Electronic Dental Records System Adoption

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This is a critical review of a published article in PubMed.

Introduction

The need for updated technology has made it necessary for dental offices to adopt the electronic dental record systems(EDR) in order to provide efficient and productive oral care. The authors mention the pressure from insurance companies to make data exchange possible digitally. [1]

The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate the use of EDR by dental professionals in Sao Paulo city.

Methods

The authors used a case study design with a quantitative approach. They also used the questionnaire frequently and previously used in 2006 with 31 questions and had translation for both English and Portugese to maintain the validity of the study which were asked to the dental office staff and to the dentist in two separate phone sessions.

Results

There were great variation in the way dental data were entered and used in the dental offices contacted, in relation to the dental system used, paper or digital records, insertion of dental information, location of computers etc.

Discussion

The authors found that the majority of the dentists kept paper and digital records and conclude this to dentists may feel lack of trust with EDR systems or difficulty with nomenclature of terminologies. The pressure from insurance companies to submit claims online made the dentists do the required functionalities only and not really use the computer to gather clinical information of patients.

Conclusion

The use of computer or tech savvy dental offices are considered competent but the dental professionals are not using the EDRs for clinical information and to be productive. So, the need for incentives and policies are suggested by the authors to better serve the dental community and provide care.

Comments

Newer generation dentists will not have a problem adopting the EDRs as they do not fear technology and is driven by it than are older generations who fear the use of advanced technology and thereby need more reinforcement to become confident in the use of EDRs.

References

  1. Electronic Dental Records System Adoption. http://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.ezproxyhost.library.tmc.edu/pubmed/26262001