The dental software company from Reken celebrates its silver anniversary

In Schwerte on 25 July 1988, a warm day in the height of summer, two computer scientists and four sales professionals ventured into self-employment. The young company set itself the goal of creating powerful, easy to use, and affordable accounting software for dentists. DIOS GmbH began the entirely new development of a DOS-based dental management program at a time when 'huge' 5¼-inch floppy disks were still used for storage and hard disks with a capacity of 20 megabytes cost more than DM 500.

Despite its spartan appearance, the then DOS home screen revealed much of the huge functionality of the software, which had a total of 15 modules. From the fast activity recording across prosthetics and settlement for SHI or private patients through to patient management, statistical analysis, as well as accounting, this first DIOS version already implemented all the basic elements of routine dental work on a PC basis. Shortly after, a scheduling tool and an orthodontic module were available.

Launched at a time of general optimism for computing, DIOS GmbH had the perfect genes for steady and healthy growth. Incidentally, the company's name was derived pragmatically from its official title: 'Daten-Informations- und Organisationssysteme' (data information and organisation systems).

Following the fledgling company's relocation to Dortmund, DIOS DOS was presented to highly interested industry professionals at the Dental Informa trade fair in Hanover. Many practices quickly adopted the DIOS system; however, only one-in-ten dental surgeries had a PC in 1989. Moreover, at the time most members of the profession were still very wary of the spread of the beige boxes through their working environment. In one of the first advertisements for the DIOS system, the advantages of working with a PC were compellingly presented in a vivid and timeless manner.

That the crusade of the PC still continued unabated was primarily thanks to this fact: in combination with a dot matrix printer, 'Mr Computer' took care of the labelling and 'depiction' of the disliked dental notes without a murmur, at lightning speed, and with no errors. A never-ending task that when done manually had tainted many a beautiful weekend in the past for the entire team.

This field of tension arising from a latent need for equipment in the practices, new deployments and training on a daily basis, as well as the first network and multi-user deployments was compounded by Germany's reunification in 1990. Due to the reunification, the entire industry was now presented with the unexpected challenge of bringing dental practices in east Germany up to date with the latest advances in EDP technology at the same time. Trade fair appearances, numerous demo events, as well as extended training and installation tours, sometimes lasting as much as several weeks, in the newly formed German states defined everyday life for the entire crew of DIOS.

Brigitte Lehrke, Inga Drewello, Monika Brutscher and Werner Oskamp led DIOS GmbH in a four-way partnership for many years after Germany's reunification. DIOS moved again in July 1994 after the gold-rush mood started to subside and the initial consolidation in east Germany. The relocation from the Ruhr metropolis to the small town of Reken in the middle of the green Münsterland underlined the company's down-to-earth but at the same time cosmopolitan attitude.

"We put every penny in the chocolate..." Werner Oskamp must have acquired a liking for this slogan, for the marketing strategy for DIOS products was given the look it has today when he took over management of the software company in 1995 as managing partner. No pompous claims in glossy brochures, but rock-solid, high-performing products at a fair price. DIOS thus became the software company for dentists without symptoms of status.

DIOS started to develop a 'real' Windows version for practice management in 1997. This made perfect use of the new opportunities presented by the graphical user interface and also offered the tried and tested line and text input for power users. The new program was initially called DIOS 98 and later given the striking name DIOS ZX. Referred to as DIOS ZA, the classic DOS version is still implemented by DOS users even today.

The introduction of the Medical Devices Act (Medizinproduktegesetz - MPG), as well as steadily growing practice hygiene and instrument reprocessing standards, resulted in the start of the development of the medical device management system, DIOS MP, in 2003. And after the obligation to implement a QM system was imposed on dental practices, development of the document manager DIOS DM and the QM template manual DIOS HZ, which is based on the G-BA guidelines and follows DIN ISO 9001:2000, started in 2008. All three products form a QM system now deployed in hundreds of medical practices and quite a few hospitals. The various versions of DIOS MP alone are now implemented in more than 2,300 practices. Moreover, after a rigorous selection procedure it entered all the correctional facilities of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2007. On top of that, the software has found many friends and users in neighbouring European countries like the Netherlands, Austria, and France.

The DIOS HygieneMobil has been on the road in Germany and neighbouring countries since 2010 to showcase the efficiency of DIOS software in live interaction with the various reprocessing devices at trade fairs and info sessions.

More than 3,300 practices now work with DIOS software. Continuous expansion resulted in the software company outgrowing its premises again in 2011 and moving into a stylish multi-story office building, constructed especially for DIOS, only a few kilometres away in Reken.