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Volume1 Issue2
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CDA
at
W
ork
YOURCDA
F
ormy first President’s Column, I consid-
ered the importanceof CDA’sprograms
and services to the life of a practising
dentist. Although the details could fill
many pages of our magazine, for now
I want to focus on two general areas: shaping
the future of the profession and supporting a
dentist’sday-to-daypractice.
CDA focuses on professional issues that must
be dealt with on a national basis, such as feder-
al government affairs, international relations, na-
tional and international standards, public policy
issues andothermattersbeyond the influenceof
an individual dentist or provincial association. By
providingaunifiedCanadianvoice todiscussions
about emerging issues in dentistry, CDA helps
shapeour professional future. These efforts are
greatly supported by CDA’s annual environ-
mental scan, which analyzes the political,
economicand social environments as they
relate tohealthcareanddentistry.
Serving as a hub for facilitating discussion
and consensus-building on oral health is-
sues, CDA provides dentists with evidence-
based clarifications on many issues, some
of them contentious. This is accomplished
throughthedevelopmentofpositionstate-
ments that draw on the knowledge
of a range of experts: academics,
clinicians, provincial association
leadersanddental regulators.
Connecting to organizations
within the oral health care
family and the broader
health care community al-
lowsCDA togainnewper-
spectives—an important
part of identifying
best practices for
dentistsandpatients.Of particularnoteareCDA’s
strengthened connections with the Canadian
Medical Association and Canadian Pharmacists
Association, given thegrowingbodyof evidence
supportinga linkbetweenoral healthandoverall
health.
At a more tangible level, CDA supports dentists
in running their practices. Leaving aside clinical
support (more on that in future columns), CDA
programs and services help dentists in daily of-
ficemanagement. Without them, our usual rou-
tinesmight be difficult to conduct. Consider, for
example, the task of electronically submitting
a dental claim. This process relies on procedure
codes derived from theCDA’sUniform Systemof
CodingandListof Services (USC&LS), the services
of CDAnet and then, for the majority of offices,
ITRANS. It’s estimated that theCDA services relat-
ed toelectronicclaims submission result inanan-
nual savings for a Canadian dentist of anywhere
between $1500–$2000 (calculated based on an
averageof roughly1900claimssentperCanadian
dentist in2013 and compared to claims transmis-
sioncosts for ourAmericancolleagues).
In addition, CDA’s new eReferral service allows
patient records, radiographs anddocumentation
to be securely transmitted from office to office
over the Internet. On the financial side, CDA and
ourcorporatemembersofferdentistsvaluable in-
vestment advice and insurance services through
CDSPI. This includes essential products like disa-
bilityandmalpractice insuranceand travel, home
andcar insurance, toname just a few.
There’snodoubt thatCDAworkshard forCanadi-
an dentists. Ultimately, the value of CDA’s efforts
lies in theprogresswemake towards our profes-
sion’s goal of helpingCanadians achieveoptimal
oral health.
a
GaryMacDonald,dds
The Value of
From thePresident
