Baylor College of Dentistry
by Jennifer Eure Fuentes
Meeting the demand for
patient-centered care
The advent of new health care delivery models calls for professionals to focus on the total health needs of underserved patients, and
Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry has responded
with plans for community training expansion and a revamped postdoctoral degree program. The U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services has pledged its support to this cause with $5.4
million in funding.
Through collaboration among TAMBCD, Texas A&M Health Science
Center, Dallas-area health care institutions and community partners,
TAMBCD will amp up its interprofessional training to help integrate
dentistry into the broader health care delivery system.
The funding is composed of two awards, each lasting five years: $3.7
million for TAMBCD’s postdoctoral training and $1.7 million for the
predoctoral component. Of the 38 awards given nationwide, the dental school is one of only five institutions to receive predoctoral and
postdoctoral funding.
For dental students, community-based clinical training already is
serving a vulnerable population with vital oral health care.
“We know that the need is huge,” says Judy Rorrie, executive director of North Dallas Shared Ministries, one nonprofit that cares for
patients with the help of TAMBCD students. The facility will be
impacted in a big way by the HRSA funding.
The $1.7 million, an extension of a previous HRSA grant, will
increase interprofessional experiences at the community-training
site. Through collaboration with UT Southwestern Medical School,
dental students will work closely with nutritionists, family medicine
residents, medical students, physician assistant students and social
workers. Whereas in the past dental students may have taken a
patient’s blood pressure and heart rate during appointments, they’ll
now measure body mass index and assist with diabetes and cholesterol screenings.
“Students won’t, strictly speaking, just be doing dentistry when they
are out there,” says Dr. Daniel Jones, chair of public health sciences
and principal investigator for the predoctoral grant. “The ultimate
goal at North Dallas Shared Ministries encompasses the patient-cen-
tered medical home: One-stop shopping, where you can see the dentist, the social worker and case managers to connect people with the
right resources.”
For postdoctoral students, a newly revamped graduate program is
an option for advanced study in dental public health. TAMBCD
has offered such a graduate program for 14 years but, until now,
both a master’s in public health and a dental degree have been prerequisites.
As part of collaboration with the Texas A&M Health Science Center
School of Public Health, TAMBCD will now offer a master’s degree
in public health as part of the newly redesigned residency program
in dental public health. The new program has one important distinction: an interprofessional emphasis, which negates the need for an
existing public health degree to enroll. The new program also will be
made available to a select number of pediatric dentistry residents
who want to combine the M.P.H. degree with their residencies.
Existing pediatric dentistry residents who opt not to pursue a master’s in public health will benefit from the changes, too. The grant
will gradually expand their clinical rotations to all of the college’s
community-based training centers, beginning with North Dallas
Shared Ministries.
Dr. Andreea Voinea-Griffin, co-principal investigator and research
assistant professor in public health sciences, says the changes will
affect didactic as well as clinical components of the curriculum,
with an emphasis on emerging health care technologies such
as teledentistry.
“We are training practitioners for the future, bridging the gap
between medicine and dentistry, instead of the way dentistry is done
today,” Griffin says.
Founded in 1905, Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas is a
college of the Texas A&M Health Science Center. TAMBCD is a nationally recognized center for oral health sciences education, research, specialized patient care
and continuing dental education.
Jennifer Eure Fuentes is a communications specialist at Texas A&M Health Science
Center Baylor College of Dentistry. A 2006 graduate of Texas Christian University,
she has worked in the communications and editorial field for five years.
www.northtexasdentistry.com
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