NYU dental school improves field-based data reporting

The New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD) is collaborating with a software company to automatically capture patient data and reporting from the field.

NYUCD is working with the Henry Schein Cares Global Student Outreach program and the Mi-Co tablet e-forms software company on the project, according to a press release. It will save about 100 hours of manual data entry for better accuracy in tracking patient outcomes over time.

The program provides oral health services and education to tens of thousands of underserved people in the U.S. and several international locations each year. The goals of the program are service, education, and research.

The dental care is provided by third- and fourth-year dental students and residents of pediatric dentistry under the supervision of licensed faculty members, using portable dental equipment. In each outreach location, program coordinators strive to create sustainability of care by establishing accurate baseline diagnoses of children's oral health conditions. Children then receive complete treatment for all of their dental needs, and a local partner performs follow-up preventive services every three months between NYUCD's annual or biannual treatment visits, with the goal of reducing new dental caries by 50%.

The necessity of capturing accurate baseline diagnoses of dental caries and tracking patient conditions over time, coupled with the challenges of providing care in the field with limited resources, meant that program administrators were buried in paperwork and would be bogged down for weeks performing data entry, the university noted.

Following the adoption of Mi-Forms on Tablets, the NYUCD Henry Schein Cares Global Student Outreach Program has almost eliminated their use of paper forms and most manual data entry.