Sevan, you can also create a writable PDF with areas that can be clicked on and filled out (like the comment box here on DLN),and drop down menus like for which type of restoration, preferred occlusion type, material, etc. With that the doctor wont have to type as much, and you can have your logo on the top. Also helps since after they send it to you, you can just print the thing and make it look exactly like your current prescription.
Only drawback would be the initial design cost of it, unless you know a graphic designer. Could be a couple hundred + if they have to design a layout as well. Might be worth the investment though.
For the portals, definitely have an separate email for it all to funnel into. Even with dropbox you can "request" files, which gives the doctor a simple link to click and drop files into instead of opening dropbox. Another alternative is if they download the desktop dropbox, you can grant them access to their own "dr" file, and then it would show up as a folder on their computer that would get synced. With Exocad you can then set it to watch the synced dropbox folder on your PC, and if it's a compatible exported project type, auto import into your database. not sure how 3shape handles this, but I'm certain there could be some way to mimic the behavior. Just be careful with folder permissions and make sure each doctor can only see their folder for compliance reasons. I'm sure Sharefile has a similar function, if you prefer that.
- Josh