Open Dental Forum

I'm curious if anyone can tell me more about the difficulties or caveats of chairside charting using a tablet pc with OD. We are planning to go paperless and this seems like the most difficult and unpredictable part. How is speed affected compared to paper charting?

Regards

It works very well. Try it out with one, first, of course, to make sure you will like it.

Ditto. OD is perfect for this. The only way to go.

drtmz

Just throwing it out there: consider getting touch screen All-In-One PCs for each op. You can also play music for them (a la Pandora, etc.) or movies. Your DAs will drop that tablet sooner or later.

What about touch screen and contamination ?

There are clear disposable films that can be applied.

I agree, film can be used. How ease is to to chart with a finger, it will be something that I like to hear feedback from. I think convenience, easy of use, and portability is also something important to consider. Things like ergonamics, other equipment, and technology being used inside the operatories. Carefully placing a second monitor with a Gyration keyboard/mouse set has worked for me in many offices in the past. The Gyration mouse can be used in the air to point and click and no counter space is needed. It takes a bit of practice working the mouse at first but eventually you get used to it. I also found a brand named Unotron. Their web site says that the equipment can be washed and disinfected and/or hospital grade cleaning solutions can be used. http://www.unotron.com/US/Products.html. I still haven't use it yet so I have no personal feedback

" Care to share "

Stylus works best on touchscreen charting. Knuckles work great when your in a hurry. I use an acer 24 inch touchscreen monitor. Works for many things but I still have keyboard and mouse option.

Any recommendations on a good Tablet PC? I currently have my computer monitor/mouse/keyboard set up behind the patient, which isn't ideal for the assistants to be talking to the patients and entering chart information at the same time. I'd rather have them face the patient while talking to them and entering information, so a Tablet PC sounds like a good solution since the iPad is not yet compatible. Also, is typing on a Tablet PC via a stylus/finger on a pop-up keyboard similar to the iPad?

Fujitsu makes some great models that have keyboards as well as both finger and stylus control.