Print for Less

It's funny to me how many people will look at the initial cost of a printer when they purchase it...yet that cost is an extremely small percentage of the total cost of owning a printer. Paper, ink cartridges, toner, all of them add up to far more than you'll spend on the printer purchase. The question is, how do you know much a printer will cost you over its life?

The site we've always used is PrinterDB. This is an excellent site full of graphs and spreadsheets that allows you to compare all the printers in a specific category to find out how they rate in magazine reviews, the cost per page to print black, cost per page for color, life cycles of the cartridges or toner...basically, anything you want to know about the printer, you can find there. And they update the site monthly. This is a great resource.

Double Vision

I'm always slightly embarrassed when I see something in a computer store that I didn't even know exists, but that happened recently. Walking the aisles of CompUSA, I came across this USB to VGA adapter. What does it do? Well, basically, it allows you to connect a second monitor without needing a dual-display video card. We've always configured computers with dual-display monitors for the ops, but what if an office wants to add a second monitor to a front desk computer? Many people aren't comfortable with installing a video card inside the computer, so this little guy might be just the ticket. Emphasis is on might, as I haven't tested it. But for under $100, it wouldn't hurt to try.

New Office Update

Microsoft has released the long-awaited patch to Office 2003, SP2. If offers much better spam protection as well as anti-phishing protection.

Two ways you can download it. Either go to Help, Check for Updates in one of your Office programs (like Outlook). Or, just download it here.

Live and Let Live

Patterson now offers online help. Here's the press release (they need to expand the hours, though. Cuts off at 2 PM for West Coast clients):

Patterson EagleSoft Introduces Live Help
Unique, Web-based support tool enhances leading practice management and clinical software

EFFINGHAM, Ill. – (Sept. 28, 2005) – Patterson Dental Supply introduces Live Help, an online support tool for Patterson EagleSoft, enabling Patterson EagleSoft customers to interact in real time with support specialists at the Patterson Technology Center.
Patterson Dental’s Live Help support is user-friendly and efficient, offering customers a way to quickly and easily answer their questions without picking up the phone. Users may access Live Help directly from within Patterson EagleSoft, or visit www.eaglesoft.net, select Doctor SmileGood and choose from the list of supported products including practice management, clinical, digital, eBiz, Schick CDR, hardware, CEREC or general Patterson inquiries. A chat window, similar to those of instant messenger services, will appear within seconds, connecting users to the first available support specialist.
“By allowing our customers to chat with Patterson’s support staff directly we can ensure that users are truly receiving the most accurate responses to their inquiries,” Patterson Technology Center National Support Manager Jeremy Stroud said. “By offering another avenue for customers to communicate with Patterson, we are able to make our support services more accessible.”
According to Patterson EagleSoft Marketing Specialist Anne Mansfield, “The continued feedback from Patterson customers has offered us a great amount of insight as to how Live Help will be a useful tool and will provide another resource that makes managing the dental office’s day-to-day activities faster and easier.”
Live Help is available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central Standard Time. For more information about Live Help, contact a local Patterson Technology Representative or visit the Web site at www.eaglesoft.net.

Plug it In

I am anxiously awaiting the release of Internet Explorer 7, as the increased ease-of-use and security will be welcome. However, that release is probably a year away, so in the mean time, there are a number of plug-ins that you can use with Internet Explorer 6 to increase its functionality:

1. MSN Toolbar. This excellent tool allows you to easily search any document or file on your desktop as well as the web. While I myself use X1, it can't handle searching Outlook Calendar and Tasks...which MSN can.

2. IeSpell. My spell checker for Outlook email works great...but doesn't save me for my DentalTown posts! This little plug-in is designed to work on web forms that are filled in, like blogs or DentalTown.

3. FraudEliminator. You know those scam emails you get all the time from eBay and Paypal that try to steal your name and password? Some of them aren't as blatant. With this plug-in, you'll immediately know if a site is fraudulent and will even be able to find out where it's being hosted and when it was created.

4. Browster. Tired of having to click every result in a Yahoo or Google search? Wouldn't it be nice if you could just hold your mouse over the search result and see the web page open up right away? That's exactly what Browster does. This is a huge time saver.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that every one of these plug-ins is free?

Merger Mania

Well, another merger has occured. A recent report online has confirmed that Schick and Sirona have merged. No clue on what the new company will be called, although the fact that Schick will apply for listing of its stock on NASDAQ leads me to believe that it will be know as Schick. You can read the news reports here.

I've said it before but I'll say it again: these mergers are rarely good for the end users. All it means for Sirona users is that the support for their products is likely going to change (witness what Kodak has done with Softdent/PracticeWorks so far), and anyone contemplating digital radiography now has one less choice.

Share and Share Alike

If you are like me, you accumulate a ton of digital photos that you'd like to share with friends and family. The days of sending them prints or CD's are long over and instead, I really prefer the online photo sharing services. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Snapfish. Really easy to use and cost can't be beat. ($0)

2. Smugmug. Very comprehensive site that allows you to make prints. Not free, but at $29/year, not too bad.

3. Flickr.com. Unique features include more of a community aspect where you can share by keyword or subject. They have both a free and $24.95/year options. Recently acquired by Yahoo.

4. Shutterfly. Emphasis is more on the ability to print photos or transfer them to gifts. No yearly membership.

And the Survey Says...

There was a very interesting online survey conducted by DentalTown recently on Software and Digital Imaging. I'll summarize some of the more interesting findings:

1. When asked if they thought their current PMS program would allow them to become totally paperless, 61% answered with a resounding NO. This indicates to me that these companies need to spend more time developing their products rather than adding many of the new "features" that few dentists seem to want.

2. I have often said that most dentists do not use their programs to their capacity, and the survey bore that out. A full 35% of offices use their software just for scheduling and billing and nothing else.

3. Of the 55% of the survey not using digital-xrays (and 45% is the highest number I've ever seen, although Townies, as a rule, are very technologically advanced), 34% cited the cost and lack of operatory computers as the reasons they still use film.

4. The top two reasons for choosing a digital x-ray system were not comfort and cost as some may have assumed. Instead, it was working with their existing software (31%) and warranty and company history (23%). Your customers are speaking, digital x-ray companies: they want their sensors to work with whatever software they own!

5. Finally, and a bit surprising to me, when asked what improvements they most want for sensors, 39% said they wanted a thinner sensor. I find that surprising since comfort was mentioned by only 14% of people as the reason they chose their sensors.

Kiosk for Kareful Komputing

Many offices allow their patients to use the office computers to surf online or check email. One of the biggest concerns that we hear about, of course, is that they don't want them to go to certain web sites or get into their network. While you can install parental-control software like Net Nanny, there may be some easier solutions. Internet Explorer has a special mode called Kiosk which you invoke simply by pressing the F11 key. This will expand the screen to full size and remove the address bar, so that new addresses can't be typed in. You would set it to a main page like Yahoo so that people can still follow links, but it will be more challenging for anyone to get to undesirable sites. Many people are aware of this mode, so you may need to explore other options. A more confining solution is to go to the Run command and type in " iexplore -k" (without the quotation marks), which will remove the frame, title bar, menu, and toolbar.

Dentrix Diary

Ok, well I made it back from Dentrix HQ (American Fork, UT) in one piece, although still pretty sick. Here's a recap of the most interesting things that I saw:

1. First off, kudos once again to Dentrix for a first-class event. Not only were we able to communicate with all of the key people about concerns and ideas, but we were treated to a superb hotel, activities on Monday (I chose a hike and cave tour, but others chose golfing, a hot-air balloon ride, fishing, and horse back riding), and an excellent dinner at Sundance.

2. We were the first group to see Dentrix 12 screenshots. All I can say is....WOW. This is not your daddy's Dentrix. Complete redesign of the screens, colors, GUI, you name it...you wouldn't recognize it. Now, of course, these were just screenshots and a lot can happen before it's released, but if the shipping product looks anything like what we saw, you won't be disappointed.

3. The subject of SQL came up all the time, and the answers were guarded. Here's my prediction, based just on my hunch of talking to the developers: Dentrix 12 will be SQL, but I doubt the first release will be SQL, knowing what I know about development cycles. So, I'd expect version 12 to come out first, and then a SQL option next. Noticed that I used the word option; Dentrix was very clear that they will allow customers to have both the SQL version or the older C-tree database version. Both will be supported, so that offices happy with the status quo will not be obligated to change.

4. Vipersoft is gone...well, sort of, It's now called Dentrix Clarity. It will be marketed and sold to non-Dentrix customers. It's very similar to Dentrix Image in the list of compatible products and its SQL database. One thing they have decided to do for now (in my opinion, a mistake) is to not provide the bridging software from Clarity to the PMS program, leaving it up to the PMS programs to provide this. I hope they will reconsider this as the lack of a bridge will really hurt sales in my opinion.

5. Dentrix was very forthcoming about the issues with version 11 (unlike some online reports to the contrary). The have finished what they call the 11.0 Performance Upgrade to deal with the slowdowns that many offices have experienced. I expect that upgrade to be posted on their website soon, although it's my understanding that they will be sending out an announcement to all their users as well.

6. Both Clarity and Dentrix Image will be priced identically, and there has been a welcome price decrease to $5495 for the complete package (from $8500). Still quite a bit higher than the third-party programs out there, but a welcome change nonetheless.

7. As I posted in an earlier thread, Easy Dental will be selling their own sensor, called EasyRay, which is being provided to them by Dent-X. Other than the white box, it looks identical to the Eva sensor. The sensor will retail for $5495 and $6995 if purchased with the Easy Image software. The pricing on Easy Image software will be $2495 retail, but they plan on offering an introductory special of $1495.

8. No More Dongles!! They finally have seen the light and eliminated the dongles for Image 4.1 and Clarity. I had them show me the system and Image opened up in under 2 seconds...far, far better than in the past. Nobody will miss those.

9. One of the downsides of DxWeb was the inability to send referrals to non-Dentrix users. That oversight has now been corrected.

That's about all for now. They are sending me all of my notepads and flyers (my carryon was too full) so once I get those back, I'll post other things that I can't remember right now. Overall, though, I was pleased to see that Dentrix is listening and will continue to upgrade you on their progress.

Behind Schedule

I plan on filing a full report from my meeting with Dentrix. Unfortunately, I'm sick as a dog from my hike yesterday (think it's allergies), so look for something later today or tomorrow.

Color Me Colorful

While laser printers dominate the business market, dental offices can benefit from color printers. If cost isn't the main criteria, there are two new printers worth a serious look. In the inkjet market, the new Epson R2400 is amazing. This is one incredible inkjet, with features such as prints up to 13" X 44", two shades of black and grey ink, and fast speed. At $850, it's not for everyone, but if you demand the highest output quality, it's tough to beat.

In the color laser department, the Xerox Phaser 6300DN is a winner. Probably the best output I've seen in a color laser, it's blazingly fast and has a huge paper capacity (up to 2350 pages). This speed and quality will set you back $1500, but this printer would be the only printer that any dental offices needs to handle all their printing needs.

Back it Up

In our constant search for backup solutions, we've found another good one that I've been testing a few weeks. Many of you know that I'm a big fan of the new Permastor system, as it provides a true set-it-and-forget-it solution. However, since some offices don't have high speed Internet at home (required for the Permastor to work), or are looking for less costly solutions, we've found external hard drives to work well. Enter the EzBackup SA. Although a bit hard to describe, it's basically an external hard drive with built-in and advanced hard drive imaging and recovery software. So, you could use it to copy your entire hard drive (server or workstation), then just the files that have changed. Restoring is just as easy....copy the drive image over and you're back to where you were. They use a highly developed software compression so that copies take about 1/5 as long as other USB external drives.

The drives will range from 80 to 400 GB (the 160 or 250 versions make the most sense for dental offices) and prices are very competitive. The 160 GB version, for example, will be $199.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Dentrix I Go

I'm leaving Sunday to go to the biennial Dentrix Technology Summit. This meeting was held two years ago and the top 25 consultants in the country were invited to see the latest and greatest from Dentrix. Folks like Linda Miles, Larry Emmott, Sally McKenzie, Omer Reed, etc. were all there. I'm sure you're all wondering, "How were you invited, Lorne?". Good question. I still ask myself that question every day. While I was surprised to be invited two years ago, I was pleasantly shocked to be back this year, since I'm not always so complimentary about Dentrix's products. I do give them credit, though: the event two years ago was first class all the way.

One of the things I noticed when I was there was that as someone who installs Dentrix all the time, I had much more specific questions and comments for the developers we met. To that end, I am encouraging any Dentrix readers of my blog to send me any questions or comments you have that you'd like me to ask pass on to them when I'm there. You can email me or just leave a comment here if you'd like to keep it anonymous. I'll have access to every top person at Dentrix, so nothing is off-limits (as far as I'm concerned). Let me know how I can help you get your concerns answered!

The Bottom Drops Out

The big news with digital cameras doesn't seem to be exciting new cameras (although I'm sure new models are on the way). Rather, the steady decline in prices is the big story. Want an entry-level digital camera with "the works" (Camera, 32MB memory card, high quality macro lens, lighting attachment, memory card reader (for fast image transfer to the computer), hard case and Canon image organization software)? How does $1195 grab you? That's what they are charging for their Canon A95 kit. The ever-popular G6 is down to $1495, and even the fantastic Rebel XT with Sigma 105mm lens, which debuted at over $2500, is now under $2000. Cost is starting to be a non-factor when coming up with excuses to delay your purchase.

Got Blog?

If you love blogs like I do, Google announced yesterday that they have created an online search just for blogs, Google Blog. According to their press release, "Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves. Whether you're looking for Harry Potter reviews, political commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice.

Your results include all blogs, not just those published through Blogger; our blog index is continually updated, so you'll always get the most accurate and up-to-date results; and you can search not just for blogs written in English, but in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and other languages as well."

Taking the Next Step

At Dental Technology Consultants, we are always speaking with our fellow consultants to find ways to improve the technology experience for many offices. One of the goals we've had is to find someone who can take over where we leave off. Typically, while we are comfortable at choosing, installing, and supporting the various systems, we find that many offices need some help in maximizing their use of these systems. Technology for technology's sake usually isn't ideal; the practice needs to improve their bottom line to justify the expenses.

In that regard, I've been very impressed with Sheryl Turner. Sheryl is a regular contributor to the Internet Dental Forum and seems to really know her stuff. While she works primarily in the Southeast, she does travel a lot. I would highly recommend to any offices that need help in maximizing their return on technology, give Sheryl a holler. She can be reached at 407.947.6507 or sheryl@custompathways.com.

Easy Does It Part 2

One other major tidbit I almost forgot about:

When I was in the Easy Dental booth, I saw a prototype of a new sensor they will be selling called the EasyRay. When I looked at the system, it looked almost identical to the Eva sensor that Dent-X sells. If I were a betting man, I'd say that they will be doing something similar to their relationship with e2v. Meaning, I would predict that if Dent-X indeed is making the sensor for them, the USB box will be modified so that you can only use the EasyRay with the Easy Image software; I'd be shocked if they allowed you to use the regular Eva sensor with Easy Image. Of course, you also won't be able to use the Easy Ray sensor with Dent-X ProImage software, although I have no idea why you'd want to do this since past history says that the Easy Ray will cost more than the Eva sensor. No idea yet on retail pricing or warranty for the Easy Ray. Stay tuned :-)

Easy Does It

Easy Dental recently announced that they were releasing Easy Image 4.0. Unfortunately, their web site doesn't list which devices are compatible. Of course, that never stops me from getting the straight scoop.

As expected, since Easy Dental is owned by Schein, the list of compatible devices looks strangely similar to Dentrix Image. Here's the list:

IntraOral Cameras: ImageCam/ViperCam, Air Techniques Acclaim, AccuCam, SciCan.

Digital X-Ray Sensors: ImageRayi/ViperRayi, Gendex, Instrumentarium, Progeny, Schick, Trophy (not Kodak, only Trophy 3,4, and UI), and A/T Accent.

Phosphor Plates: Scan-X, Optime, Denoptix, Wehmer Digident (huh?)

Capture Cards: Viper PCI

No clue on pricing although with the PMS running in the $2500 range, I imagine the image software should also be inexpensive.

Multiple Monitors

Many of the offices we set up will elect to put two monitors in the treatment rooms. All it requires is a dual-display video card and the software is built into Windows. What do you do, though, when you have two computers that you'd like to control as separate devices? For example, if you put a laptop next to your desktop screen, is there any way to control both with a single mouse and keyboard?

The answer is yes, with a nifty little program called Multiplicity. With both machines connected to the network (you can also use a Firewire cable, but the network setup is easier), you can easily control both machines with just the keyboard and mouse of the main computer. It's really easy: slide your mouse to the edge of the desktop screen, and it will then appear on the laptop screen. You can also cut and paste between the two computers...very slick. This is not a remote control program or a dual-display utility; it requires a computer for each screen. But, if you've been thinking of having dual display but don't have a dual-display video card, this is an excellent way to put that laptop to use.

CDA Impressions

Well, another CDA has come and gone (thank God!). For those of you have never been on the "other side of the aisle", manning a booth can be at times harrowing (when four people are waiting to ask you a question at the same time) and dull (when nobody comes by the booth for 4 hours). Overall, we met a lot of great folks and DTC was happy to pick up many new clients.

Now, on to my observations, in no particular order:

1. At the Spring CDA, I awarded by Best of Show to MagnaVu. MagnaVu still looks as good as ever. For this show, though, my Best of Show goes to....nobody. I was very disappointed with the products and turnout at the show. I have a feeling that companies with new releases might be waiting until ADA next month. All I can tell you is that after three complete circuits of the exhibit hall, nothing new stood out.

2. My Most Improved product was an easier choice: Orasphere. This patient education software has come a long way since version 1 (which I still thought was pretty good). Now they have 3-D models and with the list of improvements for version 3 (ability to create pdf documents, slideshow creation, burning to a CD), expected in a few weeks, this will definitely be on par with Caesy. Actually, there's one small difference: they are still priced at $2495, about 1/3 the cost of Caesy.

3. I was surprised to see such little exposure (no pun intended) of the Air Techniques hard sensor, Accent. Not a single sign anywhere in their booth, and after standing around for 10 minutes, I was finally able to touch one that was sitting unloved on a stark countertop. For a new product, I expected more fanfare.

4. The patient confirmation services continue to evolve. I had a chance to speak with my friends at DemandForce, UAppoint, and Smile Reminder. All of them have new modules in the works. I'm not sure how much of what I was told was in confidence, so I won't post specific information, but suffice it to say that these products continue to impress and while the features really should be part of the PMS programs, these companies have a huge head start on them.

That's really about it for now...I'll review my notes and post more impressions later in the week. But I really wasn't overly impressed with anything there.

Updates Tomorrow

I should have time tomorrow to post a review of what I've seen at CDA. So far...not much. The meeting doesn't appear to be well attended although Fridays are often slower than the weekend. I had a chance to meet with a lot of the folks we do business with, such as XDR, DemandForce, DentalCompare, UAppoint, and about a dozen others, so tomorrow is more for my fact finding missions :-) Tonight I'm off the dinner at Jardiniere, which is supposedly one of the best restaurants in town...I'll let you know.

CDA North

I'll be traveling up to San Francisco today for the annual California Dental Association (North) meeting. While not as heavily attended as the Spring session in Anaheim, it's always a fun and relaxing meeting. If any of you will be there, please stop by our botth, #929, to say hi. Also, I'll be posting my reviews of different products after the show. Regular blog posts may be a bit sporadic until Sunday.

Stuck on You

For those of you who submit e-claims, the ability to attach images to those claims can be a huge benefit. Unfortunately, there are few services that offer a standardized approach. The industry leader in dentistry is the NEA Fast Attach system. Great system, and inexpensive to boot.

They just entered into a big agreement with GE to provide attachments for their health claims. Here's the press release:

National Electronic Attachment to Begin Receiving Electronic Healthcare Attachments via FastAttach For Genworth Financial, Inc.

Atlanta, Georgia National Electronic Attachment, Inc. (NEA) announced today that they have signed an Agreement with GE Group Life Assurance Company (GEGLAC), a subsidiary of Genworth Financial, Inc.. The agreement will allow GEGLAC to accept healthcare attachments for electronically submitted claims. The attachments will be transmitted to NEA's web site from healthcare providers, using NEA's FastAttach system.

FastAttach enables healthcare offices to transmit healthcare attachments (x-rays, perio charts, intra-oral pictures, narratives, EOBs, etc), via the Internet, to NEA's repository where GEGLAC is able to view them in support of the electronic claim adjudication process. For healthcare offices, FastAttach accelerates claim processing and eliminates the need and cost to duplicate and mail x-rays and other necessary attachments, saving Providers money.

We are very glad that GEGLAC chose NEA as their vendor for electronic attachments and we look forward to the opportunity to register their providers, stated Thomas Hughes, CEO of NEA. NEA is very knowledgeable about GEGLAC, and we are pleased to be able to bring them this service.

NEA is the leader in internet-based solutions for the healthcare industry, offering systems designed to make the process of insurance submissions and processing as easy as possible for the Patient, the Healthcare Office and the Insurance Payor. NEA is the leader in Medical, Hospital and Dental Attachments.

Biggie Bagger cont'd

Just got word from the Product Manager at Air Techniques. The SealX will indeed bag and seal #2 plates. Retail pricing is set for $995.

Biggie Bagger

News from Air Techniques seems to be promising for Scan-X users. It would appear that they will be releasing an automatic bag sealer for their Scan-X line this month. I'm a bit concerned about the name as it implies that the machine just seals the bags, and I'm hoping you can load the plate into the bag with the machine as well, although I don't know if this is possible. If the machine just seals bags, it won't save as much time as I would like to see. No clue on pricing yet. Stay tuned...

The Eagle Has....Crashed?

I've been very critical of Dentrix's decision to release version 11 in the unfinished form that it obviously was. They now have a third Component Upgrade which you can download here. I assumed that other companies would learn from this mistake, but it appears that Patterson was just as guilty with their version 12 release. According to a recent thread on DentalTown, problems related to speed issue and incompatibility with the new Gendex sensors are making the rounds. Although I've said this before, it bears repeating: Do not install an upgrade until it's been out for at least a month or two so that others can be the beta testers for you. Also, if a company claims that their different systems work together, get confirmation either by having them show you that exact set up in your office, or speak to another office that does. Sales reps rarely know about these incompatibility issues.

Friends Indeed

As much as I'm thrilled with the response I get to this blog, I should point out that there are many others who have online presence that should not be ignored. I have the utmost respect for Dr. Bruce Stephenson and his articles, which you can read about here. I would also suggest checking out Larry Emmott's site, Emmott on Technology.

PermaStor Revisited

In an earlier post, I spoke about a new system that we were going to test out, the PermaStor backup system. Today, we were fortunate to have Tony Gaddis, the "inventor" of the Permastor, visit our office and set up the system for us. I'm more impressed with the system than I originally said. In a nutshell, the system is two Linux RAID 5 servers, that uses a very efficient program called Rsync to synchronize the two over a secure tunnel. Rsync is a bear to set up, so Tony has the whole process automated: you set up the first server in about 5 minutes, decide what needs to be backed up, and set up the second server off site. Forward one port on your router's setup page, and you're done. The process is quick and clean and very secure. We know that many offices do not follow our advice to take an external hard drive offsite, so we see this as a true set-it-and-forget-it solution. We'll be recommending the system to all DTC clients. Depending on options, the entire setup will sell in the $1200 range, and while that's not cheap, it's hard to put a price on truly protected and secure data.

What You See....

I often work with images, whether it's on my blog, website, emailing clients, etc. Some of these sites, though, have requirements for image size, or even more annoying, the number of pixels. If you want to resize any images easily, the best program I've found is Visualizer Photo Resize 3.5. In just seconds, you can change the pixel size, aspect ratio, add watermarks, and other neat tools. The best part? It's free. Give it a try.