Cybersecurity threats and preparedness: Implications for dental schools.

BACKGROUND: Cybersecurity threats are a growing concern in healthcare, where digital systems now underpin patient care, financial management, and educational operations. A cybersecurity breach in a Dental school environment can have widespread consequences to the mission of the school-patient care, research, education and service. For dental school administrators, these risks highlight the necessity of robust cybersecurity measures. For student learners, the impact may include interruptions to their education. For patients, it could mean compromised personal data and reduced access to clinical care. RESULTS & CONCLUSION: While many sectors have responded to increasing cyber threats by enhancing their defenses, healthcare and dental schools, often lag in implementing necessary protections. This emphasizes the need for proactive measures, such as regular system audits, advanced encryption methods, and ongoing cybersecurity training for administrators and students alike, to mitigate future risks and safeguard institutional integrity.

Variation in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at US dental school clinics.

PURPOSE: Although the threat of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was the same at different US dental schools, the response wasn't. There is no study that documents the variation in mitigation strategies, COVID-19 transmission, and clinical educational changes at US Dental schools during the ongoing pandemic that began in 2020 in the US. METHODS: The current study was approved as exempt research (project number HUM00199261). Our survey of Associate Dean's of Clinical Operations was individually emailed in July 2021. There were no reminders and descriptive statistics were calculated using Microsoft Excel. RESULTS: We received 46 completed surveys from the 68 sent out. Note that 65.2% of respondents reported requiring N95 masks for aerosol-generating procedures. Note that 38.9% of respondents said they required student partnering as chairside dental assistants for aerosol-generating procedures. Note that 37.7% of respondents began using alternate cubicles. A total of 6.52% of schools reported a transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus from patient to provider. There were no reported transmissions from provider to patient or from patient to patient. CONCLUSION: In our study, we found a lot of similarities between the approach taken by Dental School Clinics across the US to mitigate the risks of COVID-19, however, we also observed many differences.

Current Status of Operation and Management of Dental School Clinics.

This article summarizes the current status of the operation and management of dental school clinics as schools strive to provide excellent patient-centered care in an environment that is educationally sound, efficient, and financially strong. Clinical education is a large component of dental education and an area in which many dental schools have an opportunity to enhance revenue. Clinical efficiencies and alternative models of clinical education are evolving in U.S. dental schools, and this article describes some of those evolutionary changes. This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

The Future of Dental Schools in Research Universities and Academic Health Centers.

As a profession, dentistry is at a point of discernible challenge as well as incredible opportunity in a landscape of evolving changes to health care, higher education, and evidence-based decision making. Respecting the past yet driving forward, a well-mapped future course is critical. Orchestrating this course in a collaborative manner is essential for the visibility, well-being, and potentially the existence of the dental profession. The research performed in dental institutions needs to be contemporary, aligned with biomedical science in general, and united with other disciplines. Dentistry is at risk of attrition in the quality of its research and discovery mission if participation with bioscience colleagues in the collaborative generation of new knowledge is underoptimized. A fundamental opportunity dentistry has is to contribute via its position in academic health centers. Rigorous research as to the impact of interprofessional education and collaborative care on population health outcomes provides significant potential for the dental profession to participate and/or lead such evidence-centered efforts. It is imperative that academic dental institutions are part of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary organizations that move health care into its new day. Strategizing diversity by bringing together people who have different ways of seeing problems to share perspectives, heuristics, interpretations, technologies, and predictive models across disciplines will lead to impactful progress. Academic dental institutions are a natural part of an emphasis on translational research and acceleration of implementing new scientific discoveries. Dentistry needs to remain an essential and integrated component of higher education in the health professions; doing so necessitates deliberate, respectful, and committed change. This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

Trends in Financing Dental Education, 2004-05 to 2011-12.

This article examines dental school financial trends from 2004-05 to 2011-12, based on data from the American Dental Association (ADA) annual financial survey completed by all U.S. dental schools. For public schools, revenues from tuition and fees increased 68.6%, and state support declined 17.2% over the examined period. For private schools, revenues from tuition and fees increased 38.9%, and university indirect subsidies declined 77.9% over the same period. The major factors affecting dental school expenditures were the number of students and postdoctoral students, faculty practice, and research. The findings suggest that dental schools are now more dependent financially on tuition and fees than in the past. Schools have been able to pass on increases in operating costs to students and specialty postdoctoral students. Now that growth in dentists' incomes is slowing and student debt is at an all-time high, this financing strategy may not be sustainable in the long run. This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

Modern Management Principles Come to the Dental School.

The University of Washington School of Dentistry may be the first dental school in the nation to apply lean process management principles as a primary tool to re-engineer its operations and curriculum to produce the dentist of the future. The efficiencies realized through re-engineering will better enable the school to remain competitive and viable as a national leader of dental education. Several task forces conducted rigorous value stream analyses in a highly collaborative environment led by the dean of the school. The four areas undergoing evaluation and re-engineering were organizational infrastructure, organizational processes, curriculum, and clinic operations. The new educational model was derived by thoroughly analyzing the current state of dental education in order to design and achieve the closest possible ideal state. As well, the school's goal was to create a lean, sustainable operational model. This model aims to ensure continued excellence in restorative dental instruction and to serve as a blueprint for other public dental schools seeking financial stability in this era of shrinking state support and rising costs.

Access to care: leveraging dental education.

If it is not a naïve expectation for dentists who have been beneficiaries of public generosity to share their good fortune with the public that made it possible, there may be a rational basis for enhancing the role of dental education in improving access to oral health care by promoting-but not requiring-a voluntary service commitment after graduation commensurate with the magnitude of the subsidy received. Such an approach would be in accordance with the Institute of Medicine's report Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Vulnerable and Underserved Populations, but without the governmental coercion explicit in the report. A sustainable alternative proposal is made here, offering both greater options to students in the financing of their dental education and greater obligations for those students who accept state subsidies: providing tuition discounts for students of state-supported dental schools based not on past residency status but rather on a future commitment to public service. This arrangement could be good public policy that might also help to create a culture in which dental students are given authentic options as part of a profession-wide ideology of public service. The result could well contribute to improved oral health care for the underserved.

Perceptions and practices of U.S. dental schools regarding curriculum integrated format and traditional format licensure exams.

The dental licensure exam in the United States has evolved over the past ten years, and two formats-the traditional format and curriculum integrated format-are now available for students to satisfy licensure requirements. The objective of this study was to examine the differences and relative merits of the two formats. A twenty-five-question survey was distributed to the fifty-seven U.S. dental schools at the time. The survey included both quantitative and discrete variables and followed a strategic sequential order. The first set of questions sought to determine what type of board preparatory/mock exam each dental school offered, and the next set of questions asked which licensure exam each school formally offered. The final questions were qualitative in nature and aimed to determine the school representatives' opinions about the curriculum integrated format versus traditional format. Of the fifty-seven schools contacted, thirty-seven agreed to participate (response rate=64.9 percent). Fourteen schools reported that they administer the traditional format only and twelve administer the curriculum integrated format only, while eleven offer both. Thirty-two schools offered mock board exams to their graduating students, and twenty-four of those said their mock exams were identical in format to the actual qualifying clinical exams offered at their institution. The respondents reported no significant advantage to preparing for the curriculum integrated format examination as compared to the traditional format examination with regards to number of clock hours taken from regular curriculum time. In reporting on this study, this article provides an overview of the relative advantages and disadvantages of the two examination formats used for the dental licensure process in the United States.