Why Your Clinic Needs EMR System: 5 Reasons from the World Dental Federation

Inevitable technical progress has demonstrated that new digital therapy, diagnosis, and management tools can significantly improve every aspect of dental clinic work.

However, electronic health records (digitalized patient medical data) are an utterly unique breakthrough that requires only short staff training and basic hardware to work in the clinics. Still, at the same time, they can significantly enhance your practice.

This technology may be implemented in your facility via electronic medical records (EMR) systems – software that allows you to manage graphical files, medical notes, patient history, etc – and its integration is a world-recognized recommendation for dental clinics.

Thus, the Geneva-based World Dental Federation recently published a Consensus Statement regarding the advantages of electronic health records, particularly highlighting its benefits for improving patient care quality and management efficiency.

Let's review the key statement's insights with some particular examples.

1. Safe medication management

Electronic health records contain information about patients' medical contradictions, allergies, intolerance, etc, which are necessary factors for the clinician to use the right drug during the treatment or prescribe safe medications.

Considering the human error factor, patients may accidentally forget about some of these conditions, and that's why professionals need access to comprehensive patient medical history, allowing them to find a particular record about the problem.

Therefore, a dental practice can significantly reduce the risk of medication mistakes. Using EMR systems, clinicians can review all individual contradictions with a few clicks.

For instance, Remedico has special notes with bright, distinctive colors to grab the dentist's attention on the most crucial information.

2. Reduced cost of management

Depending on the stage of electronic health records adoption in your country, this technology may significantly cut your expenses on redundant tests that a patient passed very recently. Dentists can request data from other integrated clinics, which contains all available clinical results and doctor's descriptions, via their local EMR system.

Such interaction was mastered in UAE – this country created a national initiative (called NUMR) that unites all existing facilities inside one electronic health records storage. Most clinics in the Emirates have already adopted this technology, and now doctors can receive all patient data from almost any place in the country, guaranteeing full specialists's awareness of every visitor's health.

3. Integration with breakthrough technology

Recent statements from the Council of European Dentists suggest that AI algorithms are one of the most prominent medical tools that can enhance treatment accuracy and significantly cut expenses on administrative tasks.

Still, AI requires one crucial resource for proper work – data, and at this point, electronic health records are just exactly what you need. For instance, different imaging data like X-rays and CT scans may be used for diagnostical software to detect tooth caries or inflammation.

Also, such data may be implemented in VR/AR tools. At Remedico, we use this fascinating technology in our treatment presentation software, Dentaverse. During the session, the dentist and patient can review the real individual's scan using headsets.

4. Developing of person-centered care

Electronic health records allow dentists to evaluate patients' general health, including their non-dental condition, allowing them to "see the whole picture" of certain organisms. By assessing patients' medical records from a long-term perspective, specialists can identify specific symptoms that can significantly enhance the diagnostic process. For instance, dentists can effectively detect disorders like sleep apnea by analyzing the compilation of dental and, for example, neurological factors.

5. Economic benefits

According to the Consensus Statement, recent research demonstrates that implementing electronic health records systems can notably support managers in strategic business decisions, improving facility performance. Depending on the capabilities of your inner EMR system, you can use data about recent visits to analyze the number of patients, the clinic's income, and other important information that can be transmitted in charts, which allows the evaluation of current trends in business development.

For instance, in our Remedico EMR system, we integrated various infographics that can help you to assess any area of the clinic's performance, including the number of visitors per particular dentist, earnings, number of unpaid invoices, and many other useful aspects to guarantee you full control over your business.

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