Topics of the day:

1. The 11th International Symposium on Dentofacial Development and Function
2. Re:  Soldering
3. Re: Computers
4. Staff Rewards
5. ESCO - The Electronic Study Club for Orthodontics

Re:  Soldering

Rob,

We still do some soldering in our office, not a whole lot but when you need it you need it.  I had to replace a unit recently and you can buy the electrodes from ormco that hook into a welding unit.  That is the best I can offer.  Have you checked Rocky Mountian.  They used to carry alot of Welding/soldering stuff. Good luck

John McDonald
Salem, OR

Dear Dr. Wong, Dr. Ruff and ESCO members – I believe I've met Dr. Wong a few years back in the Brisbane ASO meeting. Greetings! I just want to briefly respond to his posting, to clarify some of the points made.

Dolphin Management (DM), a Windows program, fully functions under multiple-office environment (I believe Dr. Ruff has a single office setup). Many DM practices open multiple offices simultaneously and have well over 30 workstations. Dolphin Management practices also run Citrix and/or Windows remote terminal services environment. We highly recommend that you work with experienced IT professional for the proper setup and configuration.

>> …I would not expect any vendor of new (and unrelated) software to have a deep understanding of the old software

The engineers from the original software company will always have the best understanding of their database structures, for obvious reasons. However, many vendors, like Dolphin, have meticulously and successfully extracted all pertinent data from your existing software necessary to run your practice on the newer product.

Specifically, Dolphin 's Orthotrac UNIX conversion can extract every single appointment made ( past and future ) , financial / insurance transaction s (balance transfer now, detailed historical ledger available in Q1 2005) and all electronic treatment card entries. Further, Dolphin makes available a detailed document of the Orthotrac fields converted. Please email me directly if you would like to see this document.

>> …anyone out there who understands the storage of data in the Orthotrac unix system and how to extract it, please stand up and make yourself known!

For the record, the Dolphin software engineers are standing (with smiles).

I am trying to find ways to reward my staff (other than direct compensations such as salary, 401K, etc) for all their hard work. I prefer to tie it to some goal that they achieve as a team. For example, they received a trip to a nice shopping mall after our office started a certain number of patients this Summer. I want to possibly do the same thing for a trip to the AAO in San Francisco. I would love to hear what other members do in this regard. Please include any staff reward programs in general whether they be team goals or individual goals. I know there are probably a million ways to do this but I am having trouble coming up with simple yet creative ideas. If it helps, I am a young orthodontist (in practice 4 years) who has started his own office just 11 months ago. I have 3 staff members and practice in a major metropolitan area. Thanks for the help,

Jeff Mastroianni DMD, MS
Glen Carbon, IL

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