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Under the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS) Ordinance, a total of 13 healthcare
professional groups can access the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS). Dentist is
among the first group to have access to the system. Dr Johnny Wong of the Hong Kong
Dental Association (HKDA) talked to eHealth News about electronic health record (eHR) sharing from the
perspective of a dental surgeon.
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Dr Johnny Wong
Chairman of Information Technology Committee,
Hong Kong Dental Association |
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Dr Wong, Chairman of the HKDA’s
Information Technology Committee, believes
that eHR sharing is a future trend for the
dental profession. “Patients have responded
positively to the eHRSS and a lot of them
have in fact asked us to join,” he said.
In an effort to facilitate and promote private
dentists’ participation in eHR sharing, the
HKDA has developed the Dental Clinic
Management System (DCMS) with the
support of the Government. The new version
of the system, DCMS 2.0, complies with the
eHR standards to support data exchange
with the territory wide
eHRSS.
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Dr Johnny Wong says comprehensive information
can help improve care quality and patient safety |
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“It’s good that the dental profession can
contribute to the eHRSS. I will definitely join
the system and consider myself a pioneer,
gaining first hand experience on its
performance and suggesting what further
improvements should be made,” he said.
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eHRSS: a Train to Board |
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As eHR sharing through the eHRSS is new to the entire dental healthcare sector in Hong Kong, Dr Wong
said he understands there are concerns about the system from fellow dentists. |
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“The common concerns are information security, system reliability, the extent to which they contribute to
data sharing, the costs involved in investing in the relevant hardware, as well as our fellow colleagues’
reaction towards changing the existing operation mode,” he said. |
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“Dentists have a self-learning culture. As long as you have established a good system, they will find out its
unique features,” he stressed. |
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“The eHRSS is like a train moving in a valued direction. The question for individual dentists is to decide
when to board the train,” he commented. |
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Comprehensive Records with eHR Sharing |
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Under the eHRSS, participating dentists and other healthcare providers can share patients' clinical data
with their consent. As one may wonder how patients’ dental records and medical records are related, Dr
Wong elaborates on how the availability of comprehensive health information can help improve care
quality and patient safety. |
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“We can check out medications and allergy interactions, as well as the potential interactions between
medications and the dental treatments,” he said.
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“For example, anticoagulants for cardiovascular diseases can largely prolong bleeding time, while some
medications will lead to osteoporosis and affect bone health. It would not be desirable for patients to
undergo tooth extractions while they are on these medicines. We may need to wait until the patients have
stopped using the medicines and their bones have become stronger,” he said.
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Dr Wong continued that great care has to be exercised when using ultrasonic cleaning devices on
patients with pacemaker devices, which can be interfered by the use of machines nearby.
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“With a platform where comprehensive information is readily available, we do not have to totally count on
patients to give us their medical information. Rather, we can have reliable, accurate and updated
information served up to us by the system,” he noted.
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First Step towards eHR Sharing
For local dentists who want to participate in the
eHRSS, they need to first adopt HKDA’s DCMS 2.0,
the only dental clinical system to date that has
built-in connectivity to the eHRSS.
The DCMS 2.0 is a streamlined and
standardised open-source system specially
designed for dental practitioners. It was developed
in a “not-for-profit” manner and is made available
free-of-charge to all dental clinics in Hong Kong.
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HKDA's DCMS can support data exchange with the
eHRSS |
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| Main features of the DCMS 2.0 : |
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Open-source, scalable and extensible |
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Advanced client-server architecture, supporting multi-doctor and poly-clinic environments |
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Versatile, user-friendly and comprehensive functions to improve clinical operation, manage
documents, and configure treatment and billing plans |
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Dental imaging integration and image-enabled patient record standardisation |
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Standard-driven: data format, diagnostic codes, drug references and address formats |
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Built-in connectivity to the eHRSS |
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With funding support from the Food and Health Bureau, the HKDA provides free-of-charge services,
including installation, training and one-year technical support to dental clinics in Hong Kong to facilitate
their adoption of DCMS 2.0 and participation in the eHRSS.
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DCMS: A Different Patient Experience
Dr Wong has been using the DCMS since 2010.
He commented that apart from being able to
help improve clinical efficiency, the system
has brought new experience to patients, “We
have better communication with patients by
using the DCMS during consultation,” he said.
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Better communication with patients with the DCMS |
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In explaining the functionalities of the DCMS, Dr
Wong said the system can capture and store
digitised dental and x-ray images and display
multiple images on one monitor screen, making it
easier for dentists to explain the oral health
problems and propose treatments to patients.
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“We can even convert the images to jpeg format and send them to patients by email or to their mobile
phones,” he said. |
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Not only that, dentists can also input medical background of individual patients, and make medical
remarks and dental remarks to help them customise their services, Dr Wong said. “Patients’ feedback has
been positive. They appreciate that we are doing this to improve services for them.” |
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