A newly awarded Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant will support the School of Dentistry's postgraduate residency programs in Dental Public Health and Pediatric Dentistry. The grant will support improved access to, and delivery of, oral health care services for children.
The particular focus of the grant will be on vulnerable populations and individuals in rural and/or underserved areas. It will be led by co-principal investigators Eni Obadan-Udoh (Dental Public Health) and Ray Stewart (Pediatric Dentistry).
The grant aims to enhance and expand the postdoctoral training programs between Dental Public Health (DPH) and Pediatric Dentistry (PD) by four key objectives:
- Incorporating PD clinical training into the DPH curriculum and the DPH educational activities into the PD curriculum, to expand pediatric dentistry training beyond clinical care to include public health training and prepare DPH trainees to care for the clinical needs of special populations and underserved communities
- Expanding services into Federally Qualified Health Centers to integrate quality improvement workshops and facilitate medical-dental integration activities
- Experiential learning in rural counties to implement a virtual dental home and partner with rural health departments on dental public health projects
- Providing scholarships to DPH residents to attend the full-time residency program and prepare for a career in public health that serves vulnerable populations
As part of an awarded supplement to the grant, UCSF has launched a hybrid telehealth program led by Dr. Jean Calvo to support the implementation of a hybrid in-person and virtual oral health program for the vulnerable population of children with special healthcare needs such as autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
This article was updated Dec. 23, 2020