Digital Transformation of Oral Health Care: Measuring the Digitalization of Dental Clinics

Abstract

AbstractThe profound transformation of business and society as a whole, brought about by digitalization, calls for the development of business strategies to meet the challenges associated with digital disruption and to manage its marked impact on the competitiveness of organizations. To achieve this goal, it is essential to assess the extent of digital transformation (DT) within businesses, as a crucial initial step in charting the most effective path towards digitalization. Nevertheless, a limitation in the existing literature on digitalization in the healthcare sector is evident in the absence of quantifiable indicators that comprehensively measure and track the progress of DT across all facets of dental clinics. The objective of this paper is the construction of a digitalization indicator, the Dental Data Synthetic Index (DDSI), which allows the accurate measurement of progress in digital development levels within all areas of a dental organization. This instrument can be a useful tool for both diagnosis and digital planning in dental clinics. In this paper, the proposed indicator is supported by its application to a representative sample of dental clinics in Spain, obtained from a survey developed for this purpose.