New Technologies For Dentists And Doctors To Communicate With Patients

Many offices are now using email to communicate with their patients to schedule follow-up appointments or to let patients know of test results or to call in. Some patients can more easily communicate an urgent message to their health care providers using this method. This, of course, does not replace emergency services, but if a patient urgently needs a prescription refilled, email can often be a good method of getting in touch with the health care provider.

Various studies have shown that for those who have chronic disease, email correspondence for these patients has been very helpful as the doctor knows about the needs of the patient and the patient can request new items electronically and often.

Another example is a company called Dental Senders that provides an email and text messaging service for Dentists and their patients. Dr. Tim Collins from Complete Dental Health in San Diego uses this service, and noted, "They also do patient surveys for us that follow up and allow patients to rate their experiences with our office".

The Dental Senders platform will automatically synchronize the office’s Practice Management System (PMS) with a reminder system. This will contact the appointment recipients anywhere from 1 to 30 days prior to their appointment to remind them using both email and text messaging (SMS) delivery to confirm their appointment time. This also improves office efficiency and decreases no-shows, sends birthday greetings, and remind patients about getting new Invisalign tray Aligners.

Now that people use email and texting as their main forms of communication, providing this option to the patient allows for faster and easier communication. As we keep moving towards more phone (non-voice) and web-based applications, these will become more prominent ways of scheduling meetings and connecting with one's health care provider.