6A f DT page 5A HITECH Act DENTAL TRIBUNE | March 2010 Thus, in general, meaningful use does not work for dentistry. Dentists and dental schools also need to have at least 30 percent of their patient population qualify for Medicaid reimbursement or Medicare services. Very few dentists will qualify based on this criterion. Most likely, it will be those who provide dental care in federally qualified health centers or some dental schools. So, why would all this matter to us? As our studies have shown, more and more dental practitioners are adopting electronic patient records for a variety of reasons. Some see them as a more efficient way to manage patient information and their practice. Others use them to keep track of individual, group and population health outcomes. (What is the average survival time of a veneer for all your patients? A difficult question to answer without an electronic patient record.) Down the road, more widespread adoption of EHRs in dentistry will enable us to track incidence and prevalence of various dental diseases; identify patients at risk for developing disease; systematically follow up on patients with certain AD American Dental Association 211 East Chicago Ave. Chicago, Ill. 60611-2678 Tel.: (312) 440-2500 Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology 200 Independence Ave. SW, Suite 729-D Washington, D.C. 20201 Fax: (202) 690-6079 E-mail: onc.request@hhs.gov The HITECH Act clearly shows that oralhealth outcomes were not on the radar screen when the legislation was drafted. conditions; and expand research through practice-based research networks. This is indeed a missed opportunity. The HITECH Act clearly shows that oral-health outcomes were not on the radar screen when the legislation was drafted. As health-care professionals who have played a major role in improving the oral health of Americans, it is important that we as a community make our voices heard on behalf of our dental care and our patients. We encourage you to write to the American Dental Association and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (see box at right for complete address and fax information) and your local representatives to ask that dentistry be included in support from the HITECH Act. DT Contact information Thankam Thyvalikakath, BDS, MDS, MS Assistant Professor E-mail: tpt1@pitt.edu Titus Schleyer, DMD, PhD Associate Professor & Director E-mail: titus@pitt.edu Center for Dental Informatics School of Dental Medicine University of Pittsburgh 3501 Terrace Street Pittsburgh, PA 15261 Tel.: (412) 648-8886 www.di.dental.pitt.edu