Open Dental Forum

How is dropbox used with OD and is there any documentation on it?

The dropbox feature uses dropbox instead of an AtoZ folder:
http://www.opendental.com/manual/dropbox.html

But I do have a question which I though appropriate to ask in this thread:
How would we move our existing local AtoZ folder to dropbox? Is it as simple as installing a client then moving the contents of our local AtoZ folder into the folder that the dropbox client creates?

Thanks,
~ardy

Is there any benefit to doing this?

There are pros and cons just like any other kind of "option" when looking at set up type things. For some offices, a cloud based AtoZ images folder (like Dropbox) is a must because they have too many locations and built in Windows folder sharing is lacking. So I guess it depends on what your specific requirements are for your specific practice(s).

Ardavan wrote:How would we move our existing local AtoZ folder to dropbox? Is it as simple as installing a client then moving the contents of our local AtoZ folder into the folder that the dropbox client creates?

Yep, you just need to move the root AtoZ folder and maintain the current directory hierarchy and then plop it into Dropbox and update the "AtoZ Path" field within Open Dental.

Is it possible to use it a a secondary backup situation? and whats the response time?

You don't need to do anything within Open Dental in order to use 3rd party online backup solutions:
http://www.opendental.com/manual/backupsonline.html

In my casual usage of Dropbox within Open Dental, it took about 1.5 seconds from the time that I double clicked an image in the Images module and the time it took for the image to open. Your response time may be faster or slower.

would love to see a box.com integration

A note of caution: You have to have a BAA in place with Dropbox (or any cloud storage entity) before putting any PHI in there, even if it is already encrypted and they don't have a key. Otherwise, multimillion dollar fines...

From their website:
"For customers subject to HIPAA/HITECH, remember that a BAA must be in place before you transfer PHI into your Dropbox account. To learn more about purchasing Dropbox Business, contact our sales team. If you're currently a Dropbox Business team admin, you can sign a BAA electronically from the Account page in the Admin Console."

Jim Margarit