The development of dental informatics and dental information technology in China: A systematic study

Abstract

Background/purpose: Dental informatics (DI) is a new emerging interdiscipline for medical informatics (MI) and general dentistry, and dental information technology (d-IT) is a parallel research field. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current situation of DI and d-IT in China, evaluate the achievements, analyze the weakness, and anticipate the future development. Materials and methods: Publications about DI and d-IT in English and Chinese journals by international and Chinese researchers were searched through literature reviews. The funds supporting DI and d-IT in China were manually searched. DI and d-IT education in China was analyzed by website search and telephone interview. Results: The investigation indicated that China started research in DI and d-IT fields from the late 1970s, but the development has become more rapid in the last 10 years. Both Chinese and international publications have increased sharply within the last decade. The Chinese government kept a stable increasing investment in DI and d-IT scientific projects and Chinese researchers made influential achievements in certain fields of DI and d-IT, such as computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) development and application, computer-assisted manufacture of facial prosthesis, and three-dimensional (3D)-assisted dental education. Conclusion: DI and d-IT have developed rapidly in China in recent years. However, there are some problems which remain to be resolved.

Bibliometric Analysis of Dental Informatics via Pubmed

“…The term 'health/medical informatics' was thought of as a concept when the idea that information technology could harness a power for high levels of data storage in the 1960s was starting to become a reality (Fitzmaurice et al, 2002;Tachakra et al, 2003). It was not until the 1980s when the potential of information technology in medicine was realised, primarily though the implementation of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) (Qi et al, 2015;Tapie et al, 2015). Computer processing powers had a mostly linear growth from the 1980s and 1990s, but over the course of the last 15-20 years, this growth in processing power has become more logarithmic (Fitzmaurice, et al, 2002;Tachakra et al, 2003).…”

“…Developed countries make up the bulk of global research in all areas (Bean et al, 2004;Duque et al, 2005). Whilst tools such as electronic dental records have already improved the efficiency and quality of dental care that patients are receiving, there are barriers to entry of dental informatics in developing countries, who cannot afford the infrastructure for electronics within health systems (Sood et al, 2008;Ahlan & Ahmad, 2014;Qi et al, 2015;Gonzalez-Brambila et al, 2016).…”