There used to be an old (i.e. 1998) joke about The Computer Repair Man who visited Megacorp when their mainframe closed down and, after examining the mighty machine, took a small hammer out of his bag, tapped the side of the computer and it sprang back to life.
When the Megacorp Financial Director queried his invoice for $10,000 – he replied:
Call out fee – $100
Knowing where to knock – $9,900
There is simply so much technology around now in the delivery of dentistry that I can see the evolution of a new member of the dental team – the dental information technologist.
Such an individual would have responsibility for the integration and maintenance of the hardware, firmware and software that will be essential for your practice to function.
Dental equipment communicating in real time with treatment planning and practice management software.
Patient information fully integrated into digital treatment planning software.
On-line booking in conversation with pipeline management systems.
A future in which patients book appointments and pay for treatment with their SmartWatch.
In which real-time analysis of prospect behaviour, patient management and financial reporting self-adjusts to provide optimum marketing, reactivation and recall activity.
A practice full of people with devices, communicating in the cloud with each other and with the AI around them.
Someone is going to have to look after all of that.
I heard today an estimate that 17% of independently owned practices in the UK are not yet computerised.
Hard to believe that they can function at all.
The future is digital – but when it breaks, someone will need to know where to knock.