Informatics Innovation in Clinical Care: A Visionary Scenario for Dentistry

Health information technology (HIT) is one of the most significant developments in health care in recent years. However, there is still a large gap between how HIT could support clinical work versus how it does. In this project, we developed a visionary scenario to identify opportunities for improving patient care in dentistry. In the scenario, patients and care providers are supported by a ubiquitous, embedded computing infrastructure that captures and processes data streams from multiple sources. Practical decision support, as well as automated background data processing (e.g., to screen for common conditions), helps clinicians provide quality care. A holistic view of clinical information technology (IT) focuses on supporting clinicians and patients in a user-centered manner. While clinical IT is still in very much a work in progress, scenarios such as the one presented may be helpful to keep us focused on the possibilities of tomorrow, not on the limitations of today.