Friedman, DDS: Practicing Dentistry’s Future
The ability to effortlessly capture video during an exam or a restorative procedure is crucial to Friedman’s primary goal: “To optimize the time I spend with my patients, to give them as much information as I can while they’re in the office, and to insure that they leave with personalized collateral materials to help them make informed decisions about their care is a priority.”
Multimedia is the Message
At Friedman’s office, that unfettered flow of information happens across all media, from paper to wall-mounted computer screens to videos burned on take-home DVDs. As soon as patients sit down in his waiting room, they see eye-catching Keynote presentations educating them on a range of dental health issues, and directing them to further details in rack-mounted brochures below. During an exam or a procedure, with the aid of the global microscope and on-board video camera, the stout-hearted can choose to see exactly what Friedman is seeing and doing, in the moment — or the nervous can soothe anxieties with wireless headphones, a DVD movie, or a preferred music playlist or Internet radio via iTunes.
When Friedman has an agenda for future treatment, they leave with far more than a vague memory of a complex discussion. Instead, they get color photos of their own teeth (managed in iPhoto), combined with in-depth explanations of recommended procedures, their risks and rewards (templated in Pages). If cosmetic procedures are being weighed, they might even get videos of their own teeth (captured and edited in iMovie) combined with before-and-after presentations culled from Friedman’s past work, burned to a DVD (customized in iDVD) that can be brought home for discussion with friends and family.
“Informed consent issues, documentation issues, communication issues, financial obligation agreements — you can communicate an awful lot of information in a multimedia format, in a very short time. Everything works through the Mac. Everything comes from my existing templates. It is mind-boggling what we can do today with just the iLife applications within Mac OS X, plus iWork. Simply, easily, with no need to be a computer nerd,” Friedman says.
Meanwhile, In The Back Office
The capture of video data comes in just as handy in maintaining patient records. “In dentistry, our whole approach to patient histories, and our entire interface with legal requirements, is predicated on the notes we take — usually from memory in the five minutes of downtime we manage to find here and there,” says Friedman. “Why not just put a QuickTime video, annotated with my narration of the exam, onto a disk and into the patient’s chart? Isn’t that intrinsically more accurate since it is taking place in real-time, instead of being re-created from memory hours or days later?”
To manage the administrative aspects of his practice, Friedman relies on MacPractice DDS, developed specifically to take full advantage of Mac OS X and to reflect the common interface standards of many current Mac applications. “The ease of using Mac-based programs is phenomenal. I can hire someone and have them trained on the basics of MacPractice in a day or two. And, because the Mac interface becomes so familiar, everything else follows so quickly — even working with multimedia tools like iMovie and iPhoto. People just play with it for a while, they get it, and they use it effectively.
The ease of using Mac-based programs is phenomenal. I can hire someone and have them trained on the basics of MacPractice in a day or two. And, because the Mac interface becomes so familiar, everything else follows so quickly — even working with multimedia tools like iMovie and iPhoto.
“Essentially, there is no learning curve. If they’re really motivated, people can get fully up to speed on these applications in a few evenings at the Apple store. But for the most part, they’re just dragging photos into my existing templates and sending things to the printer. Thirty seconds and you’re done.
Interacting With Elegance
“To me, it’s the elegance of Apple products that make them such a good fit in our practice. The ability for people to learn how to interface with a computer quickly, without frustration, is key. Then, transferring that sense of elegance to the human interaction with my patients — that’s set our practice apart from the crowd. If other dentists catch on, it’s going to make an amazing change in the profession.
“Now that I’ve proven this in my own practice, my new passion is passing it on to my colleagues,” says Friedman, a frequent speaker at local dental society meetings. “I say, look what you can do with just an iMac and a microscope with a video camera attached. You can still run your silly Windows management program if you want. But the iMac gives you access to iMovie, and iPhoto, and iWork, and all the things that really make the Mac a much superior animal than any other computer on the planet.
“What on earth are you waiting for? Patients are always amazed to see what’s going on inside their mouths, and you’ll become a more effective communicator without saying a word. And you’ll also enjoy dentistry more than ever.”
