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Paul Child is now the Former CEO of the CR Foundation
[An Exclusive ME-P “Breaking” News Event]
By D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
If you work hard on a righteous pursuit long enough, in spite of what shy people might think of your motives, sometimes you win one for the community.
I wish Dr. Paul Child, former CEO of the Clinician’s Report [CR] Foundation, the best of luck in his new pursuits.
The Exiting CEO [Dr. Paul Child]
In my latest comment on CR Foundation Facebook, I demanded to speak with an anonymous employee’s supervisor because of her unexplained censorship of my three comments – including important questions about EDRs and HIPAA. A few hours ago, that comment was also censored without warning or explanation.
However, in its place I found an announcement that Dr. Child is no longer CEO, and that co-founder Dr. Gordon Christensen himself is taking over the position.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/CR-Foundation/160588080492
The CR Foundation Announcement
“Dr. Paul L. Child Jr., the CEO of Clinicians Report for the last 3-1/2 years, will be leaving CR at the end of 2011 to pursue other interests as he continues his contributions to the dental profession. We wish Paul the best in his new endeavors and are pleased that he will continue to serve CR Foundation as a member of the CR Board of Directors.”
The New CEO [Dr. Gordon J. Christensen]
“Dr. Gordon J. Christensen, the Co-Founder of CR, has been appointed to the position of CEO. He will lead the experienced team of over 400 clinicians in 19 countries and 40 son-site scientists, engineers, and support staff. Additionally, Gordon continues to practice, speak internationally, and provide leadership for needed research in CR.”
Link: http://www.cliniciansreport.org/
That looks to me like a heartfelt apology. I accept.
If any dental leader can be honest with dentists about important, time-sensitive issues nobody else will address it’s Dr. Christensen. He’s a good man with high ideals that don’t include hiding the truth about dental products from dentists in order to shield stakeholders from accountability. 
Assessment
Now that you’ve witnessed in real time how even one dentist’s voice can improve our community on a national level, why in the hell aren’t you speaking up, Doc?
If your assertiveness is inhibited by traditional notions of “professional conduct,” let me remind you that in Alaska, high school grads are legally extracting large portions of teeth for US citizens who can-least afford complications.
Good luck with silence in a networked marketplace.
Conclusion
And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Is this new development related to the ME-P titled: In Defense of the eDR Industry?
Link: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2011/11/03/in-defense-of-the-edr-industry/
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Filed under: Breaking News, Ethics, Pruitt's Platform | Tagged: ADA, CR Foundation, D. Kellus Pruitt, Dr. Gordon Christensen, Leadership Shake-up at the CR Foundation, Paul Child |
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The CR Foundation Stumbles
It looks to me like Dr. Gordon Christensen’s CR Foundation has deteriorated from a trusted organization where “Clinical Success is the Final Test,” to an unresponsive, insensitive, huge business that uses the cheapest and most intrusive PR trick since fax machine abuse.
Because I feel safe that only my well-meaning friends even give a hoot about this dentist’s developing criticism of CR, I speak as frankly as if we were standing in front of the Post Office on a Saturday afternoon – sharing observations concerning ethics in advertising.
A recording of Dr. Christensen’s voice which begins with “I’m sorry I missed you,” was left on my office answering machine long after office hours yesterday – inviting me to a CR Foundation continuing education course. On occasion, I’ve answered calls that come up “UNAVAILABLE” like Dr. Christensen’s, only to hear a click after I said hello. It seems it’s happening more often.
Aggressive vendors have apparently discovered that posting their ads on dentists’ answering machines is a cheap and effective way to sneak around gate keepers. I cannot specifically remember providing the CR Foundation PR team my phone number, but I’m certain I didn’t volunteer my answering machine for their after-hours call list.
Although Dr. Christensen, whom I greatly respect, lent his voice to the disingenuous ruse, he is arguably the most trusted dental research clinician in the world. Just between you and me, I think the dental leader has been too busy to pay attention to the boundaries that had been set for his ambitious staff. Looking back on the last three years or so, it seems to me that the ethics of CR Foundation has slipped since co-founder Rella Christensen left the CEO position to become Chairman of the Board of Directors. I can’t help but think if she were still in charge on a day-to-day basis, the head of PR would be far less clever with dentists.
But then, that’s just one dentist’s opinion.
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
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The CR Foundation wants this customer to quit bothering them … yet inviting me to dig deeper
Even the largest dinosaurs in the dental industry will eventually learn that they move too slow to be evasive on the internet. And the awkward moment of their discovery that they no longer rule the media is damn entertaining.
Six weeks ago, you may have witnessed in real time how CR Foundation Co-Founder Dr. Gordon Christensen held accountable then CEO Dr. Paul Child. The CEO had posted careless promises about EDRs while representing Christensen’s company in an article for Dentistry iQ. Dr. Child wrote: “Dentists who have not yet adopted [electronic dental records] should do so now! Daily advances and improved software adapted from other industries allow this technology to be affordable, attain the fastest adoption rate, and offer a high return on investment.” There’s not an honest adjective in the whole pitch.
When Dr. Child was unable to provide evidence of the claim like I publicly requested, he was fired. On the CR Foundation Facebook Wall where several of my comments had been censored just before his firing, it was announced on November 14 that Dr. Christensen will be taking over CEO duties by the end of the year. It’s still there.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/CR-Foundation/160588080492
After the dust settled, my question for the CR Foundation remains unanswered: If there is no return on investment, how much do EDRs raise the cost of dentistry?
With this unfinished business in mind, yesterday I returned to the CR Foundation Facebook and described my concern about insurance hoops and regulations. Why not? When the common sense, reasonable question elicited a fast, condescending get-lost response, I knew instantly that it was the same anonymous moderator I’ve met before – a gatekeeper with a badge who would clearly rather be doing something other than being transparent with a demanding customer in the front of the store. If you recall, she’s the one who refused to let me speak to her supervisor after censoring my questions for CR Foundation. Even Wall-mart employees show more respect for customers than anonymous CR Foundation employees.
So I posted my own not-anonymous condescending response on the CR Foundation Facebook just a few minutes ago. Dr. Christensen may ultimately wriggle away from having to reveal to the nation the true danger EDRs present to dentists and patients, but he’s not going to do so without experiencing a few scrapes along the way.
———–
Dear Anonymous CR Representative:
I appreciate the special time you took to assure me that the CR Foundation is closely monitoring the oppressive hoops and regulations which all dentists agree are progressively overwhelming our dental practices – demanding inestimable time and resources for non-productive duties of questionable value such as maintaining HIPAA compliancy. You may indeed be the only dentalcare stakeholder in the nation taking such initiative to stop the busywork waste in dentalcare. I salute you and wish you the best. And if there were another venue where non-product related issues may be voiced “appropriate to the concern,” like you vaguely suggested to get rid of me, I’d be right in the middle of it. But there’s not. How good is that for the future of dentistry?
Nevertheless, I see your point, and I respect your admonishment that the CR Foundation “is dedicated to the identification of outstanding materials, devices, and techniques that make dentistry more successful for clinicians and better for patients [but not HIPAA].”
That means EDRs are fair game. Right? The FDA has been trying to get them regulated as medical devices for years because of life-threatening errors that are going unreported.
You should know that I’m not the only dentist interested in CR Foundation’s reaction to this customer’s questions. You can bet that the dozen or so watching also need to have trust in your unbiased reporting to pay for your advice. So please give me the best answer you can, even if anonymously: Are EDRs safer or more dangerous than paper dental records?
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
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Comparing CR with the ADA
A comparison of accountability: CR Foundation and the ADA
Perhaps Dr. Gordon Christensen’s CR Foundation and the secretive ADA are just a little too much alike for the good of the nation. The similarly misleading statements below concerning electronic dental records were both posted on the internet within the last 3 months by officials of the two closely-linked dental industry institutions.
“Dentists who have not yet adopted [electronic dental records] should do so now! Daily advances and improved software adapted from other industries allow this technology to be affordable, attain the fastest adoption rate, and offer a high return on investment.” – publicly posted by former CR Foundation CEO Dr. Paul Child on Dentistry iQ, October 2011.
http://www.dentaleconomics.com/index/display/article-display/2974000845/articles/dental-economics/volume-101/issue-10/features/digital-dentistry-is-this-the-future-of-dentistry.html
“There are many reasons for implementing an EHR. Some dentists and physicians want to have quicker access to patient information and others want to be able to communicate more easily with their labs and pharmacies.” – no byline, intended only for ADA members, and posted this month by an unnamed member of the Electronic Health Records Member Advisory Group, ADA Council on Dental Practice.
https://www.ada.org/ada/login/loginv2.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fmembers%2f6212.aspx
On the one hand, you have the for-profit CR Foundation which survives on its credibility in the free market. On the other hand, the not-for-profit American Dental Association survives on non-dues revenue from sales of copyrighted HIT information to trusting members in a captive market. So off the top of your head, which of the EHR stakeholders would you expect to be more accountable to the interests of the EHR principals?
Answer: Dr. Gordon Christensen’s CR Foundation, but not by much.
When the not-anonymous CEO of CR Foundation was caught recklessly overstating the benefits of electronic dental records – potentially harming both naive dentists and trusting patients – he lost his job. On the other hand, anonymous ADA leaders’ reputations are protected by layers of unresponsive bureaucracy that I cannot penetrate without help. Face it. Cohesive, silent ADA officials are no longer accountable to dues-paying members. They’re accountable to the huge, self-perpetuating, unresponsive nameless ADA bureaucracy.
If anyone out there would like to help me encourage renegade ADA officials to accept personal accountability for their secret decisions – delivering transparency to the organization – all I request are the names of the anonymous authors of “Electronic Health Records: Primer,” published by the ADA Council on Dental Practice for members’ eyes only. I want to invite them as well as all EHR stakeholders to an open discussion of electronic health records that can be witnessed by anyone interested. That’s how dangers in healthcare should be approached, you know.
Take that, ADA! (I’m finally getting into the Christmas spirit of giving instead of always receiving).
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
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Open letter to Dental Economics
Dear Dental Economics Editor Panel:
Today, I read “Dental editor panel selects most important articles for 2011” (no byline) that was posted on Dentistry iQ on December 19.
http://www.dentistryiq.com/index/display/article-display/9721317527/articles/dentisryiq/hygiene-department/2011/12/best-of_2011_articles.html
According to the press release, 8 unnamed DE panel members consider CR Foundation CEO Dr. Paul Child’s article, “Digital dentistry: Is this the future of dentistry?” as one of the two “most important” articles for dentists in 2011.
http://www.dentaleconomics.com/index/display/article-display/2974000845/articles/dental-economics/volume-101/issue-10/features/digital-dentistry-is-this-the-future-of-dentistry.html
I agree with whomever you are, but probably for reasons you didn’t have in mind.
When you offered, “See what you think,” I assume it was a sincere invitation to readers like me to share our opinions of the controversial statement on Dentistry iQ which got the CR Foundation CEO fired: “Dentists who have not yet adopted [electronic dental records] should do so now! Daily advances and improved software adapted from other industries allow this technology to be affordable, attain the fastest adoption rate, and offer a high return on investment.”
For the first time ever, over a month before you promoted perhaps the most deceptive articles about EDRs to ever appear on Dental Economics, a high official of one of the largest traditional dental institutions in the nation was held personally accountable for recklessly misleading dentists and dental patients with biased statements that were simply not based on evidence.
On November 14, the same anonymous CR Foundation employee who censored my challenges to Dr. Child’s statement only hours before on the CR Facebook, posted: “Dr. Paul L. Child Jr., the CEO of Clinicians Report for the last 3-1/2 years, will be leaving CR at the end of 2011 to pursue other interests as he continues his contributions to the dental profession. We wish Paul the best in his new endeavors and are pleased that he will continue to serve CR Foundation as a member of the CR Board of Directors.”
That’s right, DE editors. Dr. Paul Child was arguably fired from his job as CEO of CR Foundation for a careless statement in the article that continues to mislead naïve readers with your blessing. So how long will you continue to allow preventable harm to befall dental patients by helping to rush their dentists to purchase EDRs? 96% of dental practices have suffered data breaches in the last two years according to the Ponemon Institute. Come to think of it, I don’t think Dental Economics has ever mentioned Ponemon Institute studies (if one doesn’t count the many times I mentioned them on Pruitt’s Platform a few years ago).
I think you realize it’s inevitable that circumstances will force editors in dinosaur organizations like yours to be transparent with advertisers’ customers. Eventually, some poor slob in your organization will be given the duty to publicly admit for the first time ever that EDRs have always been, and will continue to be increasingly more expensive than paper dental records – even without counting the ever-increasing cost of HIPAA compliance plus mounting risk of bankruptcy-level data breaches. When your advertisers’ customers discover that you were aware of the identity theft dangers even as you promoted Dentistry iQ articles like Dr. Child’s, it’s going to really piss them off.
I hope this reality smack-down stimulates unprecedented communication between practicing dentists in the nation and shy stakeholders such as the ADA’s EHR experts, the next CEO of CR Foundation and perhaps even Dental Economics expert Dr. Paul Feuerstein. That would be wonderful. I bet we could draw an audience, editors. These days, media is cheap. Limiting your market share to only those who can be duped will ultimately cut into ad revenue far deeper than transparency.
If you don’t mind me suggesting, since you are doing a lousy job of hiding your bias, I think DE editors should become more consumer-friendly. If you have ever been trapped between unaccountable vendors and their dissatisfied customers, I think you know what I’m talking about.
I interpret the change at CR Foundation as a tangible sign that unresponsive leaders in the dental industry are finally beginning to accept accountability for a long history of deceiving dentists and patients about EHRs. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you, editors?
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
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The Seven Skills of Influential Leaders
Leadership is expressed in daily, persistent behavior that influences people to execute and accomplish the mission of the organization. The behavior of an individual leader is the most important predictor of a high level of organizational performance.
http://www.hhnmag.com/hhnmag/HHNDaily/HHNDailyDisplay.dhtml?id=660006593
But, in these days, the question on the minds of all health care leaders is: “How do I lead my organization through the constant changes driven by the market and health care reform?”
Freeman
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