Friday 7 November 2008

Digital Dental Records

Last week I was a free software/open standards advocate.
Today, due to my work IT upgrade this week I am a free software/open standards fanatic.

I am a dentist BTW, and we have upgraded our old clinical database to a new version.

This upgrade is to another proprietary, closed source "solution".
That's bad for me and fellow dental practice owners who want high quality, bug free, modifiable, secure software.

However, I realised something that affects a much wider audience... patients.

Dental Records.
We need a minimum standard for a digital dental record that any dental practice in the UK with a clinical database must be able to export to ooxml for dental records if you like.
Note - this is not for my benefit, but for my patients past, current and future they have a right to their data... and it must be in an import/exportable form IMHO.

moving to another practice/country?
want to build a case against me for poor treatment?
want to find out which anaesthetic you had a bad reaction to in 1998?
Need to see your x-ray or intra-oral image data?

no problem. (or at least.. it shouldn't be.. under present legislation you may get a crappy print out if you're lucky)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'm on the ORG staff and would be happy to ask our advisory council - the experts that direct our work - to comment on your campaign. Please email specific questions to michael@openrightsgroup.org and i'll get some constructive feedback for you.