Lauren Feldman, DMD, a clinical assistant professor with the New York University (NYU) College of Dentistry’s Department of Pediatric Dentistry, has received a 5-year, nearly $1 million Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry Clinician Educator Career Development Award from the Health Resources and Services Administration. The award will enable Feldman to develop a formal curriculum that will refine pediatric interprofessional education at the school.
The curriculum will aim to produce dental students committed to serving vulnerable pediatric populations utilizing patient-centered care, and to advance the integration of oral health and primary healthcare through interprofessional education. The National Academy of Medicine has endorsed interprofessional education as a mechanism to improve the overall quality of healthcare and recognized it as an important step in advancing health professional education.
“No single healthcare profession can tackle the health disparities faced by the nation,” said Feldman. “The collaborative work of healthcare providers can help close the health disparities gap.”
Career development for Feldman will include completion of a master’s degree in public health with a concentration in public health policy, culminating in the enhancement of publicly available tools and resources detailing basic oral health concepts for non-dental professionals.
Existing partnerships with the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, the NYU School of Medicine, the NYU Steinhardt Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, and numerous New York City community-based sites will provide an environment for interprofessional collaboration to deliver patient-centered care.
“Integrative health is the future of healthcare, and with this grant we will be able to build on our collaborations across the university and the community to enhance interprofessional education, thereby preparing our graduates to be among the nation’s leaders in collaborative care,” said Amr Moursi, DDS, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry.
Feldman will develop a training plan that will establish didactic and standardized clinical experiences in interprofessional collaboration for each student. It will integrate topics including respectful communication, an understanding of team dynamics in the promotion of population health, cultural competency, improving care for vulnerable populations, and innovative approaches to reducing barriers to access to care and to the integration of oral health and primary care into the predoctoral curriculum. Collaboration with NYU Dentistry’s Office of Faculty Development will enable standardized training for faculty leading interprofessional experiences.
Measured outcomes will include:
- Completion of a didactic curriculum and clinical collaborative experience by each DDS student
- Successful training of faculty
- Successful collection of data from student and faculty self-reflections and assessments
- School-wide entrance and exit surveys measuring attitudes and behavioral intent to provide care for underserved populations
- Electronic surveys of dental graduates on practice location and career.
NYU expects this program to have a far-reaching impact since NYU Dentistry’s students come from all 50 states and often return home to serve their local communities. The curriculum will be open for adaptation by other universities so training plan activities can be replicated by institutions with affiliated healthcare training sites interested in collaboration.
“The ultimate goal is to increase the number of graduates practicing in underserved areas across the nation and to improve patient services and the quality of care they provide,” said Feldman.
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