Dentistry has come a long way since the days when collaboration meant an unpleasant hour spent sitting upright in an uncomfortable chair gazing up at what looked like instruments of torture through the eyes of a small boy. Thanks heavens that modern technology now allows dentists to perform techniques painlessly that were not thought of a mere 20 years ago.
This new technology includes web-based collaboration software that allows stakeholders involved in a dentist's enterprise to all work smarter together, not harder by using a selectively accessible collaborative platform. This is how it works:
o The receptionist at a dental surgery enters appointments into a dentist's diary that the receptionist, dental assistant and the dentist can all see. As the treatment proceeds, the dental assistant enters the procedures and raw materials concerned onto a computer. As patient check out on departure, the receptionist hands them an invoice for the work just done.
o The dental technician no longer has to wait for the courier to deliver a dental model. Everything required for prosthetic modeling is now created and transmitted online electronically.
o Every morning the dentist's raw material supplier downloads a list of orders generated from the dentist's materials requirements planning system, and picks stock in terms of agreed order points. Replenishments arrive at the dentist's surgery seamlessly, and stock-outs are a thing of the past.
o The dentist's accountant has access to billing information generated by these modern collaboration tools. This facilitates a quick turnaround of annual results and income tax returns, with everybody working off identical original information.
o Finally, each dental patient can log onto their part of the group collaboration database, confirming appointments and making sure that payments submitted electronically have been received.
These technical enhancements do more than simply improve productivity and speed up a process. They also cluster co-workers, suppliers and customers around a common vision, and create a bond around shared information. Conflicts and confusions are less likely to occur as well, when everybody is reading the same page
Other departments of the medical profession are exploring the potential of these technologies that were developed for dentists. Surgeons can see the results of x-rays instantly, and may request more detail while their patients are still in the radiology department. Doctors no longer have to wait for couriers to deliver the results of pathology tests. The endless opportunities are improving healthcare for everyone.
This is no longer a vision for the future and it is happening across America everyday. All the parties are working together now, and reading from the same page. Online collaboration software definitely helps dentists and other medical practitioners to work smarter.
Allen L Wigglesworth is a freelance writer and e-book author. If you want to know more about Groupware Software visit TeamWox.
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