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Thursday, 30 January 2014 10:29

Accessing your Dental Office Computers Remotely Featured

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post 78 picOn January 21st LogMeIn, Inc. announced the end of their free remote connectivity application. 

Many dental offices have used this tool to access their systems from outside the office. 

The end of this free lunch may send you looking for an alternative and I have a few comments before you make that decision.

LogMeIn and its competitors (i.e. GoToMyPC) generically use a webhosted remote access technology that provides you a door into a remote host (your office PC). 

The transmission is through a secure sockets layer (SSL) that encrypts the communications. 

I’ve read white papers on these products justifying their use under HIPAA rules and am relatively confident that they meet the necessary requirements.  

The difficulty comes with their usability.  The technology is there to view your office PC from your smart phone, but the difference in screen sizes makes it very difficult. 

You will find yourself enlarging the image to read text and then needing to shrink the image to provide context.  This is workable only for a couple of simple tasks at a time.

The use of a tablet computer as the remote device gives you more screen real estate to work with but you may still find the screen size less than ideal.  Of course if your remote device is a desktop computer similar to the remote host, these usability issues are removed. 

However, the need for the remote computer to be of similar format to your office PC will limit your mobility.

This gets me back to the end of the free offering.  LogMeIn’s paid options will run you $99/year for their “Pro” version or as much as $249/year for “Pro for Power Users”.  If you are using a free offering from another vendor, do not be surprised if they follow the LogMeIn lead and end their free service as well.

So, if you are considering paying for this access, approach your practice management system vendor and ask if they have an alternative.  Many have built products in the last few years that will meet your remote needs. 

Here is a link to a tool that DMC sells to remotely access its Daisy practice management software.  Unlike a generic tool like LogMeIn, the practice system vendor’s tools will likely be customized to their products and the screen sizes of the remote device.

Don’t spend too much time lamenting the end of LogMeIn’s free offering. 

Using it as an opportunity to re-assess your remote access needs would be a right click.

Read 11104 times Last modified on Thursday, 30 January 2014 10:55
Bill Hockett

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