Perio Charting - Voice

For users or potential users.
Post Reply
kjensen
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 6:05 pm

Perio Charting - Voice

Post by kjensen » Tue Feb 17, 2015 6:14 pm

Hi all,
Wondering how everyone perio charts with speech recognition ? I am currently using Dragon and it works fine except for charting recession, furcation, mobility, etc. Is there a command to move between columns without using the mouse and de-gloving.. Also furcations, recession, etc all have 3 spaces so either I say the number 3 times or de-glove and move to the next tooth?! Has anyone tried a program other than Dragon & had any luck? Any way to make it so that dragon repeats the numbers back to me?
Thanks!!!!

aaronriechers
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:59 am

Re: Perio Charting - missing features?

Post by aaronriechers » Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:07 pm

(I'm the IT manager for kjensen's office)

Our office is new to OpenDental, and we are very excited to be using it - from an IT perspective, it is far and away better than the software we had been using (Daisy, aka "the weed"), and more admin friendly than the other choices we examined.

So, please correct me if I have any misconceptions, as we're new to OD, or if there is a solution to our issues.

The perio chart seems to be missing some functionality (relative to what we were used to), as far as the hygienist being able to enter data solo. We are a small office (one dentist, one hygienist, 2 assistants), so having an assistant available for hygiene or having the hygienist do it herself via keyboard/mouse has really put a crimp in our work flow. It is the one piece of OpenDental that, IMO, has fewer features than the other software mgt choices I'm familiar with.

We've tried using the built-in MS speech recognition, which worked so-so, but seemed to be unreliable for accuracy. Dragon NS is better for accuracy, but still only works well for entering probing data or using the keyboard shortcuts (Plaque = p, Calculus = c, Bleeding = b or space, Suppuration = s.)

There is no audible feedback/repeat function in Dragon according to Nuance tech support (unless you want to record all the data in Word, having it read selected text back to you, and then copy & paste it into OD, another clunky workaround). Visual confirmation of accuracy means looking up from the pt's mouth, interrupting the probing flow, and (for us) the monitor is in an awkward position for the provider when they are chairside.

Entering other data (furcation, mobility, etc) into the chart requires use of the mouse, which means degloving, an assistant, or disinfectant-safe peripherals.

There is no way to move between teeth ("skip to tooth #xx") - I did figure out we can tell MS/Dragon to move the cursor left/right ("press left") to move between teeth, but if you notice bleeding from 5 teeth ago this is so awkward as to be useless.

So, are we missing something? Do people just use 3rd party perio software? Use assistants? (certainly seems expensive to pay someone with professional dental training to be a data-entering monkey when a computer can do it)

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Aaron

aaronriechers
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:59 am

Re: Perio Charting - Voice

Post by aaronriechers » Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:44 pm

Feature request #83 is voice activation for OD perio chart - please vote if this is as important to you as it is to us. Thanks!

Aaron

allends
Posts: 235
Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2013 11:29 am

Re: Perio Charting - Voice

Post by allends » Thu Feb 19, 2015 4:29 pm

Hello, I am the engineer that recently improved the perio chart to be more accessible with Dragon Naturally Speaking (as of Version 14.3)
I didn't mark FR#83 as done because I believe the spirit behind that request is for us to implement our own voice recognition system for use in perio charting.
I am not sure if that is what you are looking for, but if it is then I can say that it will be very complicated to implement.
Audio confirmation of the entered numbers seems feasible enough though. That is something that could be done as a possible improvement for the current system if you wanted to make a specific FR for that.
Allen
Open Dental Software
http://www.opendental.com

aaronriechers
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:59 am

Re: Perio Charting - Voice

Post by aaronriechers » Thu Feb 19, 2015 10:13 pm

Hi Allen -

Thanks for the quick reply.

FR#83 would be the ideal solution to our issue, rather than having to pay for an expensive 3rd party perio charting solution that has hands-free/voice-activation abilities.

However, the current Dragon NS/OpenDental perio chart interface is rather awkward. Addition of a few features would make it much more user-friendly for our hygienists:

Audio confirmation of recorded numbers (as mentioned)

Ability to move to other data entry points verbally, rather than using the mouse:
For probing, this would mean being able to move to another tooth number. Messing around with the keyboard, I figured out that you can move between sites using the left/right arrow keys, so using Dragon/MS you can say something like "press left" several times to move the data cursor back to another spot. However, if the site is more than a few spaces away, it becomes almost useless because it takes forever (and you sound like a broken record). Perhaps there could be some sort of short-cut? "ALT 3" to move to tooth #3, or "ALT A 3" for #13, etc. There just needs to be a better way of moving around in the perio chart without the mouse, using the "speech" keyboard.
There also needs to be a way to navigate to the other rows verbally. At the least, maybe the up/down arrow keys? In voice-activated perio software, you simply say "Furcation 1," but if we're using speech recognition, could there be a keyboard shortcut letter (similar to Calculus = c, Bleeding = b etc) such as "F" to move to the furcation line, "R" to move to recession (ging maRg), etc. Then "E" to move back to the probing Exam row.

The perio chart would be more useful if it reflected the way charting is usually performed and correct dental anatomy, with the correct number and placement of data entry points. I'm an IT guy, so hopefully the dentist (my wife :) ) and our hygienist won't laugh at my attempt here, but as I understand it... It's most common to mark only 2 recession (ging marg) points per tooth, one facial and one lingual, but the OpenDental perio chart has 3 for each side, which means the hygienist either needs to continually skip sites or repeat the data point several times to get to the next tooth. Furcation sites are only needed for multiple roots (molars, upper first premolars). http://www.periodontalchart-online.com/us/ for an example. Perhaps we could customize some sort of filter to turn on/off sites? No idea if some hygienists or periodontists want more data, but for general hygiene the extra sites just slow down the perio exam.

User avatar
drfredc
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2010 7:01 pm

Re: Perio Charting - Voice

Post by drfredc » Fri May 01, 2015 11:14 am

It would be nice if OD could be configured to work with a smart watch connected via bluetooth for perio charting. Use something like the smart watch's number pad to tap in the probe numbers and then have the workstation or watch verbalize when probes move to a new tooth, or have a button on the watch to push move from tooth to tooth. With the watch on the wrist, it would be easy to take the probes with the right hand, left hand with the mirror and smart watch, and enter the numbers with a finger of the right hand, without having to put the probe down. When one is done, wipe the watch down. They are water and somewhat chemical resistant. Or something...

Post Reply