Congratulations
to Dr. Oscar Arevalo and Dr. Woosung Sohn for successfully passing their Dental Public Health Boards in April 2007.
Many of our members are also members of their state or local public health association or affiliate. For more information on your local affiliate, click here (new URL for the APHA link to the state Affiliates). My state Affiliate (California Public Health Association – North) offers reduced membership rates for being an APHA member.
(Notes from the meeting on Work Force Demonstration Programs Designed to Improve Access to Oral Health Services; Resolution on the need for standardized formal evaluations.)
At the April 29, 2007 National Oral Health Conference, an invited group met to further discuss this issue, centering around new and proposed non-traditional dental health care workers, including the Alaska Dental Health Aide Therapists, the ADHA Advanced Dental Hygiene Practitioner and the ADA sponsored Community Dental Health Coordinator. Representatives from many organizations were present, including myself, representing the APHA Oral Health Section.
Kathy Atchison, 2007 AAPHD president, chaired the group and reported on a meeting with representatives of the ADA in January 2007, including ADA President Kathy Roth, Mark Feldman, Amid Ismail and Jack Brown.
The purpose of the meeting was to develop an “aspirational” letter for groups to sign on. The purpose of the evaluation is not whether any model works, but how it works and how it can be improved.
The group agreed to develop a two-day workshop on methodology to be held later in 2007, possibly at UCLA. Foundations and organizations (ADA, ADHA, ASTDD, Dental Trade Association, Delta) would be approached to help with funding, but it was suggested that organization representatives may have to pay for their own travel and accommodations for the workshop.
It was announced by Amid Ismail that the first curriculum for the ADA sponsored Community Dental Health Coordinator would begin in September 2007, with the first students enrolling in January 2008. Clinics have already been identified, and baseline data will be collected at the end of 2009. Early process and safety evaluation measures would be collected, with a 3-5-year prospective outcomes assessment.
Comparison groups could include traditional hygienist groups. (Domains, such as stainless steel crowns, were briefly discussed, with a comment that DHATs do better than pediatric dentists!).
A manual will be developed to reduce/eliminate bias; all models could work; data could be combined for meta-analysis.
A further conference call was to be convened after June 15, 2007.
Joel Neimeyer, Rasmuson Foundation, had invited group representatives to an outreach visit to Alaska to observe the Alaska Dental Health Aide Program, May 13-15, 2007. Amos Deinard represented the APHA OH Section. (see his comments about his trip)
Submitted by Howard Pollick, Chair, APHA Oral Health Section, June 19, 2007
ADA Humanitarian Award
The American Dental Association is very excited to announce the inception of the new ADA Humanitarian Award. This prestigious award recognizes dentist members who have distinguished themselves by outstanding, unselfish leadership and contributions to their fellow human beings in the field of dentistry, through the dedication of extraordinary time and professional skills to improve the oral health of underserved populations in the United States or abroad.
For further details click here. If you wish to receive a nomination packet, please call the ADA Center for International Development and Affairs at (312) 440-2726 or e-mail international@ada.org.