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

Abstract

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."