Technology has taken over our lives and many of us long for a return to simpler times when less was being done by computers.
This will never happen but it will not lessen the reverie we may indulge in occasionally.
A recent bout of musing led me to this Halloween tinged ode.
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Once upon a slow practice day, while my thoughts were miles away, . |
Are you sick of reading about health care reform, Obama-Care, the Affordable Care Act or whatever name it is going by?
Take an antacid because this post is worth your consideration. My primary purpose is to encourage you to read the Harvard Business Review article entitled “The Strategy that Will Fix Health Care”.
Here is a link.
Note that from the title it is not “A Strategy that Will Fix Health Care” but “The Strategy that Will Fix Health Care”.
You may consider this an author’s arrogance about their own opinions but it is a well thought out article from two knowledgeable gentlemen.
They bring together health care expertise along with, not political, but business savvy. After all, health care is a business and as such needs to succeed and thrive far into our future.
Marketing the dental practice has come a long way since I first began working in the dental field.
I recall the days that the only type of marketing we did was to ask our beloved patients to refer their friends and family, have an elegant sign outside of our door and to list in the phonebook a simple, informative advertisement.
And yet, as much as we cherish those simpler days of ordering business cards to hand to our patients and renewing our agreement with the telephone directory, we continue to seek for more ways to market our dental practice in the modern world.
Creative ways. Marketing methods that work. A piece of collateral that can break through the bombardment of advertising that our patients’ eyes see and their brains will need to process.
It has been said that the average American adult will visually see over 20,000 advertisements per day, and yet only process a fraction of them.
I’ve been thinking a lot about innovation recently because I’m reading a book called The Innovator’s DNA by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton M. Christiansen .
It’s about innovative thinking and how some of the world’s greatest innovators actually think and do things differently which gives them these innovative powers.
The late Steve Jobs of Apple, is often used as the “poster-boy” for their examples. How can you argue with iPods, iPhones and iPads.
The book talks about five basic skills:
1. Questioning allows innovators to challenge the status quo and consider new possibilities.
2. Observing helps innovators to detect small details in the activities of customers, suppliers and other companies.
3. Networking permits innovators to gain radically different perspectives from individuals with diverse backgrounds.
4. Experimenting prompts innovators to relentlessly try out new experiences take things apart and test new ideas.
5. Associational thinking allows innovators to draw connections from unrelated fields by questioning, observing, networking and experimenting.
Don’t you just love to update your dental software? You put in that CD provided by your vendor. It whirs and clicks.
Messages appear on the screen that say often indecipherable things but give you the impression of progress… you hope.
Then when it is finished you launch the program and hold your breath, hoping something familiar comes up.
No, you don’t love it. You dread the interruption it causes and the risk it introduces.
In a recent article in Dental Economics Dr. Mark Hyman was quoted as saying:
“…upgrades were major events at my practice. We had to plan for upgrades. It usually involved the assistance of my IT vendor. If it went well we were able to limp along until all the bugs had been worked out. If it went bad, we’d lose production.”
Tablet sales are soaring. According to the IDC (International Data Corporation) more tablets will be sold than PC’s by 2015. Because of this, it makes sense that many of my readers are thinking about buying a tablet for their home or office.
I have followed tablet vendor offerings for several years and would like to share my perspective on several considerations you should contemplate before taking the plunge.
Before we get into those considerations, I suggest you be very clear to articulate how you expect to use your new tablet. Write these down and then put them in order by priority.
When choosing a tablet you will be making a number of decisions and how you make these should be dictated by how you expect to use the device and the following points.
I recently read a book authored by John MacCormick and Chris Bishop entitled Nine Algorithms that Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas that Drive Today’s Computers.
I’ll confess to being a geek about these kind of things and since this tome is likely not on your summer reading list, I’d like to recap these nine processes for you.
Depending on your age, you may take them for granted and because of the magic of today’s computers they are often invisible to the casual user.
But be assured, without them, modern computing might still exist only in large air-conditioned rooms accessible by just the largest companies.
Read on and you may acquire a new appreciation for that smart phone, tablet or desktop computer you’re using to read this blog.
Summer weekends. We all love them. We spend time with our family and friends, doing the things we enjoy.
We return to our office on Monday morning feeling refreshed and ready to take care of our patients with renewed energy.
We put our things away, sit down in our comfortable desk chair and turn on the server. And, we wait. No response.
Thinking that we did something wrong, we click the power button off, then on. Hoping that it will respond with something.
Anything. Anything, other than nothing.
And still, nothing.
Then our worst fear sets in. Our server is down. That means we cannot access our computers. That means we don’t have a schedule. That means I have to call our technician for help.
Our technician. Where is the number? It’s on the computer.
Integrate electronic prescribing into DAISY and elevate patient safety, prescription security, and efficiency.
eRx empowers dentists with rapid access to each patient’s prescription record and potential contraindications, triggering alerts when drug interactions are found.
Integrated electronic prescribing also simplifies insurance formulary cross-referencing. Fill and refill prescriptions from any location using your mobile device.
eRx handles record-keeping automatically behind the scenes – in real-time.
Get your free DAISY ERx demo today!
When you purchase digital X-ray equipment through DMC, we’ll manage all components of your X-ray imaging upgrade — and remain your first and only support call for life.
More downtime means less revenue, so our entire digital radiography business is focused on ensuring a seamless transition to the latest digital X-ray imaging equipment.
When you choose DMC for a complete X-ray systems upgrade, you can count on:
Schedule a personal consultation with a digital radiography specialist today for a cost-effective and worry-free transition to a fully digital practice.
DAISY Mobile lets you access patient and scheduling information directly from your smartphone.
Get anywhere, anytime access to:
A quick access icon on your smartphone takes you directly to the DAISY mobile dental app — there’s no software to download or install.
Available to all practices running DAISY, this mobile app for dentists helps you keep patient records confidential by eliminating the need to leave the office with paper reports.
Own a smartphone? Leverage the power of DAISY’s new mobile dental application today.
