Learning Center

A Starter for Everyone New to Dental Informatics

Learning Center Sections: FAQ | Webcasts | White Papers | Tools | Publications

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FAQ
Questions about Dental Informatics? This section allows you to easily navigate to the answers of your most common questions. New questions are always welcome, submit your questions by filling out the comments/suggestions box below.

• What is Dental Informatics? (Espanol, Chinese)
  
• What do you need to know about adding technology to your dental office? (Chinese)
  
• What is the difference between dental IT and Dental Informatics? (Chinese)
  
• What is dental bioinformatics? (Espanol, Chinese)
  
• Can dentists help detect a bioterrorist attack? (Chinese)
  
• How can Dental Informatics improve the dental delivery system and inform the health policy debate? (Chinese)
  
• What is controlled vocabulary? (Chinese)
  
• Where can I go to pursue a career in dental informatics?
  

Webcasts
Just like being in the classroom, these webcasts offer presentations on Dental Informatics given by experts in the field. Streaming video of the lecturers with their PowerPoint presentations are just one click away (DSL and cable connections).  

• What is Dental Informatics? (Spanish, Spanish Slides — 186 KB PDF, Portuguese, Portuguese slides — 50 KB PDF)
  Titus Schleyer (Community of Science Profile) gives a short overview (16:53) of basic concepts in Dental Informatics. Topics include: definition, history, relation to other fields and uses. This webcast is a good introduction to Dental Informatics. Created 02/07 [Download Handout — 50 KB PDF]
   
  
• How to Design and Build 3D Simulations Ovidiu Ciobanu discusses (16:22) the design and creation of 3D dental simulations. Topics include: what are 3D models? Why 3D models in Dentistry? Generating interactive PDFs, and more. Created 07/07 [Download Handout — 476 KB PDF]
   
  
• How are computers used in general dentists' offices? (Portuguese, Portuguese slides — 380 KB PDF)
  Titus Schleyer (Community of Science Profile) gives a short overview (13:26) of a recent study investigating the use of computers by U.S. general dentists and their staff. This is the first study detailing chairside computer use in general dental offices. Created 02/07 [Download Handout — 50 KB PDF]
   
  
• Speech recognition in dental software systems
  Jeannie Yuhaniak Irwin gives a brief overview (6:06) of speech recognition in current dental software. Topics include: speech functions, features and charting findings via voice. Created 05/07 [Download Handout — 26 KB PDF]
   
  
• Social Technologies (a.k.a Web 2.0) for eHealth
  Patricia Anderson defines (19:00) social technologies and discusses healthcare communities, Web 2.0 tools and the risks of social technology. Created 03/07 [Download Handout — 2 MB PDF]
   
  
• Social Technologies (Web 2.0) for Informatics & Research
  Patricia Anderson defines (21:11) social technologies and discusses social technology and scholarly publication, professional social communities, informatics and research 2.0, social technology for research, potential concerns and she reviews a case study. Created 03/07 [Download Handout — 3 MB PDF]
   
  

White Papers
Do you know of interesting topics or key issues in Dental Informatics that we should be talking about? The documents in this section review issues like standards and best practices. Sharing ideas in an open, non-judgmental medium can help generate great discussion on these and other important topics.

• NHIN Prototype Demo and Business Case. Franklin M. Dino, DMD, MA reports on the proceedings of the ONCHIT Meeting held on January 25-26, 2007 and its implications for dentistry

Tools
Any idea for other interesting tools in the realm of Dental Informatics? The links in this section go to tools which can be freely used by anyone.

• Preliminary Oral Cancer Website Evaluation Tools. jeannieirwin (12 ), PhD developed an initial tool for evaluating oral cancer Website surface and content quality. She then applied the tool in a preliminary evaluation of 24 English-language and 24 Spanish-language websites. Information about the tools she used can be found on this page, along with the ability to use the tools to evaluate your own oral cancer website.

Publications
Dental Informatics and Dental Research: Making the Connection (2003; 120 pages): Proceedings of an NIH-funded scientific conference on dental informatics held in 2003. Its main purpose was to develop strategies for how biomedical informatics can most productively contribute to the resolution of dental research problems. The proceedings contain 24 articles on dental informatics as a discipline, informatics training for researchers, clinical IT systems in dentistry, health services research, dental bioinformatics applications and other subjects.

The computer-based oral health record: A new foundation for oral health information systems (1993; PDF; 30 MB; 269 pages): A comprehensive analysis of functions, opportunities and challenges for electronic dental records in the dental school environment. Includes feature checklists and lists of database fields for software modules such as patient registration, oral health status, digital imaging, interactive progress notes, appointment scheduling, financial management, patient screening and student assessment.
Copyright permission to post this monograph was graciously provided by Oral Health America. The support of the University of Washington School of Dentistry in providing the electronic copy is gratefully acknowledged.

Want to read more on dental informatics? The Publication Archive houses papers and abstracts on dental informatics and dental information technology.

 

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