Question: There is a notion that dentists, in general, are IT technophobes. Do you come across this?
Jordan Sparks: I think it's a pretty good mix. There are also a lot of IT technophiles. I think most dentists just don't have the time or energy to get involved, and it makes sense to delegate that function. But I think our entire population, including dentists, is being forced to learn more computer skills. This trend will only continue. It has become probably the most important skill that a worker can have. A dentist has to be able to have a broad understanding of technology in order to delegate some of the minutia.
Question: Do dentists have a bias towards proprietary practice software?
Jordan Sparks: I think they have a bias towards the software with the most features and the most customers. That's as it should be, because productivity is very important. The open vs. proprietary issue is probably a close second because it future proofs the database and the dental office.
Question: Are there any common misconceptions that people have about open source software?
I think people's general idea of open source software (if they even know what that means) is just about right. OSS, in general, is of lower quality than similar proprietary software. For example, I have recently had to quit using Linux for one of my servers because it was just too clumsy and touchy. I need a very fast and efficient interface, and Microsoft has been kind enough to pour a huge amount of money into building an incredible interface. It makes sense to take advantage of their investment. Dental software is also very different from some other types of software: it's very database-driven. So once an office starts using a particular dental software, it's very hard for them to switch.
Question: How is Open Dental different from the propriety software available for dental practices?
Jordan Sparks: Our focus has always been on usability features. We continually rework it to be more intuitive, customizable and efficient. Between our phone lines and our forum, we maintain a very close communications network with our customers. If something isn't working for them, we learn about it quickly and try hard to change it. I don't see this in most other dental software. I see long hold times, frustrated users, and archaic interfaces, which is unacceptable
Question: In which countries/regions is Open Dental available?
Jordan Sparks: It's freely available anywhere if you can compile it. Within the United States, it can be purchased already compiled and ready to install. We also give it free to dentists in countries such as India and Thailand. But we can't give them telephone support. We have sporadic users in many countries, including Greece, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, China, South Africa. We do not yet have electronic claims for Canada because of the very arduous requirements. It takes a solid six months of programming time to add Canadian e-claims. But once we add that feature, I expect there to be more Canadian users.
Question: Where do you see Open Dental developing over the next 10 years?
Jordan Sparks: Well there is certainly no shortage of ideas for new features. I really see no end in sight! I expect our market share to gradually grow. And our usability and feature set is among the best available. We will continue to infuse the software with more and more intelligence and continue to expand paperless options.
Interconnectivity is probably going to be the biggest exciting development over the next 10 years. In other words, when a patient walks into your office, you should immediately know their medical history, dental history, etc. You should be able to transfer a patient to another office and receive all insurance payments electronically. It would be nice to send a claim and get an EOB back instantaneously from the insurance company while the patient is still at the front desk - that's a tantalizing possibility.
Question: What is some of the more interesting feedback you get from dentists who use Open Dental?
Jordan Sparks: Well, nearly everyone is just ecstatic about the broad feature set. Then, after they use it for a while, they usually start asking for more features. The funny thing is that they rarely ask for the same features. Everyone has little pet features that they want, which don't seem to apply to any other office. We also get dentists who are shocked by the lack of a phone wait.
Question: How do you incorporate user feedback into your software development?
Jordan Sparks: We are right in the middle of adding a new feature called "feature request voting". The idea is that you can go to a screen within Open Dental and submit feature requests. You can also vote on feature requests that other users have submitted. There will be a few more parameters that will also help us prioritize the list, such as difficulty and perceived value. So what we're doing is formalizing what has been a very subjective process before now. We will now have a computer algorithm that will help us decide which features to add next. And user voting will be a very important input into that algorithm. It's a much more powerful communication format when it's highly organized in that manner. A hundred people might be able to learn from a particular conversation where before it was just one-on-one.
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