Release Notes: 3rd May 2018 (iteration 318)

New features and feature enhancements are included in the product update released 3rd May 2018. A new feature in this release is the addition of 230+ SNODENT condition codes and the ability to create a favourites list out of them. A new Patient Communications configuration option has been added and reports access rights have become more granular. 

Clinical

Previous to this release, the list of conditions that could be applied to areas of the mouth was one built by Henry Schein based on best practice recommendations. With this update, 230+ standardized SNODENT conditions have been implemented. To accommodate this, there are several changes to the interface. 

1. Click the Settings You will see the Procedure Codes link has been renamed to Procedure Codes & Conditions.

                                                 

2. When you open the page there is a new tab for the conditions list.

         

• As with procedure codes, you can use the codes or the descriptions to search for a condition. As you type in the Search box, the choices will narrow down as you continue to type.
• The proper SNODENT code for “watch tooth” is actually “delay treatment”, but we included “watch” in the description because it is such a common term.
• We also included an “excessive tooth mobility” condition.
• Click a star in the far right column to include a condition in the Favourites list when you add a condition from the Chart or Quick Exam. Note: the Favourites list is shared by the entire organization.
• You cannot create or add a custom condition to the list but you can change the condition description. 

3. The methods for applying conditions to an affected area are unchanged. In the Chart, select the tooth, teeth, or area and click Add Condition.

              

• The Favourites list is automatically filtered to only present conditions that apply to the selected area.
• The Search box looks at all conditions even when Favourites is selected.

In Quick Exam, the same principles apply: the list in the Conditions column is based on Favourites. Click the Search icon (  ) to type and find any condition.

                                                      

Changing Dentition

With this update, dentition is no longer a “condition”; it is just a graphical representation. Buttons representing deciduous (  ) and permanent (  ) teeth have been added to the Chart and to Quick Exam. To change dentition, select the tooth or teeth and then click the appropriate button. If no teeth are selected, the whole mouth will change dentition.

                                                                

Patient Communications

Appointment Confirmation—Text Messages only

If you have activated the Appt confirmed messaging then you have four possible configurations for appointment confirmation text messages.

This update will allow you to choose which communication option suits your business requirements.

Options Include:

The hard-coded Appt confirmed message is sent automatically from the system when this option is activated. The patient will receive this message as soon as they confirm their appointment via text. This message option does not allow customisation.

The custom Appt confirmed message is sent automatically from the system when this option is activated. The patient will receive this message as soon as they confirm their appointment via text. You can customise the content of this message and it will be sent according to your desired settings. 

 NOTE: this update has no impact on email messaging and confirmations.

To see review these changes, click on Settings then Patient Communications. You will see a new Appt confirmed message definition:

                                                    

Note: The Hard-Coded definition contains only the text message icon (   ) and displays this information when you select it: “This is a non-editable automated message, which is sent immediately after the appointment is confirmed.” This definition has a switcher, enabling you to turn it off and on. 

Reporting

With this update, administrators have more control over which reports the different roles in the practice will have access to. Previously the Generate Reports right gave access to all the reports available within Ascend. When this update occurs, anyone who had Generate Reports access will automatically continue to have access to all report categories; however, the administrator will be able to revisit the user roles and turn off access to selected categories. 

Reports have been grouped into six categories. All reports—both those in Power Reporting and those under the Home menu—are now associated with a category. This chart outlines the categories and the reports grouped within them:

 

The categories in Power Reporting have been regrouped to match the access rights categories:

                                                             

The Schedule and Recare categories are combined into one. The reports in the HSPA category are assimilated into the Financial category. 

If you have saved a power report it will be assigned within the new category system based on the report builder originally used to create the report. For example, a report created using a Treatment Plan report builder will be in the Clinical reports category. If you have previously saved a report and then your office administrator removes your right to view the associated report category, the report will still be saved but you will not be able to open it.

To limit access to selected report categories, go into a User Role and expand the Reports security category. You will see two new rows in the section. The behaviour remains the same: click to place or remove a checkmark. A checkmark means the role has access.

     

When a user attempts to access a report for which they do not have rights they will see a red “Access Denied” message. Within Power Reporting, reports for which they do not have access appear greyed out.

Patient Information

Previously, chart numbers in the Patient Information page were limited to eight alphanumeric characters. With this update, when you import or manually create a chart number, the maximum length is ten characters, and the special characters “.” (period) and “-” (dash) are allowed. The behaviour of the chart number auto-generator (  ) is unchanged.

                                          

Imaging

Several new features and enhancements to existing features are included with this release. 

New Features

• Integration support for Dexis imaging software versions 9 and 10.
• Schick 33 filters can be selected during acquisition.
• Added the RealCloud HD1 intraoral camera to the acquisition device list. 

Enhancements

• Added additional keystroke values for intraoral camera capture and save: now the “S” key pauses and the next "S" key press saves the image; the “X” key resumes video.
• If the acquisition agent is not running, when you browse to the Acquire Images path you will now see an error message and be redirected to the main Imaging tab.
• Added support for returning JPEG format images from acquisition agent (improves digital camera import speed by 8-10x).
• Tooth numbers are now included in PDF printouts.
• Select an image in Template or Exam view by simply clicking on the image.
• Viewing large templates has been improved.  And the Finish button has been removed and replaced by ability to turn on/off the template view with a new icon located by the full-screen icon.
• Keyboard input focused to the intraoral camera acquisition module is set when entering the intraoral camera capture module, which allows Ascend Imaging to received keystrokes from the camera button.
• Planmeca OPG machines that support the AutoFocus feature are now supported.