Winter 2012-13 - College of Dental Medicine - Columbia University

SCHOOL NEWS | on campus
The axiUm electronic record screen presents a full history of all medical/dental
documentation necessary for comprehensive treatment of each dental patient.
CDM Expects Multiple Advantages
From New Electronic Data System
Since June 2011, when the College of Dental Medicine replaced its
conventional paper health care charts with digital data, recording, retrieving
and managing patient records have never been more secure.
This is only one of multiple advantages expected from CDM’s implementation
of its new axiUm electronic patient record system. When
the system was being launched under his supervision, CDM Interim
Dean Ronnie Myers said his biggest worry was “that it wouldn’t work
when we went live” but adds that those fears vanished with the very
first trial of the hardware because “it really works!” While offering
high praise for axiUm’s “searchable documentation capabilities in
quality assurance assessments and patient care evaluation,” Dean
Myers admits that constructing best practices for gaining maximum
productivity from the software has been both rewarding and challenging.
He predicts that it will be that way for a while.
According to axiUm, more than 50% of academic dental schools
across the United States and Canada use their system because it offers
multiple modules that are specific to institutional needs, including
the capacity to handle large numbers of patients and providers. The
software was created to document extensive treatment plans that
may be shared among clinicians to record and evaluate student work
and to help plan and introduce educational augmentation that takes
a major role for digital data gathering into account. This efficient and
accurate electronic medical record program has also been labeled
certified by the federal Health Information Technology for Economic
and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 because of its meaningful
use capabilities.
HITECH hopes to transform
health care delivery in the
United States with the widespread
electronic exchange
of meaningful health care information.
The use of HITECH-approved
digital technology is
expected to generate savings
throughout the health sector
by improving quality and coordination
of treatment through
better communication, and by
reducing medical error and
duplicative care. The Act provides
financial compensation
to professional users of
approved data systems for
activities like training to assure
maximum efficiency in gaining
the most beneficial data for
advancing the process by which
health care evolves.
6 primus | winter 2012-13