Praktika in Press

How the Cloud Can Help You Manage Your Dental Practice

by Dmitri Giski - Praktika Team

There has been a lot of buzz recently with the word “Cloud Computing. Many large software companies started providing “Cloud Services, many popular software packages now include cloud functionality, etc. What is it?  Is it yet another dot-com venture, a clever marketing tool or is it something of real value that can truly increase efficiency of business operations? Is it meant just for larger financial institutions and home users, or is it of any worth for small and medium size businesses including health providers?

To answer that question we need to look first at what the “Cloud Computing” is and what new opportunities in business management it offers.

In formal terms Cloud Computing is an IT service delivered over the Internet. The service includes both hardware and software components. There are several types of common services provided, such as Software as a Service (SaaS), Storage as a Service (STaaS), Data as a Service (DaaS), etc. 

In common terms it means getting your software, data and IT services over the Internet, i.e. delegating them to professional IT companies.

What are the recognised benefits of the Cloud Computing model?

• Costs are reduced as capital expenditure is turned into operational expenditure. Users do not need to invest into expensive hardware setups and purchase software (licences). Freed funds can be directed to acquiring assets that generate income, rather than being “frozen” in unliquidable state.
• Device and Location Independence. Ultimate flexibility when it comes to place, time and device choice to access the data.
• Reliability.  Statistically, systems providing Cloud Computing services exceed 99% of uptime – a result hardly achievable with locally hosted computer systems.
• Increased Security. The levels of security provided by the Cloud Computing model generally surpass those of local systems.  This is owing to the concentration of resources to pay for sophisticated hardware and software security setup, otherwise unaffordable at an individual local level.
• Scalability. The systems are easily expandable – new hardware and users can be added and removed without any hassles and changes to the core of the system or its operations.
• Maintenance. Delegating most of the IT maintenance tasks to the service providers takes a lot of pressure from the users and significantly reduces their running costs.

What about the problems of the Cloud Computing?
As one of possible drawbacks of the Cloud Computing system they often mention the loss of control over the data, because the data are stored in unspecified remote locations over which the user has little or no control.

This problem can be eliminated by using a so-called Private Cloud Computing, where the hardware (application and data servers) and software are owned and fully controlled by a single business entity – the service provider.

This is exactly the way Praktika – Online Dental Software is providing its services (SaaS, DaaS, STaaS, etc.). All the servers are located in Australia, are owned and controlled by Praktika.

In this article I would like to cover some other aspects of the Cloud Computing,  which are rarely mentioned, but, in my view, are very important part of the model. I will use Praktika as an example since it closely follows the Cloud Computing model.

The Cloud Computing model enables the implementation of the Content Management System for the users by the providers. In other words the range of provided services extends far beyond just storage and giving access to the data. These kind of services are virtually non-existent in the standard local model or are rather expensive and need to be purchased separately.

The services may include:

• monitoring the health of the data: fraud prevention and integrity checks of data;
• providing quick custom reporting on demand;
• auditing of user actions: suspicious behaviour or tracing any other actions;
• data services:  merge, remove, rollback existing data, data conversion from other sources, automated data backups to name a few.

I will start with the Fraud Prevention. Currently a hot topic that seems to be gaining importance.  Fraud may include pocketing cash or other form of profiteering by modifying or deleting the records, entering records without authorisation or any other actions both malevolent or negligent that damage the business directly or indirectly.

First of all Praktika is using a strict accounting approach which firmly links a provider, an appointment and financial transactions together. There cannot be any loose payments of other transactions that would not be cross-referenced. Inconsistencies are very easy to find and nightly scripts that run through all the records immediately pick up any suspicious action or record modification. A difference between the scheduled payment and received payment cannot be hidden.

Secondly, all the user actions are recorded and can be traced back. Post factum modification or deletion of financial transaction sits high on the list of suspicious behaviour and the scripts will treat such actions with the highest priority and attention.

Thirdly, Praktika encourages every single user to have his/her own login details. Because there are no licences involved, having 5 or 500 users does not cost any more, so there is no reason not to allocate everyone their own user name and password. It allows to configure the software with appropriate permissions (first line of defence) and also to find out who did what, when and from where (including the IP address, device details, etc). We inform users of suspicious behaviour and they can request a follow-up action to investigate the matters thoroughly.

Another important Cloud service is the custom reporting.  Obviously all the practice management systems have some reporting facility, but only the Cloud systems allow the quick custom reporting, because the data are stored in the same place where the reports are generated. It is impossible to create set reports that will cover all the possible requests as the number of variables is extremely high, but as part of Praktika Cloud data services we are able to supply the users with reports of highest complexity.

Other data services include the data integrity checks. It means making sure that all the records are consistent with the accepted standards, that no data are corrupted, that there are no logical contradictions within. We are often dealing with data conversions from other practice management packages and every day we come across big corrupted portions of data, which nobody ever cared to check for integrity. You may think that the data you saved on your local server is OK, while it may be very far from truth. With the Cloud model, your data is taken care of.

The same concerns the backing up of your data. With the Cloud Computing model the data continuously get backed up. It is done professionally which includes all pre-, during and post-process checks. Our experience tells us that locally backed up data more often than not happen to be inadequate – corruption, data loss, integrity failures. With the Cloud backup you can be assured that the data you entered and saved to the Cloud will never get lost or get corrupted.
The Cloud model also allows safe complex data manipulation of data by the service providers. By request Praktika team can find and merge duplicate patient files, correct mistakes or roll back to a previous state of records. This service also includes data conversion from other practice management packages or other data files.

The important feature of these processes is that all the above listed services are performed without any interruptions to the main software operations. In other words, users do not have to stop using the system while backups are being done, or records being corrected, etc.

The same concerns bug fixing which can be very quick for critical software bugs or system updates. The users are relieved from doing any maintenance work on their systems – all that is done centrally and without any interruption to the service.

The Cloud model is a different approach to managing your practice. This model offers a range of important services that can significantly facilitate your data management. A range of services that would be either very costly or technically impossible under a different model. The services that are aimed at ensuring that your data is secure, properly kept, safely backed up and is utilised to the maximum for the benefit of your practice.

Published in Australasian Dentist Magazine in No.46 September/October 2012

Paperless Dental Practice Management in the Cloud

Praktika Dental on iPad

by Costa Pinchuk - Praktika Team

Almost 2 billion people are using the Internet regularly. The Internet has become the largest network that connects people today. It provides information, facilities to communicate, storage space and a great place to shop. What’s more himportant though is the fact that it allows us to instantly share data, making the Internet allegedly the greatest tool ever developed by the humankind – the ultimate data management tool.

Dental Practice Management has got a lot to do with managing data.  Up until the late 1980s data management meant lots of indexed folders on the shelves with countless sheets of paper stored in them. Standard data management functions such as search, update, synchronise and share records were quite arduous and time consuming. 

Personal computers that got widely introduced in all industries in the 1990s resolved many of those issues. It became a lot easier to find and update data, but with the server-client architecture limited to a local area network (LAN), sharing data was also limited to a particular LAN (normally a particular location or venue). We all had problems with different versions of the same document saved on different computers or records updated on one computer still being out-dated on another.  

The Internet with the Cloud technology resolves this issue. The cloud allows you to have just one instance of your file that can be immediately shared with other authorised users.  You can also access your file from multiple devices and this is very important as the 21st Century saw the introduction of a new kind of computers – portable devices: tablets and smart phones. The cloud gives you a facility to access and manage your data from all those devices.

As personal desktop workstations replaced huge mainframe computers, the tablets, like iPad et al., are now replacing the desktop devices in everyday life.  The convenience of portability is driving this change. The iPad is an all-in-one light weighted device not wired to the wall with a very impressive battery life. It opens new wonderful ways of managing your data – one of those ways is an opportunity to go completely paperless in your data management. All you need for that is a right iPad app, like Praktika Dental for iPad, to do the task.

We at Lizard Software recognise the global trend of the data processing moving to the Internet. With this in mind we developed Praktika – Online Software so that the Australian Dental Industry could keep up with the changing times, so that Australian dental practitioners could benefit from the latest technologies available.   

Even now Praktika is the most portable dental practice management software in Australia.  It is a platform independent package that runs under any operating system and does not require any installations. By placing Praktika on iPad we go one step further making it even easier to manage your data than ever before.

The personal computers reduced the amount of paper we use, but with Praktika Dental for iPad you can finally implement a completely paperless office.  Before the iPad we could enter, store and exchange most of the data, but there was one piece of patient communication that still required paper – Patient Form filled in and signed by the patient.  We could sms or email the patients, we could take and keep digital images or x-rays, maintain the medical and treatment history, but we still had to use paper for the patient form.

That is why the first feature we implemented in Praktika Dental for iPad was a Patient Form that can be filled by patients themselves and finger-signed by them. Filling a form has always been a boring little-joy lengthy exercise both for the patients and reception. It’s all changed now:  it is quick and fun. Patients can entertain themselves experimenting with taking their own pictures and finger signing, while the reception can do something more productive than retyping often hard to recognise scribbles.

The form itself is a sequence of screens to enter both personal and medical information. It is very easy to use and we were pleasantly surprised that even elderly not so computer-savvy patients were able to do it with ease without any assistance.  The absolute record was an 86 year old lady from Brisbane who filled it in herself and said that she loved it. Once filled and signed the patient information is available instantly in Praktika. The reception does not need to retype anything and they can immediately create appointments with the patient.

Praktika Dental for iPad significantly speeds up patient processing and what is more important – it reduces the number of errors that may occur during the retyping of the paper filled forms. It is also a great marketing tool as it shows that you are a modern practice keeping up with the times. Furthermore, as we know now, the “Wow factor” is a great force driving up the sales and a cool iPad app certainly falls into that category.

The other features of Praktika Dental for iPad can be of great help both at the reception and at the surgery. The reception can use it to quickly find the patient info and update the data if necessary. This is like having another computer at your fingertips. It is more visual and easier to operate – just swiping, tapping, scrolling. A great thing is that you can carry it around and take it where a personal desktop computer is unavailable but you still need the data.

At the surgery the Praktika Dental for iPad can be used to look up the patients’ personal and medical data, treatment history, clinical notes. The next release will include the x-rays and images. We are also developing a fast one finger tap charting facility and clinical note dictation.  

It is a lot easier to enter and read clinical notes on iPad: you can put the device anywhere, you can easily sort and filter the notes, you can increase the font size for greater visibility with a two finger zoom gesture, you can find the note using the search bar, etc. If you need to look at the patient’s medical history – it is one swipe gesture away, personal details – another swipe away. No clicks, no windows to open or close. The iPad provides for a lot more efficient operations.

Both the desktop Praktika and Praktika Dental for iPad are fully synchronised in real time and the changes made at either are propagated immediately to all other logged in devices.

The paperless office has finally become the reality.  With the Praktika Dental for iPad functionality, allowing you to collect patient’s data and signature without a paper source, the circle is now complete.  All the communication within the practice as well as inbound and outbound ones can now be performed using the electronic means. All this results in your data being safer to keep, easier to maintain and faster to find.  

We are constantly adding new exciting features to our Praktika Dental for iPad app aiming at the full practice management functionality. Follow our blog or twitter for the updates.

The Praktika Dental for iPad can be downloaded from the Apple App Store free of charge. You need a current Praktika account to access the data, but you can request a Test Drive from praktika.com.au/testDrive.html if you are not a Praktika customer to see it for yourself.

Published in Australasian Dentist Magazine in No.45 July/August 2012

Managing Multi-location Dental Practice with Online Software.

by Laura Latis - Dentist at Dental4U

Dental4U is a general dental practice with two locations in Geelong and Melbourne (Yarraville), Victoria. It was established 5 years ago and is specialising in general dentistry. It started as a single location practice in Geelong and later we expanded the business to Melbourne to provide dental services in a fast growing area close to the Melbourne’s Docklands.

Once we have established the second location in Melbourne we immediately came across a problem of co-ordinating work between the two practices. Firstly, we had doctors and staff working at both locations who would need to access their resources and records regardless of where they work on a particular day, secondly, we had patients who might be treated at both locations, so their records also needed to be shared, and  lastly, we needed some practice management tools that would allow us to the see the whole picture of the business’ operations. The last bit was very important – we needed to manage finances: accounts, bills, revenue, etc. with the data from both locations as formally it is still a single business.

At that stage we started looking for software and hardware solution to the problem. The analysis revealed that the traditional software packages were not capable of delivering what we needed at a reasonable cost. Connecting the practices by a custom laid or leased 80 km (distance between the two practices) network cable would be an incredibly expensive option. Using peer-to-peer connection like VPN was very restricting: slow, complex, unreliable and with very limited functionality. With the VPN we could only establish a single computer to another single computer connection. Sharing was virtually impossible. That did not help. There was also an option of establishing our own server, but that raised more problems than solved: expensive IT setup and management, and security of the server and data. The costs would also be very high.  

The Internet appeared to be the best possible option.  We thought, why we can manage our banking on the Internet and cannot do the same with our business. We starting looking for someone who could provide us with an Internet based solution.

So that’s where our work with Praktika started. Praktika is an Australian online dental management software which had affordable answers to the problems we had.

First of all we can access both locations by a simple click within a single screen. It means that the two receptions can support each other and fill in if a need arises. In fact with a single reception we can book patients at both locations if needed.  As we can access our practice from anywhere and anytime we can easily make all appointments even after hours, be it from the premises, home or even on the road.

It is very important for the doctors to be able to access the data at both locations at the same time. First of all, it allows the doctor to see all his/her appointments no matter where they are. It greatly assists in planning and treatment preparation. The doctor can also see and edit all the relevant data at both locations: treatment and appointment histories, clinical notes, charts and even financial details. If a patient visits both our locations, the dentist can access their whole treatment history with an indication of where the treatment was done. No need any more to transfer records and make redundant copies. All the patient’s data can be shared between any number of locations, and staff members at locations are accessing a single file, rather than multiple copies. It helps preserve the data integrity at the highest level. We can now easily do the preparation and assessment at one location and finalise treatment at another. Some of our patients live in Geelong and work in Melbourne. We can provide continuous uninterrupted treatment for such patients by sharing their data. It is as simple as just one click on a checkbox – “Share patient’s data”.

It is also great that access permissions can be set for each individual user: a user can have access only to a single location data or both. Access to financial data, reports, etc. also can be configured for each staff member individually.

In fact, managing two locations with Praktika is like managing just one.  Very easy. 

I would also have to mention the IT part of it. It is no secret that dentists do not have much time and expertise to deal with the computer issues in our practices. Generally, the more complex is the business set up, the more complex the IT arrangement becomes and maintenance it requires: hardware and software setups, maintenance, backups just to mention a few issues. Restoring operations if a computer dies on you is a serious and expensive downtime exercise. With the Internet based software there are no issues like that – our data is kept at a secure location where it is constantly backed up. We do not need any IT support at all. Any computer from the box is ready to run Praktika. We do not need servers, installations, backup systems, etc.

If we decide to open yet another location, all we need to do is to turn on computers in it and start running in exactly the same moment. It makes it so much easier and we can concentrate on things we know better – treat our patients.

Last but still very important issue is the cost of it all. This is where the online systems cannot be beaten. First of all there are no upfront costs and you can spend your money on something that generates revenue for you instead of freezing the funds in software, which has no resale value.
Praktika is charged by a low monthly subscription, very much like a mobile phone. Being a service it is completely tax deductable straight away. There are no licences so you can run it on any number of computers still paying the same fee.

In conclusion I can point out that the online based practice management software like Praktika have revolutionised the way we can manage our practices. It is very helpful in situation like ours, where our business is located in various places with the need to share data. It gives us flexibility and peace of mind that our data is secure and is available to us 24/7 wherever we are.

Published in Australasian Dental Practice, Nov/Dec 2010