Conference Outcomes and General Recommendations

Abstract

During the closing session of the conference it became evident that there were several recurring themes that ran through each discussion by the three workshop groups. They may be paraphrased as follows:

• • The principal focus of dental informatics applications should be on dental practice where they can impact most directly on the delivery of oral health care.

• • The profession needs to support and facilitate the process of planning for both the short and the long term. At a minimum, planning should take place at two levels: (1) each major dental organization should develop a strategic plan based upon its own mission and needs; (2) each of the plans should be integral to an overall plan for the entire profession.

• • Mechanisms should be developed early to ensure communication and networking among the various components of dentistry including dental professional organizations, dental schools, the dental research community, Federal dental services, individual dental practitioners of general dentistry and the dental specialties, dental auxiliaries, the dental trades, other health professions, and appropriate members of the computer and telecommunications industry.

• • There is a strong need for the various sectors of the dental profession to achieve agreement on the important issue of Standards related to nomenclature, classification and coding of diseases, and the size and number of database fields. There should be consensus on the issue of compatibility of information systems so connectivity can be maximized.