International Journal of Computerized Dentistry, 03/2006

Clinical documentation, including medical/ dental history, oral status findings, treatment planning, and progress notes, are prerequisites for the use of retrospective evaluation procedures as well as for quality assessment and enhancement. A substantial condition for making full profit of these advantages of digital clinical records is that their design is based on established physiologic- and cognitiveergonomic concepts. Keywords: Digital clinical record, quality assurance, human cognitive performance, cognitive ergonomics

Podcasting has recently emerged as an important information technology tool for health professionals and consumers around the world. Prestigious journals, international conferences, universities and government agencies among other entities are starting to publish digital information via audio and video podcasts. Podcasting is distinguished from other forms of digital audio-video content because it can be subscribed to (using Real Simple Syndication or RSS) and easily accessed from a personal computer. Further, it can be downloaded to a mobile device, such as an iPod where the user is able to listen to or watch it anywhere, anytime. Podcasting is used in new and evolving ways to publish information for healthcare education, patient care, professional continuing education, and in support of healthcare research. In addition to a description of what podcasting is, how podcasts are created, and how they are used, this paper addresses four critical issues that are emerging concerning podcasts. These issues are intellectual property and copyright, podcast preservation, podcast location, and podcast standards. As podcasting matures and new uses are discovered, we will see podcasting incorporated into our education, research and patient care publication paradigm. Keywords: podcasting, information technology, mobile technology, digital documentation

In light of future challenges, such as growing numbers of elderly, increase in chronic diseases, insufficient health care budgets and problems with staff recruitment for the health-care sector, information and communication technology (ICT) becomes a possible means to meet these challenges. Organizational changes such as the decentralization of the health-care system lead to a shift from in-hospital to both advanced and basic home health care. Advanced medical technologies provide solutions for distant home care in form of specialist consultations and home monitoring. Furthermore, the shift towards home health care will increase mobile work and the establishment of shared care teams which require ICTbased solutions that support ubiquitous information access and cooperative work. Clinical documentation and decision support systems are the main ICT-based solutions of interest in the context of ubiquitous computing for shared care environments. This paper therefore describes the prerequisites for clinical documentation and decision support at the point of care, the impact of mobility on the documentation process, and how the introduction of ICT-based solutions will influence organizations and people. Furthermore, the role of dentistry in shared-care environments is discussed and illustrated in the form of a future scenario. Keywords: Clinical documentation, decision support systems, dental informatics, human-computer interaction, home care services, information systems

For the exchange between science and practice, a language that is as precise as possible is also required in dentisty. This language is necessarily based on our ideas about the relationships in reality. Since standardization is unavoidable, various methods have been developed in informatics as to how these models can be represented and made more precise. On this basis, it is possible to neutrally discuss the situations in which a given form of treatment is expedient or not. A step-by-step approach to standardization of dental language with the aid of meta models is shown by reference to examples. The medrapid.info service is presented as an approach to making medical and dental language more precise. Keywords: dentistry, decisionmaking, controlled vocabulary

Domain specific knowledge is often not static but continuously evolving. This is especially true for the medical domain. Furthermore, the lack of standardized structures for presenting knowledge makes it difficult or often impossible to assess new knowledge in the context of existing knowledge. Possibilities to compare knowledge easily and directly are often not given. It is therefore of utmost importance to create a model that allows for comparability, consistency and quality assurance of medical knowledge in specific work situations. For this purpose, we have designed an object-relational model based on structured knowledge elements that are dynamically reusable by different multimedia- based tools for case-based documentation, disease course simulation, and decision support. With this model, high-level components, such as patient case reports or simulations of the course of a disease, and lowlevel components (e.g., diagnoses, symptoms or treatments) as well as the relationships between these components are modeled. The resulting schema has been implemented in AMOS II, an object-relational multi-database system supporting different views with regard to search and analysis depending on different work situations. Keywords: case-based documentation, disease course simulation, medical knowledge representation, object-relational databases, quality assurance

Introduction: Computer technology is increasingly used in practical training at universities. However, in spite of their potential, computer-assisted learning (CAL) and computer-assisted simulation (CAS) systems still appear to be underutilized in dental education. Materials and Methods: Advantages, challenges, problems, and solutions of computer-assisted learning and simulation in dentistry are discussed by means of MEDLINE, open Internet platform searches, and key results of a study among German dental schools. Results: The advantages of computerassisted learning are seen for example in self-paced and self-directed learning and increased motivation. It is useful for both objective theoretical and practical tests and for training students to handle complex cases. CAL can lead to more structured learning and can support training in evidence-based decision-making. The reasons for the still relatively rare implementation of CAL/CAS systems in dental education include an inability to finance, lack of studies of CAL/CAS, and too much effort required to integrate CAL/CAS systems into the curriculum. Conclusion: To overcome the reasons for the relative low degree of computer technology use, we should strive for multicenter research and development projects monitored by the appropriate national and international scientific societies, so that the potential of computer technology can be fully realized in graduate, postgraduate, and continuing dental education. Keywords: computer-assisted learning, computer-assisted simulation, problem-based learning, evidencebased medical/dental education, dental simulator, virtual reality dental simulation