From the Beginning to the Future: A look back at how NextGen Healthcare’s Dental Solution Began

From the Beginning to the Future: A look back at how NextGen Healthcare’s Dental Solution Began

1978 – Irvine, California

From pioneer to revolutionary – for more than 40 years - NextGen Healthcare, Inc. (QSI Dental) has been a recognized leader in the development, implementation and support of technology solutions for dental practice organizations. Throughout our history, we have remained consistently focused on providing solutions which automate complex business and clinical processes, enabling our clients to focus on patient care rather than business administration. Throughout the rapid digital transformation of dentistry, we have continued bringing innovative solutions to the dental marketplace. As technology has matured we have successfully navigated the everchanging “state-of-the-art” of computer hardware -- from the early 8MB “mini-mainframes,” through the client-server era and now in the cloud. Looking back, many companies, both competitors and industry-leaders were not able to navigate these treacherous evolutions.

The 80s

Always focused on reducing administrative costs and burdens, in the late 1980’s we created our electronic claims clearinghouse. This addition allowed us to work directly with dental insurance payers to process our patient insurance claims electronically – quite the innovative service at the time! This service continues to enable our dental customers to significantly reduce costs and improve reimbursement timeframes. Over the years we have continued to build upon this early electronic service offering success and today offer a wide range of patient engagement and financial management services.

Further changes in the 1990s

In 1998 we envisioned dental organizations being able to treat their patients without paper patient records – soon we began offering our Clinical Product Suite (CPS) electronic dental record (EDR) with our digital radiography solutions. Our dental customers quickly embraced this new freedom of operating without the frailties and costs associated with paper records. The use of digital imaging and radiography solutions has revolutionized the diagnostic tools available for dental professionals. The quality, size and new enhancement tools available with digital radiography software solutions provide radically improved intra- and extra-oral images. Today, most dentists rely on the superior diagnostic quality digital imaging provides, while also appreciating reduced expenses. In just a few years, digital radiography has become the industry-standard having rapidly replaced the use of “film and chemicals” to diagnose dental treatment needs.

So, what’s next?

As with most aspects of today’s world, technology will continue to radically transform the ways in which dentists and their teams interact with their patients. With so many new opportunities to advance technology such as mobile solutions, enhanced patient engagement, and tele-dentistry, the use of technology will continue to reshape the diagnosis and delivery of dental care. With our ever-growing customer partnerships, commitment to unparalleled customer experiences and strong financial position, we remain ideally positioned to continue our long history of delivering solutions which enable our customers to increase productivity, reduce risk, minimize costs and improve patient care.