PROPACS: Arm yourself with knowledge – Reading radiographs properly

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  Posted by: Dental Design      14th August 2018

 

 

As a dentist today, protecting yourself against legal action has become a primary concern. Litigations against dental professionals are on the increase, and professionals are now twice as likely to be sued than a decade ago.[i]This suggests that patients are becoming more likely to take action should treatment cause them lasting problems. Many of these legal claims have their foundation in the treatment planning stages of care, and if diagnostic procedures show something amiss and you don’t bring it to the patient’s attention, this could lead to serious consequences.

 

Standard protocols for procedures such as radiographs do not meet the same criteria of those found in medical environments, and this can leave you open to legal allegations. When a radiograph is necessary you will commonly suggest the procedure, take the radiograph yourself and then analyse the image to write up a treatment plan.

By doing this you could easily overlook abnormalities captured by the imaging process. If these abnormalities then go on to develop into something serious, the patient is well within their rights to seek legal action against you for not alerting them earlier. Therefore, in order for you to protect yourself against these claims it’s wise to seek support from specialists during the radiographic procedure.

Developed to provide the necessary protection against such a risk, PROPACS from PRO Diagnostics UK helps professionals to avoid legal issues by giving dentists the specialist radiology reporting and support they need. By sending radiographs to experts in the field, you will gain valuable insight from people with all the relevant knowledge and skills. This will increase the chance that every visual abnormality will be identified and help you improve the quality of care you provide. Furthermore, this also supplies you with a safety net should legal action be threatened in the future.

Enabling transfer of radiographs with just the tap of a button, the system is a one-of-a-kind interactive online portal that allows you to receive expert analysis with ease. Every radiologist at PROPACS has years of experience in the industry and you can integrate this expertise into your treatment care plans to help you provide the very best solution in every case. The PRO Team will also automatically alert you in case of health threatening findings, helping give you ultimate peace of mind.

  • Reading radiographs properly takes dedicated training and the specialists at PROPACS have this in place so that they can help evaluate radiographs with a more holistic approach. Their reports are fully detailed with dental specific and pathological findings, which helps to ensure that any discrepancies are identified during the diagnostic and treatment planning stage.

These reports are easy to read, written in a logical order and are available within a 24-hour window, meaning that advice is available quickly whenever you need it.

As well as safeguarding professionals from legal action through support from its team of specialists, PROPACS also acts as a useful cloud-based storage device for radiographs. Protected by state-of-the-art encryption software, the system is GDPR compliant and stores files in a DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) format.

This is especially important as many existing practice management systems send files in a JPEG format – a file type that is noncompliant under GDPR guidelines. Not only does using DICOM help you guarantee that your practice adheres to GDPR regulations, but it also ensures that patient misidentification does not occur as image files have a DICOM header detailing relevant patient information.

Kunal Shah,principal of LeoDental in London says:

“The system is easy to use and the reports generated are highly systematic and detailed. I simply take the radiograph, send it securely to the experts for review and receive the report within 24 hours for a very efficient process.

“Another massive benefit of the system is that it aids compliance with GDPR. This is a huge issue for dentists right now, so anything that encrypts files and keeps them safe inline with the regulation, is more than welcome!

“Ultimately, working with a specialist radiologist means I can deliver the best possible service to all of my patients. It also protects me against any potential legal issues in the future.”

A simple way to arm yourself with specialist knowledge in order to provide improved patient care, PROPACS is an innovative online solution that will also help you to provide the very best patient care possible. Furthermore, this innovative system also acts as a safeguard against legal action, allowing you to provide patient care without having to worry.  

 

For more information, please visit www.prodentalradiology.comor email sales@prodiagnostics.co.uk

 

[i]The Telegraph. Dentists Targeted by ‘No Win, No Fee’ Lawyers as Practitioners are Twice as Likely to be Sued than a Decade Ago. Link: 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/04/dentists-targeted-no-win-no-fee-lawyers-practitioners-twice/[Last accessed May 18].


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