Abstract
Evidence-based dentistry (EBD) is an approach to oral healthcare requiring systematic assessment of relevant scientific evidence to clinical practice and patients’ needs. EBD attempts to globally establish personalized dental care based upon the most recent and highest order scientific evidence. However, some times the EBD does not consider local clinical circumstances, which represents a practitioner’s actual patient population and experiences. The purpose of this study is to outline a design for a cloud-based clinical network/database model that is believed to be a valuable addition to the current clinical research models. This paper provides a rationale for the establishment of a network and makes recommendations as to how this format would bridge EBD and clinical practice. To do so would provide a significant advance for dental education, clinical research, and clinical practice.
Highlights
It is not surprising that many dental practitioners face major challenges to be current when one considers the immense body of products, procedures, and research published yearly
What if these activities were part of a searchable online database? What if a practitioner built a body of knowledge of what works or does not work with a particular population or within different contexts? Conceptually, this model would enable member practitioners to contribute data to and/or participate in the analysis or retrieval of data, following the standards defined by the network (Hay et al, 2008)
While barriers exist to establish a cloud-based clinical network and database model, current private and commercial entities suggest that practitioners see value in online communications
Summary
It is not surprising that many dental practitioners face major challenges to be current when one considers the immense body of products, procedures, and research published yearly. This is true for a solo practitioner who often has limited professional interaction with other practitioners. Clinical experience and local evidences, while often established in a less structured fashion, often represents a more accessible and meaningful dataset for use with local patient populations (Hay et al, 2008; Horn et al, 2010; Valdes, 2010). The use of technological advances offers a key emerging tool for improving the quality of clinical care based upon solid scientific knowledge
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