Remote Access: You CAN Take it With You

Remote Access

There is little doubt that dentists find their professional lives very busy in the modern world. With the advent of many new technology systems, there is more and more information that needs to be processed on a daily basis. While many of these systems were designed to make our lives easier and more efficient, the truth of the matter is that dentists are working long hours to accomplish their goals.

Many dentists will take at least one day off during the week or during the weekend. Unfortunately, tooth pain doesn’t take time off and dentists will often need to access their office computer systems from home or some other location. Thankfully, there are a number of systems and programs in place that can allow offices to access their data from remote locations:

  1. If you have high speed Internet access at home, then there are a number of software options available. While you certainly can use dial-up, the graphic nature of practice management software would make this process painfully slow.
  2. The one that most people are familiar with is PC Anywhere (http://us.norton.com/symantec-pcanywhere/). While this program has been around a long time, it’s not one of my favorites as it only allows you to access one computer at the office and I find it a bit clunky to use. The software costs about $200 but one of the main advantages is that you can transfer files from one location to the other.
  3. Another good option is Remote Desktop. If you use Windows 7 Professional at the office (it doesn’t work with Home as the “host” computer), then you can log into the system with this built-in software. This is a true remote desktop situation; you work on the remote or host computer as if you were right in front of it, and can use the mouse and keyboard normally. Since the software comes with the operating system, you can’t beat the price. The main downside is that when you connect, it blanks out the screen of the person who is using the computer at that location. So you can’t, for example, use Remote Desktop and have the local user watch what you are doing. This is not an issue for after- hours remote access, of course.
  4. Smartphones. Smartphones (iPhone, Blackberry, Android) are very popular in our society. Recognizing this, most of the better dental practice management programs offer a module to allow the practice to take information home with them. This is the ideal situation for offices that don’t have high speed Internet at home and just need the basic information. There are, however, a few limitations. The practice management programs will integrate with either a Windows Mobile device or an iPhone, but not both. Meaning, if you already use one of these and your software doesn’t support it, you’ll need to buy another one. Also, due to the much smaller memory capacity of these devices, the amount of information you can bring with you is often minimal. It may be limited to just that day’s callbacks, or a few days of your schedule. It won’t have a list of all patients, for example, with medical history and progress notes.
  5. VNC is another excellent program for remote access. Some versions are free, but the ones with better security and passwords are not. There are many variations of VNC…I like RealVNC (www.realvnc.com).
  6. To use any of the above programs, you’ll need two things: an open port on your router, and a fixed Internet address (called the IP address) for the office computer. You can pay extra to get a static IP address, although they cost more. You’re better off with a dynamic IP address and then get a free service, such as No-IP ( www.no-ip.com) which allows you to associate a name you choose with the IP address. If opening ports and IP addresses sounds like too much work, then try a service like LogMeIn.com (www.logmein.com), which is easy to set up and has a version that is free.

Through use of Smartphones and remote access, dentists can easily have access to critical information that they may need after the office is closed.

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