How to optimize EHR use chairside; CDC antismoking campaign a success

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

Do you use electronic records or electronic charting tools chairside? If so, have you ever stopped to think about how your patients feel about them?

How dental care providers interact with computers and electronic health records (EHRs) during a patient visit can affect the success of that visit and patient-provider communication overall, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Dental Association. How you orient yourself to the computer when entering data during the visit plays an important role in patient perception of engagement, the study authors noted. They recommend practitioners use electronic records to share information onscreen with patients during the visit to improve the sense of engagement.

Meanwhile, over in the Oral Cancer & Diagnostics Community, a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in the journal Lancet looked at the effectiveness of the CDC's 2012 antismoking campaign and found that it was more effective than anticipated, convincing nearly a quarter million of Americans to quit. Click here to read what challenges remain.

Finally, toward the end of the day on a recent Saturday, an elderly gentleman from the neighborhood around Dr. Sheri Doniger's dental practice outside Chicago became her first walk-in patient. But his visit offered some unique challenges, and she is still trying to figure out if she should have handled it differently. Read more in this latest Sheri's Solutions.