15 December 2025

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Associate dean spotlight: Dental Informatics and Digital Health

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Technology has grown at an exponential pace this century, with information technology (IT) in dentistry following suit. Indiana University School of Dentistry’s (IUSD) Office of Dental Informatics and Digital Health (ODIDH), led by Dr. Thankam Thyvalikakath, associate dean, keeps IUSD on the cutting edge. 

From digitizing records and creating in-depth analysis with them, to AI algorithms, automated communication, and beyond, IT in dentistry has innovated at a break-neck pace in the past 25 years thanks to the decreasing cost and increasing availability of computing resources. All these advancements have shaped how the ODIDH develops their operations.

“Previously, the scope of what we do information technology-wise was very defined, but now the scope is beyond us,” said Dr. Thyvalikakath. 

The office is dedicated to conducting daily needs and workflow analysis, integrating data from different sources and distributing it for education, patient care, and research needs, creating policy to comply with regulations, establishing a learning health system that utilizes data, and maintaining staffing and infrastructure to support their operations. 

“We started looking at every system we are using and thinking about how we could use the data for our operational purposes,” Thyvalikakath continued. “How can we improve the data capture? If our data is flawed, then what we infer from it would also be flawed.”

The overarching goal of the ODIDH is to apply informatics approaches to optimize clinical workflow operations and establish the infrastructure to track processes and outcomes for patient care and education. 

This will be achieved through five supporting goals: establish a sustainable IT infrastructure that integrates data from all sources; streamline purchasing and implementation of patient care devices and software; improve data capture and monitor data quality; establish a standard approach to process and share data; and support IUSD’s transition to person-centered care.

The office has already established a clinical system and data management committee to streamline the technology and software procurement process. Last June, ODIDH rolled out their help desk, Dentidesk, which received 1,782 requests from January 1 to November 11, 2025. They’ve also developed the Perio WebApp to evaluate residents and the Patient Medical Summary app, and connected axiUm with the Indiana Health Information Exchange to access patients’ medical record data.

Their ongoing work—including but not limited to streamlining invoices through a group account, establishing data and AI governance policies, reviewing and standardizing existing data access privileges, and integrating data from different devices and software applications—continues to keep IUSD on the forefront of dental IT trends.

 Author: Drew Hansen

Source: https://dentistry.iu.edu/