By Edward F. Rossomando, DDS, PhD, MS, and Mathew Moura, BA
In the fall of 2007, Dr. Edward Rossomando met with Industry Advisory Council members William Dragan, President, Centrix, Inc.; Gary Johnson, Vice President of Operations, Scott Anderson, President, and John Bettencourt, Vice President of Marketing, Patterson Dental Company; and Mildred Goldstein, President, Harry J. Bosworth Company, to clarify details for completion of the project proposal for the Center for Research in Education and Technology Evaluation’s (CRETE) newly proposed Innovation Center to be built at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine.
Once operational, the combined expertise of a diverse faculty will provide CRETE with a unique venue to tackle a variety of problems related to the improvement of oral health care. The CRETE Innovation Center will be an academic, practice-oriented education and research facility where representatives from academia, industry, and government can gather, discuss, and make recommendations for improving dental education, research, and practice to improve the oral health of people worldwide.
At present, there is no university-based interdisciplinary facility that fuses activities in dental education and technology evaluation into a seamless unit for improving dental practice to enhance the delivery of high-quality oral health care. The successful completion of the CRETE Innovation Center will represent the establishment of a “first of its kind” facility in the United States. As a university-based facility, the CRETE Innovation Center will simultaneously validate and integrate research performed in a clinical setting, thus allowing industry, clinicians, and students to benefit. Creating an academic, practice-oriented education and research facility such as the Center is essential to integrating dental research into practice.
The Innovation Center will be configured as a private practice dental office with treatment rooms, dental laboratory, sterilization area, reception area, records area, staff areas, and consultation areas. These functional areas will contain new and innovative dental equipment and products — recently introduced and not yet introduced — into the dental school’s clinics. The Innovation Center will introduce students and faculty to the latest and most innovative dental services, technologies, equipment, and products. The CRETE Innovation Center will be the first university-based interdisciplinary facility that combines traditional clinical education with technological education and evaluation.
For information on how your company can participate in the CRETE Innovation Center, contact Dr. Edward Rossomando by e-mail at [email protected] and visit www.biodontics.org/innovation.htm.
Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry hosts talk on Biodontics
Following the invitation of Dr. Edwin Hines and the Meharry Biodontics Fellows, Dr. Rossomando recently visited Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry to speak to Meharry’s dental students about the Biodontics Educational Program (BEP). In 2006, three dental students from Meharry — Joseph Braud Jr., Gia Kenner, and Jade Ritter — completed the BEP and formed a chapter of the American Biodontics Society at Meharry.
The Biodontics educational program at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine was designed to introduce new products and equipment to dental students. In brief, the program consists of interactive presentations by scientists, business leaders, entrepreneurs, management executives, architects, and dental manufacturers. The topics covered range from entrepreneurship to the design, management, and function of a Biodontics practice. In addition, the latest equipment including CAD/CAM, lasers, digital X-rays, pre-cancer scanners, and patient management software are all demonstrated. The UCONN Biodontics program is in its fourth year. In addition to UCONN, dental students from New York University, Meharry, Howard, Marquette, and the University of Southern California have attended, and almost 60 dental students have completed the program.
The BEP curriculum seeks to promote early adoption by providing experience in selecting and evaluating new technologies. It is hoped that by having exposure to new technologies within an educational setting and utilizing dental students’ backgrounds in science, students become better able to evaluate new products coming to market and incorporate them into their practices.
Dr. Rossomando is the professor and director of the Center for Research and Education in Technology Evaluation (CRETE) and the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine in Farmington, Conn. Reach him by e-mail at [email protected].
