Development an Electronic Oral Health Record application for educational dental setting

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Dental Public Health
• Software Engineering

Background:

• Traditional paper-based patient recording in dental schools is inefficient and data is difficult to access.
• The increasing adoption of electronic health records necessitates a digital solution for oral health data.
• Isfahan dental school faced challenges with data destruction and conversion costs of paper records.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and develop an Electronic Oral Health Recording (EOHR) system for Isfahan dental school.
• To report on the initial testing and evaluation of the EOHR system among dental students.
• To address the limitations of paper-based recording in dental public health settings.

Main Methods:

• A situation analysis was conducted with faculty and dental students.
• The EOHR system was designed using the WHO STEPwise model, developed as a smartphone app and web database.
• Software development followed the spiral model with object-oriented programming; alpha and beta testing were performed on 200 schoolchildren data collected by 40 dental students.

Main Results:

• A strong need for transitioning from paper-based to electronic recording was identified.
• The EOHR application features a six-page interface covering demographics, socioeconomic status, oral health, dental/gingival status, and quality of life.
• System drawbacks identified during testing were resolved, including issues with non-responded items and data output formats.

Conclusions:

• An Electronic Oral Health Recording (EOHR) system, comprising a software application and web database, was successfully designed.
• The system's development utilized Agile Unified Process principles, suitable for educational dental settings.
• Further improvement and gradual establishment of the EOHR system are recommended.