Where we've been...

2011 has been a busy year at Datacon. As always, we have welcomed new clients to our "family", helped existing clients modernize their systems, and provided continuing support and software improvements.

Beyond that, much of what we have done is "behind the scenes" and preparation for the future. We have made major improvements to our internal systems for providing support and our web site has been completely replaced with a new design that will support our growth in the new year. The web site now includes numerous support documents on various subjects that we consider to be "frequently asked questions". Many of you have taken advantage of the option to send a message to our support team using a form on the website. Often, this allows us to find the answers and get back to you at a time which is convenient for you.

Moving our software to a new platform was a huge task, one that many companies have not been able to accomplish. As we enter the new year, the majority of our clients have now upgraded to a Mac based server and we are excited to be able to provide new functionality based on the capabilities of this modern platform. Many questioned our decision to go to the Mac, but Apple is now the largest technology company in the world and we feel that we can leverage their advances for many years to come.

Our clients with Mac servers are already enjoying the benefits of a faster server, improved backup, simplified electronic claim submission, and more. As the year draws to an end, we are putting the finishing touches on the 3.6D software release which includes the Datacon Mobile web based product. This allows you to have secure access to basic patient and schedule information from an iPad, smartphone, or other devices that include a web browser. The 3.6D software will be released after the first of the year. This update includes some big changes to the appearance of our screens. We have tried to limit any changes to key strokes for those of you who have well rehearsed routines but at the same time we have included many new user interface elements that will make it easier for a novice user to understand how to use the software. We have made more extensive use of pop down menus, check boxes, and have provided new graphics to make the software more intuitive. We consider this to be the first of many steps forward and expect that you will enjoy using it.

Where we are going...


We are expecting 2012 to be a big year for Datacon. The ADA will be meeting here in San Francisco in the fall and we are going to take this opportunity to expand Datacon from a regional focus to nationwide availability. Our move to the Mac server makes it possible to work with any IT organization across the country for installation and service. We routinely train and support our clients using the Internet and we can do this just as effectively for someone two thousand miles from here. Our ability to use either PCs or Macs as workstations is unique and we feel that this will create great opportunities for growth. Many doctors coming out of school have been using Macs during their education and we have priced our software very competitively to allow someone just starting out the opportunity to take advantage of our practice management system.

We have lots of plans for improving the software including some big changes to charting, pcLink for iPad, more third party software integration, consent forms on the iPad, and more.

Look for more changes to our web site as our marketing, training and support efforts take advantage of the possibilities offered by the Internet. Early in the new year, we will add a user forum where our users can communicate with us or each other. We expect that this will be a valuable tool both for you and for us. We are continuing to add documentation to the support area of the site. The updated site will also include training videos. Employees coming to your practice who are new to Datacon will be able to view brief videos describing how to accomplish various common tasks. We will also be adding an events calendar, news, connections to Facebook and Twitter, and blog pages where we can publish articles like this one and receive comments from our registered users.

We hope to make www.datacondental.com a home for a growing Datacon community where we can all share information and news.

Your daily backup is something you should do every day you use your system. Your documentation and our staff remind you to check the results of your daily backup each business day. 

(See http://datacondental.com/documentation under “Mac Specific” for step by step instructions) If you don’t have a current backup and your server fails, chances are pretty good you will loose valuable practice data. Hopefully we all perform the task of setting the daily backup but the question we’ve heard lately is “How long will my external backup drives or DVDs last?” There is no sure-fire way of knowing when your backup media will come to the end of its useful life, but here are a few general guidelines:

DVD-RW:

According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, the life expectancy is about 1,000 “writes”. The storage, or archive expectancy is somewhere around 2-5 years. These estimates are based upon the storage environment being between 62 and 70 degrees F and 35 – 50% relative humidity. These are conservative guidelines; but ensure the integrity of your backup.

External Hard Drives:

According to the documentation included in the box, your Western Digital (Passport) External hard drive comes with a 3-year warranty. According to the Western Digital website, the drives should be stored in an environment between 41 and 95 degrees F. There is no mention of humidity. Hard drives purchased before 2008 should most likely be cycled out of rotation and new hard drives should be purchased.

New external hard drives will need to be formatted prior to first use. This is a very simple task that can be performed remotely by any of our support staff members. Please call our support line (800) 773-7878 for prompt assistance.

How important this information is relates to how important your practice data is. A short-term alternative to using the DVD-RW method or the External Hard Drive method is the use of a collection of thumb drives for emergency backup.

Note: It is important that all computers storing data should be placed on a regular backup routine.

Our announcement of Datacon Mobile has generated a lot of interest. We have received lots of calls and eMails through our website with questions and comments. We were also able to show Datacon Mobile running on iPads at our booth at CDA.

The list of features is growing rapidly and your feedback has allowed us to focus on areas that are of particular interest to potential users of this exciting new option. Two requested features that have already been implemented were the ability to cancel an appointment when confirming with a mobile device and the ability for the doctor to add a patient to the next day's schedule when a patient calls after hours with a problem.

To support these features, we have also added a schedule follow-up list to the software in your office. Whenever a patient cancels an appointment or is added for an emergency, the patient is placed on the list for follow-up. These new capabilities and more will be included in the 3.6D software that is currently in testing.

Datacon Mobile is only available if you are using a Mac server (Mac Mini or Mac Pro) with our latest software and have a high speed internet connection to your office.

And Speaking of Mobile...

There is a whole new type of practice out there that is an ideal candidate for Datacon. Maybe you know of someone who fits this description. Utilizing the MacBook Pro (laptop) you can carry around your whole practice! Many providers travel from location to location to practice their dentistry. By using the MacBook Pro you simply plug into the Internet when connectivity is needed, plug into a small printer when printing is needed and away you go! Now that’s mobile! This style of software utilization is only recommended for the one-person practice. If you know of someone who might be interested, please give us a call or visit our website to find out more!

Did you know that the perio charting feature has been available in your Datacon software since 1990? 

An interesting side note is when it was first released; we were not yet using PC and Mac workstations. The onscreen perio display required a special color terminal costing about $1500. It was nowhere near as beautiful as it is now utilizing today’s technology.

“Do I have that in my software?” is a question we hear time and again at CDA Sessions, and various training meetings. And, our answer is always “YES!” Our software is constantly evolving to meet your practice needs.

The perio charting draws a graphically accurate picture as you type in the patient’s pocket depth. If you have a workstation in the operatory the patient can see how their pockets depths look in real time.

Many consider our printed perio exam report to be the BEST on the market! We have had many requests to make this available as a separate product to be integrated with other packages but it remains a Datacon exclusive and one of your unique benefits. Contact our software support team for help in setting up your personalized perio charting feature.

Similarly, as dental professionals frequently seek specialized software features to enhance their practices, individuals managing diabetes often look for reliable online sources to obtain medications like metformin. Just as the unique perio charting software is tailored to meet specific dental needs, websites offering metformin aim to provide convenient, safe, and personalized service to their users. It's important for consumers to choose reputable online pharmacies that offer detailed information about their products, secure transactions, and customer support, paralleling the specialized support dental professionals receive from software teams. This ensures that patients can manage their health effectively with the right tools and resources, much like dentists enhance patient care with specialized software.

Entering "Date of Service" on private payments or adjustments provides additional control over how credits are applied and simplifies the process of answering those patient questions.

Your Datacon software includes the ability to keep track of dental laboratories and lab cases.

Clinical Tasks allows you to specify all of the individual tasks you perform during a dental procedure. This information allows our scheduler to accurately determine the time requirements for a treatment plan and provides the basis for the automatic creation of chart notes.

Our Labor Day Weekend software release includes some new things that we are pretty excited about.

We have completed the task of updating the appearance of all the screens. We have moved some things around on the Main Menu in hopes that they will seem to be grouped more logically. The way the scripts are handled has changed as well, to make it less likely that these changes will have an adverse affect when running your scripts.

Due to popular demand, we have added Lab Cases to the Patient Appointment screen. You can add a lab case or update it's status right from the schedule. We have also added a merge field to simplify the addition of the lab case status to the notes on the schedule. The print key now presents a pop-down menu with a list of print options instead of requiring a Yes or No answer for each possibility. For those with keyboard habits, the software still responds to the "Y" and "N" keys. We can also now create more than one customized report for any screen.

The big change in this update is the schedule screen. It now has a new appearance that is consistent with the rest of the software. We have simplified the display when you are just reviewing the schedule, the search possibilities only show when needed. New navigation buttons at the top make it simple to page between hours, days, and columns. When reviewing the schedule for a producer there are also buttons for flipping through the weeks. Eyes popped and mouths dropped in our offices when we first demonstrated drag and drop on the schedule screen. You can now drag the schedule up and down or you can grab the cursor in the time column and drag it up or down to scroll the schedule thru a whole day. You can grab an appointment and drag it to a new location on the same day or reschedule it using the search engine. Our scheduler can be very smart about automatically finding the best spot for an appointment, but some people still like to play.

We have also enhanced the way lists can be manipulated using the mouse. When reviewing lists of accounts,patients, transactions, or whatever the software has always responded to a single click by moving to the clicked record and selecting it. This makes it difficult to use the mouse to move the cursor to a record to be deleted, printed, or moved. With this update, a click moves the cursor to the record. A second click selects the record. For lists that allow records to be moved up or down you can now simply grab a record and drag it up or down. When reviewing a long list, you can grab the cursor and drag it up or down to scroll through the entire list.

Time Clock software keeps track of your staff hours so you don't have to. Easy reporting, accrual of vacation and sick benefits and more!

We are pleased to announce the release of version 2.4 of our Time Clock software. With this update, we have updated Time Clock to match the look and feel of the current dental software release. e print options in Time Clock now match those you have had in the dental software. is includes support for printing to PDF - now your HR person can print the time reports and easily save them to a workstation or send them to your payroll administrator or accountant.

e major new feature in Time Clock 2.4 is Sick and Vacation Time accruals.

e software handles a broad assortment of options for accruing sick or vacation time including hourly, weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, and annual. Hourly accrual is a good option for part- time employees and accumulates sick or vacation time based on the portion of the annual hours that have been worked. Weekly and bi-weekly accruals can occur on any day of the week. Semi-monthly and monthly accruals can occur on any day of the month and yearly accruals can occur in any month. Each employee can be assigned any accrual method. Sick and vacation accrual settings for employees are completely separate. Each can specify the accrual method, annual hours to be worked, annual benefit, and a maximum accrual. Employee accrual settings are posted to the time card making it simple to change the benefits on any effective date or grant benefits after some period of employment.

An employee can review the current vacation or sick accrual at any time. ere is also a sick and vacation accrual report available. is report can be run for an employee for any range of dates and can be summarized by day, week, month, quarter, or year. is report shows both the accumulation and use of sick and vacation time and any changes to the employee's accrual settings. If you are already using the time clock software, this is a free update. Let Datacon’s Time Clock software remove the headache of tracking accrued leave time.

Datacon Mobile provides a secure way to access your practice data from anywhere you happen to be, provided you have access to the Internet and a web browser.  This means you can use your iPhone, iPad, Android Smartphone, or home computer to review financial information, check patient records, and even access documents or images in the patient folders.

Have you started using this feature?  Weigh in with your comments.