Development of a Support System for Electronic Dental Record Entry Focused on the Timeline of Periodontal Care

Abstract

　Electronic dental records systems require functions specific to dentistry. Calculation of remuneration is particularly complex in periodontal treatment, for which a tooth-by-tooth approach is used to follow the “assessment-treatment-assessment” sequence (the timeline), except for scaling that requires a block-by-block approach wherein one block is one-third of a jaw. In addition, scaling in all six blocks must be completed before moving onto the next periodontal assessment. To fulfill such complicated requirements for remuneration, it is essential to establish a system that enables dentists to view test findings during tooth-by-tooth diagnosis and enter diagnostic outcomes, and offers data entry in compliance with the Clinical Practice Guideline for the Periodontal Treatment. Therefore, we developed a dental treatment data-entry support system by customizing the HOPE/EGMAIN-GX system (Fujitsu, Japan). Key features added were “entry of periodontal disease condition (P1-P3) in the periodontal chart window,” “a periodontal history window for reviewing treatment timeline,” and “a function that automatically counts an assessment-treatment sequence as one unit.” System implementation is proceeding smoothly, and a questionnaire survey revealed that users rated the new system fair.