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The Faculty of Dentistry at U.B.C. has developed a decision-support system to improve the process of screening, selecting and tracking dental patients. The system records the oral health status of each patient during the course of the initial dental examination, and to date, some 3,000 patient records are in the clinic's database.
The programme is based on an expert system in which a standardized method helps dental professionals make informed and rapid decisions through a decision-tree model.
The decision rules for treatment are based on clinical experience gained in several large epidemiological studies of older adults. Management of the data collected at U.B.C. from participants in the epidemiological studies and from the patients attending the dental clinic has been refined over the past several years. Clinical details are recorded on the status of jaw function, denture quality, mucosal health, tooth structure and orientation, caries activity, and periodontal health. The tracking system provides access to details on the oral health status, treatment recommendations and estimates of treatment costs for every patient. Moreover, it accepts modification to the records as treatment advances while retaining the original baseline data.
It has been designed with input from many specialists to provide rules that enable clinicians and patients to look instantaneously at a treatment plan along with associated fees. Based on UBC's experience, TxDENT streamlines the initial management process of a new patient. Moreover, the specific impact of various clinical observations can be customized with an immediate adjustment to the treatment option and associated fees.
Currently it is used as a stand-alone system and it will be available later this year as part of large Clinic Management/Information programme produced by AXIUM®
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