CDA Essentials 2017 • Volume 3 • Issue 5

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13 Volume 3 Issue 5 |
CDA at Work
how much they accomplished as
volunteers of the CDA Third-
Party Dental Plans Committee.
The sacrifices they made in
the process were significant:
considerable time spent
away from their families and their
practices, and even lost friendships.
“It’s really difficult to convey just how tense
and emotional those years (of developing
CDAnet) were,” recalls Dr. Dolansky, who
describes his role in CDAnet’s creation as
politician, “arm-twister” and negotiator.
“Unfortunately, I lost friendships over this.
At times, it got to me. I thought, ‘Why am I
doing this, it’s not worth what it’s doing to
me, my family and my practice.’ But I could
never bring myself to quit.”
“The number of hours that Drs. Gutkin
and Gushue (who both had the technical
expertise needed to guide CDAnet’s
development) spent away from family and
out of their practice was unbelievable,” says
Dr. MacFarlane. “But the enthusiasm and
desire to volunteer was true of everybody
that worked on the committee and not
only did we enjoy the fact that we were
accomplishing things, but we had a great
time together.”
To appreciate the barriers facing this group,
it’s useful to remember that the idea of
CDAnet was in its infancy in the mid-
80s—before the Internet, debit cards or cell
phones were mainstream. Dr. MacFarlane led
the discussions with the insurance company
representatives and remembers their initial
skepticism. “Most people at the time didn’t
know what to do with a computer. The idea
of CDAnet seemed so far-fetched that it was
a challenge to convince people that this
was the way we were headed,” he says. The
first time they pitched the idea of electronic
processing of dental claims to the leaders
of the insurance companies,
Dr. Gushue recalls a brief,
incredulous silence and then,
“I remember the president of one
of the big insurers saying,
‘You people are dreamers, you’re
talking about the next century!’”
But the four men shared an enthusiasm
for seeing their vision to completion—a
transmission standard for dental claims
owned by Canadian dentistry, “by dentistry,
for dentistry”—and they were not deterred
by doubters.
The CDAnet pilot project launched with 18
dental offices in 1991. It was simple to use,
significantly sped up the reimbursement
process from several weeks down to a few
days, and virtually eliminated procedure
code errors. Drs. Gushue, Gutkin, MacFarlane
and Dolanksy attended every provincial and
national dental meeting to sell the idea of
CDAnet to dentists. Talk of CDAnet spread
rapidly by word of mouth and drove an
increase in the number of computerized
dental offices, which constituted roughly
30% of all Canadian dental offices in 1991.
Dentists across the country began to sign
up soon after the pilot was completed, and
continue to do so 25 years later.
Today in Canada more than 18,500 dentists,
representing about 86% of licensed dentists,
subscribe to CDAnet (Réseau ACDQ in
Quebec). It’s difficult to calculate the exact
cost savings per claim by using CDAnet
compared to systems used in dentistry in
other countries but conservative estimates
suggest that CDAnet saves each Canadian
dentist thousands of dollars each year.
For the persistence and vision of these four
men, Canadian dentistry says a heartfelt
thank you. a
Most people at the time didn’t know what to do with a computer. The idea of
CDAnet seemed so far-fetched that it was a challenge to convince people that
this was the way we were headed. — Dr. Don MacFarlane
For more information
about CDAnet, including
how to contact a
CDAnet service
representative, visit:
Celebrating 25 years
of CDAnet
Visit Oasis Discussions to watch
Drs. Gushue, Gutkin, MacFarlane
and Dolansky discussing the early
days of developing
CDAnet:
Drs. Toby Gushue
and Don Gutkin:
Dr. DonMacFarlane:
Dr. Bernie Dolansky: