Cloud-based dental imaging heats up

The benefits of cloud-based imaging range from mobile access of images to a standard image format (DICOM) for transferring images to a secure portal in which to share images with referrals and members of the care team.

Dental software is moving towards the cloud and, along with it, the storage and retrieval of our patient images. Apteryx, a dental imaging company, is helping to lead the way in this new technology.

The benefits of cloud-based imaging range from mobile access of images to a standard image format (DICOM) for transferring images to a secure portal in which to share images with referrals and members of the care team. These aspects of dental cloud-based imaging improve workflow efficiency and provide interoperability between practitioners, resulting in overall better patient care. Additionally, to help reduce overall costs, it is being offered in a SAAS payment model where you pay monthly as you would any other type of utility.

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One of the key aspects of Apteryx’s dental imaging software is that all of the images are stored in a standardized DICOM format. That means that any dentist utilizing this software can send and retrieve images to and from other image database. This is where medical imaging has gone and this is where dental imaging is going. No more scenarios where one vendor holds its customer hostage with a proprietary format. It is even possible with the growth of oral systemic health practices to share images between dental systems and medical PACS systems. And imagine a world where you can retrieve your patient images regardless of where you are. This is somewhat of a game-changer.

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Image capture itself is expected in the short-term future to continue to reside within the practice, but having the actual images in the cloud opens up many new possibilities. For example, interfacing cloud-based dental EHRs to cloud-based imaging applications becomes less complicated.

As for the ins and outs of cloud-based dental imaging and its future, listen to thispodcast interview I recently did with Patrick Williams, Apteryx Technical Manger.

About the author

Mike Uretz is a nationally-recognized dental software and EHR expert. He is the founder of DentalSoftwareAdvisor.com as well as the Dental EHR Editor for Dental Products Report and conducts a popular podcast on dental software related topics.

As a leading industry consultant and educator Uretz has helped both individual and group practices evaluate and select software vendors and solutions, structure and negotiate vendor contracts, and provide vendor management. He also has assisted practices with obtaining subsidy payments through the federal EHR Incentive Program.

Mike can be reached at mikeu@dentalsoftwareadvisor.com or (425) 434-7102.