A behind the scenes look at DDS Rescue from Liptak Dental Services

The idea for DDS Rescue came from several meetings with the management team at Liptak Dental, a specialized Dental IT Business. All partners have extensive experience in the dental industry and wanted to find a way to save dentists’ data and to give them the ability to retrieve that data instantly.

The team found that 80 percent of dental offices they surveyed didn’t back up their data at all, hadn’t backed up in months or had corrupt files. Too many dentists had nothing saved and were losing their data everyday. The DDS Rescue System was developed to eliminate that problem.

Here, Liptak Dental President/CEO Kenny Schwing tells us about the development process and the strong team behind DDS Rescue:

Q: How long was the development process?

A: Three years. We had to be certain the software and hardware would work properly in the dental office. Then we had to put together the support team that would install the units, monitor them daily, communicate directly with dentists in the event of a problem and be available 24 hours a day to respond to  disaster situations.

Part of that time was devoted to working closely with two of our vendor partners to establish the proper approach to the dental community. Not only did Liptak Dental need the proper support, the dealers also had to be prepared. During the initial stages, we had the opportunity to work closely with a few dentists to test the system and prepare it for a national introduction. 

Before a sale is consummated, Liptak Dental performs a Server Health Check. This procedure determines the size of the data stored on the dentist’s hard drive and, most importantly, determines the condition of the server.

Most dentists don’t realize that 100 percent of all hard drives fail. Unfortunately, no one knows when, so we review the dentist’s hardware and advise them of the results. This is an extremely important step and is a free service sponsored by our dealer partners.

Q: What were some of the challenges during the process?

A: It was difficult because we were not interested in offering a typical backup service. We wanted to offer a Business Disaster Recover (BDR) system like big businesses use, but at an affordable price. We started with software that captured everything on the hard drive, and then built everything else around it.

DDS Rescue takes a snapshot of the entire hard drive, including the operating system, data, x-rays, photographs, Quick Books, patient education programs, passwords and favorites. It captures everything every hour and saves it on site  and, at night, online to two secure data centers.

Even if a dentist’s building is destroyed, we can give him or her access to everything, in about 10 minutes, anywhere in North America. We can restore the hard drive on a new DDS Rescue Unit and FedEx it to him or her overnight. In the meantime, we give the dentist access to the data online.

For the entire system to work properly, it took a long time to determine what was needed, from how many people would support the system, to the proper steps from the Health Check to the installation, to installing it properly and quickly and offering it at an affordable price. 

The major challenge was finding a process that allowed us to install the system properly. We found dentists were using backup programs that didn’t work because their equipment was old, didn’t function properly or had other problems.

During the testing stage, we had issues because DDS Rescue identifies problems and sends Liptak Dental messages with the information. Almost every installation had a situation. We, as a group, identified the problems, looked for solutions and implemented them. 

Now, Liptak Dental performs the Health Check on the server, prior to the sale, so we can determine the condition of the server and the speed of the Internet service. If something negative shows up during our test, we notify the doctor and advise him or her to have an IT Specialist correct it.

Once DDS Rescue is installed, Liptak Dental monitors the unit 24/7/365 and will notify dentists if something fails within their server. Making this entire system function properly and efficiently was a huge challenge. 

Q: What key features are you most proud of?

A: There are many features I’m proud of, including the fact the system is owned by, designed by, maintained by, serviced by and distributed by dental people. We make decisions based upon the dentists’ needs.

The unit on site is actually a replacement server that can be activated and used when a disaster happens. The DDS Rescue technical team is available to “fail over” to the DDS Rescue Unit and have data accessible in about 10 minutes. Traditional backup services may take 5+ days to restore and that’s only if the backup is working properly.

DDS Rescue can retrieve just one file when needed. Dentists and their staff accidently delete files regularly. When that happens, we can find the file and reload it. Not only that, DDS Rescue reboots and verifies the backup every night. And when a problem occurs, one of our technicians calls the dentist.

If we can’t reach anyone, we send an email and continue to call until someone answers. We also notify the dealer that sold them the DDS Rescue System.
We also backup and store everything on the hard drive. 

Most dentists have no idea how long it will take to get running again when their hard drive crashes. They have a false sense of security that everything can easily be fixed. Unfortunately, they learn the reality of it when a disaster happens.

We are very proud to protect the dentist’s most valuable asset, securely, safely and that we can restore it when they need it most. We are also proud to have won the Pride Institute “Best in Class” Award in Technology for 2012. 

It’s important to note that DDS Rescue is HIPAA compliant and secure. All dentists need to know and understand HIPAA.

Q: How does DDS Rescue make a dentist’s life better?

A: That’s easy. There is no asset more valuable than their data. It pays for their homes, their children’s education, their vacations, their toys, their staff’s expenses, everything. We make their lives better because they don’t have to worry about losing their data or not being able to restore it when they need it. We care for their data 24/7/365. They don’t have to do anything except dentistry. 

Want more? Watch this video where Jana Berghoff outlines the relationship between Liptak Dental and Patterson: