Bill Poss is the president and CEOof Solutions by Design Inc. With 20 years in the business, he gives a clear view of where computer technology is going and how it can help orthodontists run their offices more efficiently.

OP: What is ScreenPlay?

Poss: ScreenPlay is a multimedia patient case-presentation program. It is used at the initial examination as well as throughout treatment. Its features include an intro video, case presentation morphs and animations specific to each malocclusion by patient-age classification, and treatment presentation by exact preferred treatment program via animations and morphs. It records clinical findings, uploads case presentations and findings to patients at home, and imports all digital records for presentation. It contains more than 40 care and use as well as patient-information sets, all of which are customized for each office. It also contains five 60-second video files for patient education on topics such as hygiene and retainer care.

OP: What have you done to shorten the learning curve for orthodontists and staff to learn ScreenPlay?

Poss: ScreenPlay contains a self-tutorial built right into the system. The tutorial is built of action scripts and divided into all the functions of the software.  A treatment coordinator  or orthodontist can learn to use ScreenPlay in a matter of 1–2 hours on their own.

OP: How is ScreenPlay evolving to incorporate new technology?

Poss: ScreenPlay is a totally new technology. It is a communications hub for the orthodontic practice.

OP: What’s next at Solutions by Design?

Poss: ScreenPlay Referral is a new software product that the orthodontist gives to his referring GPs so that they can educate their patients about orthodontics. It also provides an online, Web-based referral system that refers and then tracks referred patients.

Minding Your Business

Deborah Hammert has been the director of recruitment at DentalCare Partners for nearly 6 years. Here, she discusses how her company allows orthodontists to focus on what they do best.

OP: What exactly does your company offer orthodontists?

Hammert: The orthodontist has the ability to practice with a lot of management and service support.

OP: What other advantages are there?

Hammert: The orthodontist has the ability to do what he was trained to do, and gets the advantage of being a part of a large group. We negotiate contracts, and we spend in excess of $3 million per year marketing the practices. We have an orthodontic-trained team to work with the orthodontist to provide quality patient care and efficiency. The orthodontist still maintains the feeling of a traditional practice in the day-to-day operation.

OP: How much personal attention does each orthodontist get?

Hammert: Each orthodontist has his or her  own team. Each member of the team is trained and helps the orthodontist. We have an “ortho manager” whose primary responsibilities include management of the team for the orthodontist. In addition, the ortho manager takes photos, sets up the cases, and schedules the patients. We also have treatment-plan and financial coordinators. Each other member of the team helps the orthodontist tie and untie, seat patients, and take impressions and radiographs.  We try to make the orthodontist efficient and keep his duties within the abilities of an orthodontist.

OP: What do your orthodontists make?

Hammert: Our average orthodontist’s full-time  gross salary is over $468,000, working on average 3–4 days per week.

OP: What’s next for DentalCare Partners?

Hammert: We have started our partnerships and have seen tremendous growth. We have a strong emphasis on training and continuing education.