Medical Providers' Dental Information Needs: a Baseline Survey

Articulation of medical and dental practices has been strongly called for based on the many oral-systemic connections. With the rapid development and adoption of electronic health records, the feasibility of integrating medical and dental patient data should be strongly considered. The objective of this study was to develop an initial understanding of the medical providers' core dental information needs and opinion of integrated medical-dental electronic health record (iEHR) environment in their workflow. This was achieved by administering a 13 question survey to a group of 1,197 medical care providers employed by Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin, United States. The survey received a response rate of 35%. The responses were analyzed based on provider 'Role' and 'Specialty'. The majority of the respondents felt the need for patient's dental information to coordinate or provide effective medical care. An integrated electronic health record environment could facilitate this holistic patient care approach.