How did DEXIS go's sleek, engaging app come about?

DEXIS go, which officially launched at this year’s Chicago Midwinter Meeting during the Art of Imaging Event, is a sleek, engaging new way for dental professionals to communicate with patients using an iPad^®. A companion app to the DEXIS^® Imaging Suite software 10.0.5 and higher, DEXIS go was designed to provide a great visual patient experience around image presentation in support of clinical findings and treatment recommendations.

DEXIS go is available now on the Apple App Store for free. The application also includes a set of demo patients so that users who don’t have the DEXIS Imaging Suite installed can still experience the functionality of DEXIS go.

It, of course, takes a team of experienced designers and developers to make this kind of product happen. Mike Parma, Software Architect, and George Cocco, Advanced Development Engineer, who have worked together for more than a decade on medical devices and software, were instrumental to the team that designed and developed the DEXIS go app.  

Q: When did the conversation about creating DEXIS go first begin?

George: As part of the DEXIS R&D team, we’re always evaluating new technology to see how it can benefit our owners. In early 2012, inspired by a high adoption rate of iPads in dental practices, we felt the opportunity presented itself for DEXIS to add yet another solution for its users. And the idea of  DEXIS go was born.  

Q: With technology constantly evolving, what were some of the challenges with developing this app?

Mike: One of the benefits of the way we approach development is that it allows us to be very nimble. We built a series of prototypes, each one building upon the last. We quickly identified ideas that worked and iterated on those. That made for lots of interesting design discussions. We wanted a simple app that did one thing, but did that one thing really well-present images to patients. There’s always the challenge of keeping pace with the latest technologies from Apple. iOS 6 was announced just as we began product development. We were able to make adjustments to take immediate advantage of the latest tools for managing and displaying image collections. We also learned about the iPad mini very late in development, but we were able to work it into our usability testing.

Q: What are your goals with this launch, and how will you gauge feedback and success?

A: With DEXIS go, our goal was to create simplicity and remove complexity wherever we could. Mobile apps really force you to look deeply at the features you include. While we really like our visual design, we want the images to be the focus. When presenting, the interface should disappear, as it does now when the image goes full screen. 

This free app is all about thanking our loyal owner base. We want them to be able to use the latest tools, and, especially in the case of DEXIS go experience such an elegant product that can impact their daily work. We feel we’ve succeeded. We will continue to measure the adoption rate by the number of downloads and the feedback we get from our owners. So far, we are thrilled about the response we have received. 

Q: What is your favorite DEXIS go feature? 

George: One of the coolest features is our Lightbox mode. This feature lets the dentist present images in a nostalgic way. It’s homage to dentistry’s past in a very contemporary product.  

Mike: I like the convenient way the app is integrated with the DEXIS desktop application. Users can easily view patient images that are open in DEXIS throughout the office. I’m also very proud of the work we did to bring an intuitive, multi-touch interface to DEXIS while maintaining the users’ familiarity with their existing workflow.