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NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
Y2K has come and gone. If you are reading this, the world must not have come to an end.

With all of the coverage of the Y2K bug in the popular press, all the hand-wringing about blackouts and vanishing bank accounts, and all the money spent to upgrade computer systems to Y2K compliance (projected to top $100 billion by 2001, according to the U.S. Commerce Department), it should be obvious to all that computers are thoroughly embedded in our lives. They’re here to stay.

Think of them as helpful, if uninvited, partners in your dental practice. The question is, are you taking full advantage of all these new partners have to offer? If not, what’s standing in the way?

Computer hardware is cheaper than ever, software and applications are increasingly user-friendly, and Internet access offers are probably arriving in your mailbox on a daily basis. With the Y2K unpleasantness behind us, there really is no better time to upgrade and expand your computer activities.

So in the spirit of the season, here are three suggested New Year’s resolutions for making the most of your new partners.

Get a presence on the Web. Thirty-four percent of respondents to August JADA’s Question of the Month said they have a Web site. While this figure is impressive, it still leaves a lot of dentists with no Web presence. A Web site can serve as your practice’s brochure, a repository of forms and data, or just a widely circulated and dynamic advertisement. And if learning hypertext markup language, or HTML, programming is not your idea of fun, the ADA provides an easy way to establish a Web presence. Visit the ADA Electronic Commerce Co. Web site at "http://www.ada.org/ecco/ecco.html" to learn how you can easily create a custom Web site through Netopia Inc., a Web page design company.

Incorporate the tools of e-commerce into your practice. Speed, savings and efficiency are just a few of the reasons to make the transition from a paper-based system to an electronic accounting, transaction, and benefits and claims processing system. Once again, ADA ECCo furnishes you with the tools to make the leap to e-commerce, with help from endorsed software vendors ENVOY Corp. and Trojan Professional Services Inc. Just visit the ADA ECCo Web site.

Make use of the services offered at ADA ONLINE. While there are many more reasons to visit ADA ONLINE ("http://www.ada.org") than can be listed here, a few of the highlights include up-to-the-minute Association and health news; recent information on a variety of research and clinical issues; discounts and special offers on many goods and services at the ADA ECCo Marketplace; and the ADA Discussion Forum, where you can make your opinions known to your colleagues. And be sure to update the online ADA Membership Directory with your Web site address.

There are, of course, many other ways to enhance your practice with computers, but there’s no reason to jump into the deep end right away. Spend some time getting to know your new partners first.

Joe Hoyle, electronic media editor, ADA Publishing Co., Inc., hoylej{at}ada.org

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