14 à DT Practice Management Tribune United Kingdom Edition March 15-21, 2010 page 13 tice, especially if the practice is considering digital imaging. The computers placed in the operatories are often different from the front desk computers in many ways: they’ll have dual display capabilities, better video cards to handle digital imaging, smaller cases to fit inside the cabinets, and wireless keyboards and mice. An often-overlooked consideration is that the smaller the computer, the more heat it generates. Heat is the number one enemy of computers, and since many dentists will place their computers inside a cabinet at ‘Dentistry has undergone a paradigm shift over the past 20 years.’ the 12 o’clock position, having proper ventilation is absolutely critical. Dell has a line of Small Form Factor computers that are ideal for dental operatories. Digital systems. The choice of image software will dictate which systems are compatible. Digital radiography is the hot technology at this time, due to many factors. For those that can afford it, cone beam 3D systems are all the rage. The dentists who have digital radiography report more efficiency by having the ability to view take and view images more rapidly, better diagnostics, cost savings by the elimination of film and chemicals, and higher case acceptance through patient co-diagnosis of their dental needs. Data protection. With a chartless practice, protecting the data is absolutely crucial to prevent data loss due to malware or user errors. Every office, at a minimum, should be using antivirus software to protect against the multitude of known viruses and worms, a firewall to protect against hackers who try to infiltrate the network, and have an easy-to-verify backup protocol in place to be able to recover from any disaster. Online backup is now a reality and a very viable option for many practices that want a true set-it-and-forget-it system for their daily backup. A systematic approach For offices that wish to be chartless or paperless, it’s crucial to evaluate all the systems that need to be replaced with a digital counterpart, and to take a systematic approach to adding these new systems to the practice. Most offices would be well advised to replace one system at a time, and get comfortable with this new system before adding new technologies to the practice. The typical practice will take six to 18 months to transition from paper-based to chartless, but the journey will be well worth the reward at the end. DT About the author Dr Lorne Lavine is founder and president of Dental Technology Consultants, focusing on the specialised technological needs of the dental community. A consultant and integrator with extensive hands-on experience with software and technology vital to dentistry, he writes for many well-known industry publications, lectures widely and has served as the Indian Health Service’s former technology consultant. Dr Lavine is a regular speaker at various BACD conferences. Check the website to find out when he’s speaking next: www.bacd.com. 6 5 A managed service solution Dr Ian Gordon discusses how implementing an off-site managed system has been essential to the success of the Alpha Group’s practices H aving been a practising dentist for a quarter of a century, Dr Ian Gordon has seen his fair share of transition within the profession: change that has also had a direct impact upon his own way of working. Graduating from Newcastle University in 1984, the same area of the north-east of England where he was born, was also where he began his professional career. Over a period of 20 years, Dr Gordon has witnessed the development of the programmes used in the dental setting, from the early days of ‘System 90’ to the more advanced practice management software (pMS) now available. “practice management software is now an integral part of today’s dental practice; being without it isn’t a consideration. Compared to the early versions, the capabilities of pMS are now far more advanced. “The main difference is the way all aspects of the clinical and administrative functions have been brought together into one package. The advantage of this is that the whole picture of the patient’s experience is recorded. Being able to view prior medical history, attendance, previous interventions and other clinical and financial information within moments is a great advantage to the successful management of the practice and business.” One versus many Having built up a cluster of NHS practices in the area over the course of the years, the decision came to sell up and start afresh Alpha Group’s team has benefitted from the implementation of an off-site managed system ‘Practice management software is now an integral part of today’s dental practice; being without it isn’t a consideration. Compared to the early versions, the capabilities of PMS are now far more advanced.’ and, in September 2008, opened a private practice in Stokesley in partnership with his wife Jayne, also a dentist. However, it wasn’t long before Dr Gordon was involved in setting up a new group of practices offering both NHS and private dentistry. Initially beginning with three, the Alpha Dental Group now comprises of eight practices located across the north-east region. “At first, there was a disparate collection of software systems inherited from the previous practice owners. Over the course of the year, we refurbished and then installed the same system to give consistency to the group.” While the group was being developed from its beginnings in October 2008, each practice remained as a ‘stand-alone’. It soon became apparent that to manage the group effectively, there was a need to employ a system that could unify the eight locations. This required investment in the latest management systems: an offsite managed service. Traditionally, each practice retained the software necessary for the system on the hardware located on-site. This in itself presents significant issues. Failing to install essential updates to the system might cause some difficulty for the administrative task, posing the risk of the sys- tem being left unable to function effectively, while the thorny issue of backing-up (or failing to back up) data could be leaving the business in a potentially disastrous situation. The alternative that Dr Gordon found was to take the option of R4’s off-site hosting solution, which provided an answer to his requirements. The managed service “Over the course of a weekend, the Group was transferred to the hosted system and by Monday morning we were able to log on as normal. Now each site still retains individual access to its essential information, but there is multi-site access for those