Curve Dental Wins Pride "Best of Class 2011" for Digital Imaging in the Cloud

As a member of the Pride Institute's Technology Panel, I've been honored the past 2 years to help determine the winners in the "Best of Class" technology awards. It's never easy to decide on the winners. I frequently think to myself about magazines like Car & Driver who have to pick the "Car of the Year" out of dozens of amazing automobiles.

It's a similar situation with the Pride Tech Panel. We frequently argue, tease each other, and sometimes glare at each other as we debate the topics & products. I was discussing our meeting recently with the president of Pride Institute, Dr. Lou Shuman. I told him that this coming year we should set up a video camera, mic all of us, and just record the whole thing which we could then post to the web. It may just happen... who knows?

However, that's a post for another day. Today's post is about winner Curve Dental. They have been working on the idea of a "Fresh Web Based Alternative to Dental Software" for a while now and they continue to make improvements to the whole genre of "software as service". This past February they showed me their imaging module that allowed a sensor connected to a laptop to send the captured radiograph to the cloud. They followed that up later in the spring with a pano taken by a digital machine and sending that to the cloud as well.

These 2 experiments/demonstrations show that Curve is overcoming several of the potential problems with a non-server based solution. This was just one of the things we discussed as we decided to honor Curve. Here is their press release about receiving the award:

Orem, UT (PRWEB) August 15, 2011

Curve Dental, developers of Web-based dental softwareannounced its new digital imaging technology has received Pride Institute�s Best of Class Technology Award for 2011 in the Emerging Technologies category.

�We�re honored to have been selected by the Pride Institute and recognized for the revolutionary digital imaging technology we�ve developed,� said Jim Pack, CEO of Curve Dental. �We are confident that our newdigital imaging features will change the way dentists capture and store x-ray, intraoral and panographic images. Because our technology leverages the many advantages of the cloud, a dentist doesn�t need a server to capture images, doesn�t need to worry about backups, and doesn�t have to deal with storage hassles. We�re honored to have been recognized by the Pride Institute for our accomplishments.�

A panel of dental technology experts, organized by the Pride Institute, a dental practice management consulting firm based in Novato, California, selected this year�s winning products through an unbiased, rigorous assessment selection process. The winning technologies were selected by majority vote and divided into four categories: Foundational, Diagnostic, Therapeutic, and Emerging.

The Pride Institute Best of Class Technology awards were launched in 2009 as a new concept to provide an unbiased, non-profit assessment of available technologies in the dental space. Winners of the award are invited to participate in a technology fair showcased at the American Dental Association�s annual meeting. �We deeply felt a gap in the area of technology education and integration," said Lou Shuman, DMD, CAGS, President of the Pride Institute. �We feel the technology awards and fair were an ideal model to fill that gap. Pride Institute�s commitment is to provide the finest information and counsel in all areas of practice management.�

The panel consists of seven dentists with significant knowledge of and experience in dental technology, including Dr. Shuman; John Flucke, DDS, writer, speaker and Technology Editor for Dental Products Report; Paul Feuerstein, DMD, writer, speaker and Technology Editor for Dental Economics; Titus Schleyer, DMD, PhD, Associate Professor and Director, Center for Dental Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Dental Medicine; Marty Jablow, DMD, technology writer and speaker; Para Kachalia, DDS, Director of New Technology at the University of the Pacific, School of Dentistry; and Larry Emmott, DDS, technology writer, speaker and dental marketing consulting. �I feel very fortunate that a panel of this magnitude has agreed to contribute to the selection process,� said Dr. Shuman.

About Curve Dental, Inc.
Founded in 2005, Curve Dental provides web-based dental software and related services to dental practices within the United States and Canada. The company is privately-held, headquartered in Orem, Utah with offices in Calgary, Canada and Dunedin, New Zealand. The company strives to make dental software less about computers and more about the user experience. Their creative thinking can be seen in the design of their software, that�s easy to use and Web-based. Dentists can call 888-910-4376 or visit http://www.curvedental.com for more information.