Going electronic: an Epic move

Medicine and dentistry have historically existed as separate entities, resulting in the creation of separate patient health records, which may limit patient care and safety. The General Dental Council emphasise the need to 'make and keep contemporaneous, complete and accurate patient records' as part of the expected standards of the dental team, with no suggested preference on paper or electronic notes. Despite offering clear advantages in primary care dental practice for efficiency, patient accessibility and financial benefit, the comparatively limited uptake of electronic records in dentistry in the secondary care setting has created barriers for patients and clinicians in delivery of evidence-based oral care. In this paper, we report on the challenges and benefits presented by the national drive to integrate technology into the NHS, including the enhancement this can provide to patient care. In primary care dentistry, electronic record keeping is well established in the UK. There is sparse literature or reported outcomes on the use of electronic record keeping in dental departments in secondary care. The Royal National Ear, Nose and Throat and Eastman Dental Hospitals is now a fully digitised hospital through the introduction of Epic, a fully integrated electronic health record. We explore the role of electronic record keeping in primary and secondary care dental practice, the benefits to patient care and the challenges presented when implementing an electronic health record. We consider the benefits and challenges in digitising a centrally-based specialist teaching dental hospital, including specific features of Epic, which provide enhanced user accessibility and applications for general use and specialised services, including research and public health surveillance.