DisputeSoft was engaged as a software expert in June 2010 by Hudec Dental Associates, Inc. in the matter of Hudec Dental Associates, Inc. v. Multimedia Dental Systems, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Hudec Dental Associates, Inc. (Hudec) alleged that Multimedia Dental Systems, Inc. (MMD) failed to deliver a billing and dental practice management system per stated business requirements and industry standard best practices.

    In fall 2008, Hudec entered into a series of agreements with MMD to deliver and install MMD’s MediaDent software and hardware at 10 Hudec dental offices. The MediaDent software would replace Hudec’s legacy operating system for data storage and retrieval, and the agreements provided that MMD would train Hudec staff on the MediaDent software, convert Hudec’s legacy data from Dentech to MediaDent, and modify MediaDent to include certain capabilities required by Hudec. Upon going live in February 2009, Hudec immediately began experiencing problems with the MediaDent system. In May 2009, Hudec reverted to the use of its legacy Dentech system and filed a breach of contract suit.

    Nature of Dispute

    Hudec alleged that MMD failed to:

    1
    Adequately train Hudec’s staff on use of the MediaDent software, particularly MediaDent’s Data Miner tool for creating comprehensive practice-wide reports.
    2
    Deliver a system without defects or adequately address complaints logged in the support desk, including defects which impacted Hudec’s ability to make appointments; create accurate reports, invoices, and treatment plans; and use the system without slowness, freezing, and system crashes.
    3
    Meet Hudec’s stated business requirements or data storage and retrieval needs, causing Hudec to expend substantial time and funds to revert to use of its legacy system.

    Our Services

    As software experts, DisputeSoft:

    1
    Reviewed project documentation and support desk trouble tickets, conducted fact witness interviews, and evaluated the software implementation project for compliance with applicable industry standards for software release management.
    2
    Constructed a test environment to conduct functional validation testing of the MediaDent software and hardware to independently validate Hudec’s defect claims.
    3
    Examined the MediaDent system architecture to assess is ability to meet Hudec’s scalability needs to support multiple geographically distributed office locations.

    DisputeSoft also investigated security vulnerabilities impacting the privacy and integrity of Hudec’s patient data, including use of a less secure File Transfer Protocol (FTP) for transmitting dental claims data, housing confidential medical information from multiple office locations in one electronic dental claims account, and assigning a single username and password to all customer accounts. Our examination revealed security practices that fell short of industry standard security protocols, exposing Hudec’s patient information to unauthorized disclosure, alteration, and vulnerabilities that rendered it non-compliant with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy requirements.

    DisputeSoft Founder and Managing Partner Jeff Parmet proffered an expert report on behalf of Hudec, in which he concluded that Hudec acted reasonably in terminating the agreement with MMD. The parties entered into a settlement agreement in July 2011, under which each party bared its own costs and attorney’s fees.

    Learn more about our Software Project Failure Services

    DisputeSoft provides software project failure services to law firms engaged in complex software disputes.