ATLANTA, Georgia--Kodak has announced it has signed an agreement with Reality Engineering, Inc., to be the provider of MedVisor dental, an interactive, chair-side patient education tool that translates technical details about specific dental procedures into meaningful, easy-to-understand information.
This new communication tool can greatly enhance patients' understanding of complex dental procedures, facilitating acceptance of patient treatment plans.
Under the agreement, Kodak has the rights to market and sell the MedVisor dental product in the United States. The agreement also gives Kodak the right to sell the product in other areas of the world on a non-exclusive basis.
"We've recognized a gap in patient education materials and have been looking, for some time, for the right product to fill this need," said Wes Campbell, President and CEO of Kodak's PracticeWorks LLC subsidiary. "MedVisor dental will effectively deliver patient education and unique case acceptance tools to our customers."
Founded in 1997, Reality Engineering, Vancouver, Washington, quickly transitioned from developing animation systems for the automobile and other industries to development of visualization and animation packages supporting the medical and now the dental community.
"Our mission was to find ways to better communicate with patients by providing dentists with a chair-side teaching tool that simplifies complex procedures," said Lee Allen, CEO of Reality Engineering, Inc. "Our desire was to provide the 150,000 practicing dentists in the United States with tools that not only facilitate communication with patients, but also make patients--through education--part of the decision-making process."
What enables this?
It's the interactive nature of the MedVisor product that involves patients in the decision-making process. "Once patients understand a suggested procedure," Campbell explained. "They feel more responsible for the decision and more often accept even extensive dental treatment plans."
Instead of using words and endless paper presentations, MedVisor dental enables dental professionals to choose from a menu of pre-established procedure explanations to better communicate with patients. Dental professionals can even create a customized presentation for a procedure unique to a given patient.
Drawing on MedVisor dental's professionally animated visuals and interactive capabilities, a dentist can discuss implant particulars with a patient in one operatory equipped with a chair-side monitor while, down the hall, a dental hygienist can review the art of brushing and flossing teeth with a younger patient and parents.
Customized Patient Treatment Planning available
In addition to the pre-existing procedures and case presentations supplied with the program, dental professionals can now incorporate data unique to a patient and provide them with personalized information through MedVisor?dental's custom import/export capabilities.
From intraoral photographs to X-ray images of an individual's teeth, the tool sets a new standard for consultation and treatment planning. Studies have shown that using actual photographs and X-ray images for the individual patient increases case acceptance significantly.
"We are very excited about this relationship and about the marketing opportunity that the MedVisor dental product will bring to dental professionals, along with improvements in patient care," Campbell said.
