Dentists’ Information Needs and Opinions on Accessing Patient Information via Health Information Exchange: Survey Study (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The integration of medical and dental records is gaining significance over the past two decades. However, few studies have evaluated the opinions of practicing dentists on patient medical histories. Questions remain on dentists’ information needs, their perception of the reliability of patient-reported medical history, satisfaction with the available information and the methods to gather this information, and their attitudes to other options, such as a health information exchange (HIE) network, to collect patient medical history. OBJECTIVE Determine Indiana dentists’ information needs regarding patients’ medical information and their opinions about accessing it via a HIE. METHODS We administered an online survey to Indiana Dental Association (IDA) members to assess their current medical information-retrieval approaches, the information critical for dental care, and their willingness to access/share information via HIE. We used descriptive statistics to summarize survey results and multivariable regression to examine the association/s between survey respondents’ characteristics and responses. RESULTS Of the 161 (7.5% response rate) respondents, 99.5% considered patients’ medical histories essential to confirm no contraindications, including allergies or need for antibiotic prophylaxis during dental care and other adverse drug events. The critical information required were medical conditions/diagnosis, current medications, and allergies, which were gathered from patient reports. About 88% of respondents considered patient-reported histories reliable; however, they experienced challenges obtaining information from patients and physicians. About 70%, especially those who currently access an HIE or electronic health record, were willing to use an HIE to access/share their patient’s information, and 91% shared varying interests in such a service. However, usability, data accuracy, data safety, and cost are the driving factors in adopting an HIE. CONCLUSIONS Patients’ medical histories are essential for dentists to optimize dental care especially for those with chronic conditions. Also, dentists believe in using an HIE to access patient medical histories.