eDossea aims to take aches and pains out of sharing dental records

Surveying the employment landscape last year in search of his next opportunity, Shawn Harrington found something he could really sink his teeth into with eDossea, a secure, online file-sharing network for the dental industry. “Looking at the (dental) industry, how there was a need for better communication, it just made sense,” Harrington said in a…

eDossea strives to provide a hub for secure file-sharing between dentists and specialists. Screenshot from edossea.com.

Surveying the employment landscape last year in search of his next opportunity, Shawn Harrington found something he could really sink his teeth into with eDossea, a secure, online file-sharing network for the dental industry.

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“Looking at the (dental) industry, how there was a need for better communication, it just made sense,” Harrington said in a phone interview last month. “I believed in it — what the company was trying to do, what eDossea’s goals were — and I just wanted to get involved.”

So Harrington became Employee No. 1 for eDossea. eDossea, a web-based portal, allows dentists to upload electronic health records to share them with referred specialists (such as oral surgeons and endodontists), giving both the dentist and specialist secure, direct access to patient records.

The technology behind eDossea was created by Harrington’s silent partner in the business. Harrington, who has a background in sales, handles day-to-day operations for the startup.

Harrington believes recent changes to HIPAA laws could cause a major uptick in the pace of those operations. He says eDossea is positioned to capitalize on more stringent standards that were recently passed sharing records online.

“Changes at the federal level are really changing the space,” Harrington (left, photo from twitter.comsaid. “And it’s really going to create a problem for (practitioners). They really need to find that solution. So we’re just trying to show that, hey, we’re ready. We have a product ready to go.” 

eDossea launched in limited private beta last December and wrapped up the beta phase this summer. In August, after undergoing some final tweaks and the addition of a payment system, eDossea was made available to the public.

Harrington said eDossea, which charges an $80 monthly subscription fee, has a couple dozen clients. The startup received a $75,000 demo fund from the Iowa Department of Economic Development but has not actively sought outside funding besides that.

It’s clear in talking to Harrington that recent regulatory changes enhance his initial excitement over eDossea, which is bringing to reality an idea he feels was long overdue.

“Just hearing the stories of doctors exchanging disks to transfer X-rays — sticking them in the mail, taking 3-5 days to get these records in between clinics — this was one of the most efficient ways that they felt they (could do) it,” he said. “And just looking at the wave of cloud computing and web technologies, what they can do now, it’s tying this all in.”

*Update Nov. 14, 2:30 p.m. – eDossea received a $75,000 demo fund from the Iowa Department of Economic Development. This article originally stated the demo fund was $50,000.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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