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

Abstract

Background: The integration of medical and dental records is gaining significance over the past 2 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: This study aims to determine Indiana dentists' information needs regarding patients' medical information and their opinions about accessing it via an HIE.

Methods: We administered a web-based survey to Indiana Dental Association members to assess their current medical information-retrieval approaches, the information critical for dental care, and their willingness to access or share information via an HIE. We used descriptive statistics to summarize survey results and multivariable regression to examine the associations between survey respondents' characteristics and responses.

Results: Of the 161 respondents (161/2148, 7.5% response rate), 99.5% (n=160) respondents considered patients' medical histories essential to confirm no contraindications, including allergies or the need for antibiotic prophylaxis during dental care and other adverse drug events. The critical information required were medical conditions or diagnosis, current medications, and allergies, which were gathered from patient reports. Furthermore, 88.2% (n=142) of respondents considered patient-reported histories reliable; however, they experienced challenges obtaining information from patients and physicians. Additionally, 70.2% (n=113) of respondents, especially those who currently access an HIE or electronic health record, were willing to use an HIE to access or share their patient's information, and 91.3% (n=147) 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. In addition, most dentists are interested in using an HIE to access patient medical histories. The findings from this study can provide an alternative option for improving communications between dental and medical professionals and help the health information technology system or tool developers identify critical requirements for more user-friendly designs.