Electronic Dental Records “Go Live” Today

The Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) will “Go Live” with Electronic Dental Records (EDR) on Tuesday, September 7. The implementation of this final Salud module will eliminate paper records and complete the comprehensive conversion that began in 2005. 

The modules that have been implemented include: Billing, Appointments, Treatment planning, Digital x-rays, Progress / Appointment notes, Clinical charting, Forms (Universal Chart), Prescriptions (Laboratory and Drug), Patient Referrals, Assignments, Recalls, and Sterilization / Inventory. The modules have been configured with maximum capability and will meet the needs of GSDM for the foreseeable future. Additionally, the software will be continuously adjusted to remain compatible with emerging technology and hardware.

The conversion has been a School-wide effort coordinated by the Task Force to Implement the Electronic Dental Record which has been lead by faculty member Dr. Ronni Schnell and Executive Director of Finance and Operations Mr. Tim McDonough with critical support by Information Technology Consultant Mr. Ibrahim Kachouh and Associate Director of Facilities and Operations Mr. Andy Burke. The task force was comprised of faculty and staff from every area of the School and includes:

Overall Salud Configuration
Dr. Ronni Schnell, Chair of EDR Task Force
Mr. Tim McDonough
Mr. John Reilly
Mr. Ibrahim Kachouh, IT
Mr. Richard Bourque, IT
Mr. Joseph Tchamitchian, IT
Mr. Evan Donato, IT

Faculty Consultants
Dr. Louie Abrass
Dr. John Bowley
Dr. John Cassis
Dr. Dara Cunnion
Dr. Victor Dietz
Dr. Serge Dibart
Dr. Richard D’innocenzo
Dr. Stephen DuLong
Dr. Margaret Errante
Dr. Karl Flanzer
Dr. Neil Fleisher
Dr. George Gallagher
Dr. Anita Gohel
Dr. Dario Gonzalez
Dr. John Guarente
Dr. Fred Haines
Dr. Yanling Jiang
Dr. Judith Jones
Dr. Celeste Kong
Dr. Carl McManama
Dr. Negar Nasseripour
Dr. Bruce Robinson
Dr. Ramzi Sarkis
Dr. Frank Schiano
Dr. Leslie Will

Clinical Staff Supervisors
Ms. Joanne Beer
Ms. Lori Brady
Ms. Barbara McKenna
Ms. Sheila Scully

Student Reps
Ms. Stephanie Trahan
Mr. Brad Woland

The Salud configuration and implementation has been ably supported by Dublin based Two-ten Health (TTH) team members Ms. Leah-Ann McHenry and Mr. David Howard. “GSDM has been working with TTH on this comprehensive conversion since 2005 and we have been very pleased with their willingness to configure the system to meet our unique clinical, patient, and business needs,” said McDonough.

Over the past several weeks TTH, in coordination with the Task Force to Implement the Electronic Patient Record leaders, have been conducting training sessions with more than 30 “Super Users,” as well as faculty, staff, and students for all predoctoral patient treatment areas. Postdoctoral patient treatment area personnel will be trained in the coming weeks and will “Go Live” by the end of September.

For the first week of “Go Live” representatives from TTH and “Super Users” will be onsite in the patient treatment areas wearing bright vests and carrying radios to trouble-shoot and assist as GSDM adopts a completely paperless system. These individuals are faculty and staff from all clinics and departments of the School that are willing and able to learn quickly, assist others, and help support and troubleshoot during implementation and "Go Live".

Tutorials and videos of training sessions are available on Blackboard. In addition, hard copy manuals will be available for quick consultation. During the first month of “Go Live” the length of sessions in the predoctoral treatment areas have been lengthened to allow for the learning curve. “I have been extremely impressed with how comfortable everyone has been with this new software during training,” said Dr. Schnell. “I am confident that my colleagues and our students will make this transition seamlessly.”

As of today, September 7, we will begin to transition from the paper record. Current patient record legacy data and current radiographs on film necessary for continuing treatment will be selectively scanned as needed. The existing paper records will be kept on the premises and available for review for at least six months and after that will be archived in the usual manner.

An incredible amount of effort has been involved in this initiative and today as we implement the EDR we can see that it has all been worth it,” said Dean Hutter. He added, “The EDR will bring GSDM to a new level of excellence and separate us from our peers. We owe this to our students, our patients, our faculty & staff, our alumni, and our School. I could not be more pleased with this implementation.”

Project leads Dr. Schnell and McDonough expressed gratitude for the School-wide effort that has contributed to the success of the EDR. “In particular we would like to thank Mr. Andy Burke for leading the charge on renovating the computer laboratory and installing computers at every patient treatment operatory and other appropriate spaces; Mr. Ibrahim Kachouh and his staff for installing the computer infrastructure; Dr. Anita Gohel and her radiology staff for spending the extra time and effort training all of the students and faculty on the digital radiography module; and the members of the Task Force to Implement the Electronic Patient Treatment Record.”

Photos of the recent student training sessions are available on GSDM’s flickr account and the Facebook page.