Submitted by William F. Bird DDS, MPH, DrPH, Health Sciences Clinical Professor, Interim Chair Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences, John C. Greene Endowed Chair, Primary Care Dentistry
The UCSF School of Dentistry and its community partners, with funding from Proposition 1D, plan to implement a teledentistry program to increase access to dental services for approximately 30,000 rural and American Indian patients with chronic oral disease and provide rural providers, students and patients with dental education and training. The project will target patients with chronic oral diseases in Rural and
Telemedicine furnishes access to care for low-income patients and alleviates the need for our rural population to travel far distances to receive specialty care. Most importantly, it allows patients to receive on-going medical care that is critical to increasing the quality of their lives. This teledentistry project will take advantage of the TLC facilities, particularly the communications technology designed to facilitate interaction with health care providers, students, and support teams at local and distant sites.
The Project
To address the barriers to accessing preventive and specialty dental care in rural areas, the UCSF School of Dentistry in collaboration with Open Door Community Health Centers, Hoopa Valley Indian Tribe K’ima:w Medical Center and United Indian Health Services and 12 other Rural and Urban Community Dental Clinical programs in northern California, propose to develop a teledentistry program linking UCSF’s dental training and specialist consultation programs to the rural northwest. Through the Open Door Telehealth and Visiting Specialist Center the program will offer comprehensive dental care services to residents of Humboldt and Del Norte Counties specifically as well as other northern counties.
A significant utilization of the teledentistry program will be for general dentist practitioner consultations with specialists regarding complex patient care. This could take several forms from simple consultation on specific patient care issues to real-time assistance in performing advanced dental procedures. For example, local dentists at distant sites would make virtual appointments with needed specialists. The dentist and specialist would then share chart documentation, images, photographs, live patient examinations and all pertinent data in order to determine appropriate treatment plans. This would help in determining whether a patient with specific diseases can be managed by their local general dentist or should be referred to an urban/tertiary center for care. An especially robust example might be specialist-guidance of endoscopic procedures during endodontics, periodontics and exploratory surgery (such as for the identification of tooth fractures or root perforations). Intra-oral/endoscopic cameras would provide simultaneous visualization of mucosal abnormalities and immediate consultation with oral medicine/oral pathology specialists.
One of the many innovations available to the UCSF education community through the new Teaching and Learning Center will be classrooms especially designed for Team Based Learning. Team learning or team-based learning (TBL) is an effective instructional strategy that can transform small groups into powerful, cohesive learning teams. It is particularly useful for large classes with limited resources since it allows a single instructor to facilitate active learning by multiple small groups simultaneously in the same classroom.
"TBL shifts the focus of classroom time from conveying course concepts by the instructor to application of course concepts by student teams. In the TBL process, students acquire their initial exposure to the content through readings and are held accountable for their preparation using a Readiness Assurance Process (RAP). Following the RAP, class time is used to practice applying content in a series of team application exercises. The components of TBL are adaptable to many situations, and special resources, ..."1
The new Teaching and Learning Center will be equipped with 4 TBL rooms, each designed to hold 4 teams of 6 students. Each team can construct and apply knowledge through the TBL process and report back to the larger group through projection systems in place for each team. As our health professions schools have moved away from lecture-based teaching and towards small group learning we have been constrained by lack of physical classrooms and instructors to facilitate these sessions. The new TBL classrooms in our Teaching and Learning Center will offer the opportunities for up to 16 small groups of students to be led by only four facilitators. In addition to the TBL rooms, there will be seven additional small group classrooms that can be configured for team-based learning and accomodate one instructor per two groups of learners.
Learn more about Team-based learning at http://teambasedlearning.apsc.ubc.ca/
Find health science learning modules designed for Team-based learning at http://tinyurl.com/kwdy8l on MedEdPortal.
1. 2007. Michaelsen, LK; Parmelee, DX; McMahon, KK. Team-based learning for health professions education: a guide to using small groups for improving learning. Stylus Publishing.
Construction began on December 1 in the Library. The East Asian Room on the Parnassus Library's 5th floor is being converted into temporary computer lab facilities, which will open in January. On the 3rd floor, new offices are being constructed in the former GALEN room and the copy room.
Noisy construction will occur after Library hours to minimize disruption. This construction is expected to last two months.
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