There are a few things practice owners and executives should look out for to determine whether new technology is worth investing in.
Bryan Shanahan, DDS, of Peak Family Dental Care in Arizona, and Jaime Burks, the senior director of operations at Providence Dental Partners, recently joined Becker’s virtual event to discuss dental technology failures and their tips for success.
Here is what the two dental leaders shared about the biggest red flag to look out for with new technology:
Note: Responses were edited for clarity and length.
Question: What red flags should practices look for before committing to new technology?
Dr. Bryan Shanahan: When someone starts showing very unrealistic ROIs for what it’s going to bring back for me is number one. Every piece of equipment needs to make sure we have an ROI attached to it because that’s why, as a business, we put it in place. We also want to enhance patient care. Unrealistic ROIs without really solid information and backing are number one red flags. In fact, that’s usually me walking away from whoever is telling me about it. I’m kind of done because, having implemented many different types of technology throughout my career, those never turn out anywhere near what they’re supposed to be.
The support from the company you’re buying from is really important. If they tend to separate the support from the implementation, or it’s an add-on or another cost, that’s another red flag. We want a partner in technology, and we want the partner also to be the people who supply the technology, so we know we can lean on them to get through the friction and the hurdles.
Jaime Burks: Do your due diligence. Make sure you are talking to real life teams that are using the technology. Don’t buy into that, “Everybody’s using it.” Do your own research. It’s all flashy at these shows. It looks good, it’s clean data, [but] it’s not necessarily clean when it shows up to your team. We often find and ask the vendors to give us three teams we can talk to that are like us, that are using it on a day-to-day basis. I want to talk to the teams and the ones who are using it every day. I think that’s the most important piece.
