stage then the software is not fully integrated

Good charting software must accommodate all the information we used to record on paper. That includes existing restorations, conditions, diagnostic findings, treatment plans, periodontal probings and tissue conditions, tooth surfaces, materials and procedure notes.

Charting software must be easy to use. Every mouse click or keystroke slows down the process and makes the program harder to use, which means it doesn’t get used. The more the user can customize the chart the easier it is to use. That means the user can create shortcuts, eliminate features they don’t use and designate functions for each button.

Data entry needs to be fast and easy. The standard is still mouse clicks and keystrokes however faster more intuitive entry methods are available. Like voice; we’d all like to talk to our computer just like Star Trek. Some charting programs allow users to speak in clinical findings like pocket depths, tooth conditions and restorations. Special input devices like the Florida Probe can enter perio data directly from the probe.  Another alternative entry is “Ink” a special function that allows users to write or draw on the chart just as if it was a piece of paper.

Practice Activatoris an online e-service that contacts and re-activates non-responsive patients. This is not a new idea, what is new are the tools that ActionRun has developed and applied to this task.

Early attempts to use digital technology to re-activate patients simply automated the tasks we had sought to do with paper records. That is to look up patients who have not been seen in a couple of years and then send them a notice. A slightly more sophisticated application could scan uncompleted treatment plans and send messages to those people which could even include a motivational note.

However, a car is not merely a faster horse. To truly take advantage of the power of digital technology we can apply tools that were just not possible with paper records; tools that essentially mimic the thought processes of a human mind

Here is a really simple example. The computer examines records and discovers a patient who had a root canal completed on a molar but has no record of ever having a final restoration placed on that tooth. The system knows this is a potential problem; with no intervention from a human operator.  The patient is then contacted and advised to return for treatment.

I am working with this company because I believe that they are using sophisticated digital technology in creative ways. For example with Practice Activator: Data is retrieved from your dental office computer and is analyzed (mined) by a sophisticated system online (in the cloud). Based on over a million transactions a self learning system (artificial intelligence) identifies a patient needing treatment. Based on his/her need the patient is contacted (data base marketing). All your office staff needs to do is answer the phone when the patient calls to schedule (automated e-service)

Two additional items to note: Early users have had amazing success with an ROI of six or seven to one. That is for every dollar they invest in the system they get six dollars in increased production. Second. These kinds of creative systems can be used in many areas; re-activation is just the beginning.