Business Email Compromise is on the Rise

 

We’re all aware of aware of the nefarious “Nigerian Email Scam” that’s been going around for years.  In an interesting development, the US just arrested 74 alleged email fraudsters in what was called Operation Wire Wire.  The idea, of course, was to help decrease the amount of scam emails and, consequently, the number of unfortunate victims that were bilked out of sometimes large amounts of money.

 

However, there is another problem that has now developed.  It’s called BEC, standing for Business Email Compromise and it is a serious problem.  According to email security firm Agari, 24% of email scams are now trying to get money from businesses and that 96% of businesses via email are the focus on some type of scam.

 

While that may not be a *gigantic* problem, for dentistry, that doesn’t mean we are immune.  My office routinely receives all kinds of scamming attempts via email AND the good old telephone.

 

If you are interested in how widespread and problematic this is, head over to Wired and read a fascinating article on it.  

THE IADR/AADR Publish JDR Special Issue on Head and Neck Cancer

 

Looking for more information on head and neck cancer?  IADR and the AADR are working together for a special issue of the Journal of Dental Research dealing with the subject.

 

Here are all the details:

 

Alexandria, VA, USA - The International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) have published a special issue in the Journal of Dental Research (JDR) on head and neck cancer. Dr. Jacques E. Nör, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA and Dr. J. Silvio Gutkind, University of California, San Diego, USA, served as the guest editors of this special issue.

Head and neck cancer encompasses a large and diverse group of tumors with complex etiology and pathobiology that is typically resistant to therapy, particularly when diagnosed in advanced stages. The most common of these tumors are head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC), which are diagnosed in about half million people and result in a quarter million deaths every year worldwide. Unfortunately, the overall 5-year survival of HNSCC patients has remained low at about 50-60% for the last 3-4 decades. The lack of more effective therapies has been attributed to late diagnosis and to the intrinsic resistance of HNSCC cells to existing treatment modalities.

In recent years, the prospect of developing safe and efficient therapies for HNSCC has improved by a deeper understanding of the precise mechanisms underlying the biology of these tumors. This special issue of the Journal of Dental Research brings together leaders in the field who discuss the state-of-the science in head and neck cancer and present new early diagnostic tools and mechanism-based and immune therapies that might benefit patients with this malignancy.

"We are witnessing a revolution in our understanding of HNSCC molecular pathobiology, and in the diagnosis and treatment of this malignancy," said Gutkind and Nör. "The work performed by dedicated investigators is shining new light on HNSCC initiation and progression, and breaking new grounds on the discovery of novel prevention modalities and precision targeted and immune therapies. Collectively, these major research efforts aim at improving the survival and quality of life of patients with head and neck cancer."

This special issue includes articles on topics such as: The changing landscape in head and neck etiology, the elucidation of the head and neck cancer oncogenome, new precision therapies, the immune therapy revolution and improvements with early diagnosis.

This special issue is accompanied by an Editorial "Head and Neck Cancer in the New Era of Precision Medicine." This Editorial is an Editor's Choice article and will be open access.

40 Years of Stories: Find out how Ultradent works with the best and the brightest in this month’s stories!

As Ultradent celebrates its 40th anniversary, the company has been putting the stories of their employees on their website.  This month they’ve taken a different approach by interviewing 3 doctors who are big fans of the company.  Fair warning on this link, I’m one of those doctors.  Here’s the info from Ultradent:

 

In this month’s very special “40 Years of Stories,” we talk to three very influential Key Opinion Leader clinicians about working with Ultradent and Dr. Fischer throughout the years.

They share personal stories, their feelings about the company, and why they love Ultradent products.

We loved getting this outside perspective on the company and think you’ll like reading it too!

Enjoy!  The story can be read from this link.  

American Academy of Periodontology, SUNSTAR Announce 2018 Innovation Grant Recipients

   

 

The American Academy of Periodontology (AAP) is pleased to announce that members Hsun Liang Chan, DDS, MS, and Jeff C.W. Wang, DDS, DMSc, are the 2018 recipients of the SUNSTAR Innovation Grant. They will each receive $30,000 for their research projects as part of the AAP’s partnership with oral health and technology company SUNSTAR, which has committed to awarding scientific grants to AAP members whose investigations show significant potential to advance the specialty periodontics.

Dr. Chan’s research project, “In-Situ Evaluation of Periodontal Inflammation with Ultrasonography,” aims to utilize ultrasound imaging to assess periodontal inflammation with the long-term goal of developing a point-of-care device to diagnose and monitor inflammation. “The ultrasound method may be able to detect disease at earlier stages so that treatment can be rendered in a timely manner. It intends to provide information about what is going to happen instead of what has already happened. Therefore, tooth longevity and quality of life can be improved,” Dr. Chan says.

Dr. Wang’s research project, “Development of Patient-friendly Oral Health Report with Customized Oral Hygiene Instructional Video for Enhanced Patient Education Modalities,” hopes to eventually improve patient education, motivation, and compliance with the use of technology-based visual aids and reports. “This [research project] is one step towards future personalized precision patient education, using a tailored oral and periodontal health report as a platform to educate patients about their own clinical, periodontal, and radiographic findings,” Dr. Wang says. “Without patient health literacy, patient motivation, and compliance, the goal of long-term oral health is negated.”

As part of the Innovation Grant program, SUNSTAR has committed $250,000 towards six research grants to select AAP members over a three-year period, which began in 2017. Members of the AAP’s Research Submissions Committee examine all abstracts against criteria established by SUNSTAR and the Academy. Dr. Chan and Dr. Wang are the second and third recipients of the award.
“These investigations have the potential to transform periodontal disease diagnosis and patient literacy,” says Steven R. Daniel, DDS, president of the AAP. “SUNSTAR’s generous backing of this novel research accelerates the innovation that will define the future of the specialty. The Academy applauds SUNSTAR for its longstanding dedication to furthering the science and practice of periodontics.”
“The work of this year’s Innovation Grant recipients will influence the treatment and prevention of periodontal disease,” says Jackie Sanders, manager of professional relations at SUNSTAR. “We are pleased to unite with the AAP in providing a platform for scientific research and, subsequently, the improvement of patient health.”

Dr. Chan, clinical assistant professor, and Dr. Wang, predoctoral director and clinical assistant professor, are both faculty at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry’s Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine. They will present the results of their studies at a future AAP Annual Meeting.

MMG Fusion Continues to Enhance Its Skill Set - Continues to be a Game Changer

I’ve been working with MMG Fusion for a while and they continue to impress.  As the graphic above indicates, the MMG stands for “Manage, Market, Grow”.  I think my journey with MMG is a great example of why you should listen and research before making a decision.  The reason I say that is that when I first heard of the company name, I thought it wouldn’t be for me since our office doesn’t do much external marketing.  My first thought was that this was a company that helped practices succeed with massive external marketing campaigns.  I could NOT have been more off in my initial impression.

 

That’s because MMG Fusion pretty much does everything you need to improve the marketing aspect of your practice whether it is external OR internal.  So, let’s take a look at some of the ways MMG can help your practice.

 

Social Media

The term “social media” has become a pretty big buzz term in the business world today.  It seems like every business on the planet is either talking about their social media presence or busily filling their timelines with posts.  The problem with any type of investment in social media is gauging your ROI.  You can push as much info as humanly possible through Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and others, but how do you gauge if all of that effort is really worth anything to your practice?

 

MMG is integrated into your practice management software and does ROI tracking.  It displays the revenue stream coming in from your social media presence, along with your conversion percentage and all new patients acquired.  Nifty, right?  Not to mention that a strong social media presence will also affect your rankings in search engines.

 

SEO & Website Analysis

MMG utilizes Conversion Coach to help you analyze your performance and is integrated with your practice management software.  Their conversion Coach platform helps you analyze your performance and is integrated with your practice management software.

 

Reputation Management

The Review Tracker gives you an itemized list of reviews from the top 13 industry specific directory sites with live links for easy access.  Seamlessly integrated with your Practice Management Software, the tool automatically sends an email and text to patients 2 hours after their visit asking for their feedback.  This helps increase positive reviews in Google and Yelp, and to filter out negative information.

 

ChairFill

Thinking and running all the time in the background, ChairFill will automatically grow your patient base and achieve your practice production and revenue goals by:

• Monitoring available chair-time, ChairFill mines your Million-Dollar Patient Records for the Right kind of patients at the right time;
• Selectively searching your patient records for the most profitable patients and proactively filling your schedule out in advance;
• Detecting last minute cancellations and filling those openings in your schedule;
• At your election, automatically tracking and/or runningyour best performing marketing campaigns to continuously acquire more new patients;
• Creating a positive brand image, managing your reputation and increasing positive reviews for your practice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dentrix Needs the Right IT Infrastructure to Support It

 

 

The most popular dental management software, hands down, is Dentrix.  They have more installed users on the planet than any other program.  Because of that fact, I figuring that a lot of you are running Dentrix and are interested in ways to run it quickly and efficiently so that your practice runs the same.  To help further that cause, here are some recommendations from the company that can help you along…

 

A diamond ring can be a symbol of beauty, elegance and class. A common way to display a diamond is on a ring with a prong setting, with metal claws that grip the diamond tightly, holding it in place. You probably wouldn’t buy a spectacular diamond for thousands of dollars — and then mount it with flimsy tin prongs. You want a strong setting that will support your diamond and keep it from falling off. Just like that expensive diamond, your Dentrix software is a significant investment and needs the right IT infrastructure to support it so it will work the way it was designed. Without the right “setting,” your Dentrix G7 upgrade may not work as expected.

Dental software has unique IT needs. Since a local IT company, or your computer-savvy nephew, probably won’t understand those needs, it could take years to train them to effectively support your practice, resulting in frustration and reduced productivity. It is important that your dental software has that strong “setting” from an experienced IT company, like Henry Schein TechCentral. TechCentral has more than 15 years of experience serving the dental and health-care industries with a three-pronged approach to providing IT hardware, support and data protection/preservation.

Prong 1: The Right Hardware
Your upcoming Dentrix G7 upgrade will only be as good as the supporting technology. Your dental practice needs an IT provider who understands how dental software works with your workstations, servers, printers, devices. TechCentral works directly with Dentrix, to pre-configure and test each unique solution to help provide peace of mind that you’re getting the right equipment for your dental environment.

Prong 2: The Right IT Support
How many thousands of dollars would you lose if your computers went down, even for a few hours? TechCentral can help decrease the likelihood and amount of costly downtime issues with support that’s available when you need it. With prompt remote assistance from experienced dental technology professionals, as well as on-site technicians, if needed, TechCentral can help keep your practice running smoothly.

Prong 3: The Right Data Protection
No single defense can protect your patient data completely from computer attacks. Used as part of a comprehensive security plan along with antivirus software, digital dentists should use a firewall. TechCentral provides WatchGuard appliances for an advisable extra layer of data protection. In the event your data is compromised, TechCentral Hybrid Backup Services provides a redundant, remotely managed backup and recovery solution both on a local backup device and in the cloud.

Prong 4: The Right IT Provider
TechCentral lets dentists go back to taking care of patients instead of worrying about technology problems. TechCentral is an end-to-end IT provider specifically for the dental market, delivering the strong “setting” your digital practice requires. Before you upgrade to Dentrix G7, request a free comprehensive technology assessment, to evaluate your equipment and systems and help you identify vulnerabilities and solutions. Visit www.HSTechCentral.com/DentrixG7Shine.

Certain components of the products or services described above are provided by third parties. Henry Schein, Inc. and its affiliates are not responsible for, and expressly disclaim, all liability for damages of any kind arising out of the use of those third party products or services.

 

Author: David Broom, Senior Director of Product Management, Henry Schein TechCentral

MouthWatch Donates its TeleDent™ All-in-One Teledentistry Platform to the Little City Community for People with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities

MouthWatch, LLC a leader in innovative teledentistry solutions, digital case presentation tools and intraoral imaging devices, recently donated its TeleDent™ all-in-one teledentistry platform as part of a pilot program to expand the access to oral care for the rapidly growing resident population at Little City, an organization providing services for individuals diagnosed with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

Little City has been serving individuals with disabilities on its 56-acre campus located in Palatine, Illinois, since 1959. In June of 2016, Little City Foundation merged with Countryside Association for People with Disabilities. With that merger, Little City now serves over 1,100 individuals each year throughout Cook, DuPage, Lake and McHenry counties in addition to its Palatine campus.

According to MouthWatch CEO and Founder, Brant Herman, “Little City’s Oral Health Education Program was designed to serve some of society’s most vulnerable individuals-- youth, adults, and seniors with intellectual and developmental disabilities. With the recent merger, the foundation must serve hundreds more who need oral care and who live in multiple counties. Teledentistry can help the existing staff Little City’s Oral Health Education Program increase their reach and efficiency to serve more people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.”

The MouthWatch TeleDent Platform consists of three components; the MouthWatch digital intraoral camera, the ExamTab™ portable LCD monitor and the TeleDent™ all-in-one teledentistry platform that is a scalable and secure cloud-based software solution that enables both real-time streaming and “store and forward” diagnostic images, videos and documentation, thus enabling the clinician to remotely conduct a patient evaluation and recommend next steps for treatment.

According to Tina Lowry, Director of Health and Wellness Services,” Multiple studies have pointed out that individuals diagnosed with developmental and intellectual disabilities are at a higher risk for oral health problems and yet they are the least likely to receive preventative care and follow up treatment. This pilot powered by MouthWatch and its TeleDent teledentistry platform will help us reduce the disparity of oral health care within the Little City community.”

About MouthWatch, LLC:
Headquartered in Metuchen, New Jersey, MouthWatch, LLC is a leader in leader in innovative teledentistry solutions, digital case presentation tools and intraoral imaging devices. The company is dedicated to finding new ways to constantly improve the dental health experience for both patient and provider.

The founders and management team of MouthWatch have relevant backgrounds and successful track records in dentistry, consumer products and communications. Since 2012, this team has pioneered the integration of digital imagery and communications technology in the field of dentistry. Their cumulative experience makes it possible for the company to take the lead in introducing the benefits of telemedicine to the world of dentistry.