The Dental Industry Needs a New Approach to Data

In the medical sector, data is now a key part of the process of caring for patients. If you break a bone, visit the emergency room, have an x-ray, follow up with your local physician, then undergo a course of physical therapy, a trail of data follows at every step of the journey. Gone are the days of physical files being handed from one healthcare professional to another — and patient outcomes are all the better for it.?

A number of standard industry protocols, such as SMART and FHIR, facilitate this interoperability of data, allowing practitioners to access and share prognoses and treatment plans, provide patients with digital access to their records, and deliver crafted and consistent care throughout the recovery process.?

By comparison, the dental industry has some catching up to do. Lacking a recognized data standard for the transfer of dental information, dentists find themselves relying on phone calls, emails, and faxes in order to share vital information about their patients. A new approach is needed – one that treats data as an important part of the healthcare value chain, and embraces cutting edge technologies that promote efficiency, support physicians and employees at all levels, and provide better care for patients.

Dentistry is a team sport

Underlying our industry’s technological lag is a misconception about what dentistry actually involves. If you’re an infrequent user of dental services — a checkup every so few months, say — it’s easy to see your dentist as a stand alone provider operating in a fairly low-tech environment.?

In reality, though, modern dentistry is a team sport. Many patients shuttle between orthodontists, oral surgeons, anesthesiologists, periodontists, prosthodontists, and a host of other specialists, all of whom need to coordinate to provide excellent care. A severe toothache might first have you knocking at the door of your regular dentist, for example, then receiving treatment from an endodontist specializing in root canals.?

These sorts of interlinkages are increasingly important as individual practices join up to form large-scale dental service organizations (DSOs). Twenty years ago, nearly two-thirds of dentists operated solo; in 2019, that figure had dropped to barely half. So far, though, the tech industry has done little to facilitate this trend, leaving DSOs underserved in terms of digital solutions.?

A new approach

With DSOs continuing to transform the dental industry, it’s time for the tech firms that serve them to adopt a new approach. When it comes to the effective delivery of interconnected services across a large organization, a hodgepodge of different communications methods — phone calls, emails, faxes — just doesn’t cut it. Today’s dentists urgently need access to modern, cloud-based data infrastructure to enable intelligent, collaborative caregiving.?

Achieving this kind of tech-forward, data-enabled dentistry will bring challenges. At present, most practices’ data is siloed away in filing cabinets or spreadsheets. There’s little or no standardization of data formats, creating enormous challenges as DSOs seek to put more efficient and better-connected systems in place.

The lack of efficient data systems also puts individual dentists and practice administrators under enormous pressure. Managing a deluge of patient information without the proper tools is incredibly stressful. With more than 25% of dental professionals at risk of burnout, there’s an urgent need for a digital overhaul to streamline workflows for both physicians and support staff.?

Solving this problem will require standardized FHIR-style data protocols to enable greater data interoperability across the dental industry. It will also require? robust cloud-based data infrastructure to liberate our data and bring dentistry into the 21st century.?

Into the cloud?

DSOs are transforming the dental industry, unlocking operational efficiencies, and improving standards of patient care. Now it’s time to amplify those gains by harnessing the potential of technological innovation.?

That means utilizing digital tools that turn data silos into connected, well-organized information warehouses, and using machine learning to analyze and unlock value from those data stores. By making better use of the huge volumes of data swirling around today’s dental industry, we’ll be able to truly bring our practices into the 21st century.?

At tab32, we’re committed to giving the dental industry the standardized data tools and cloud-based infrastructure it needs to achieve its full potential in the DSO era. Get in touch with our team today to find out more about how we’re turning data into a driver of value for today’s top dental organizations.