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Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences EDITORIAL
Education in the era of digitalization: The role of the dental school in the promotion of digital dentistry The role of the dental educator is an important one because in addi on to teaching students in; he also prepares them to provide dental care to the society into which they will graduate. While the past two decades have seen the revolu ons in the fields of nanotechnology and gene cs making their impact on dental materials and biological research, an equally important revolu on has gone largely unno ced-digital revolu on. While this digital revolu on in den stry is o en spoken about in terms of technological advances such as computer-aided design computer-aided manufacturing or digital three-dimensional scanning; the impact that this digital revolu on has had on prac ce management is a fact that receives li le a en on in the ongoing scien fic dental debate. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been a pioneer in ushering digital connec vity in the Middle East. Vast geographic distances and a scattered dispersion of popula on have made the internet an important tool in connec ng the popula on. The Ministry of Health, the largest healthcare provider in Saudi Arabia has recognized this and developed a national e-health strategy which aims at the digitalization of patient records to enable be er connec vity among health care professionals, improve evalua on of healthcare delivery and overall care given to patients. [1] Pilot programs for complete digitaliza on of pa ent records and communica on between healthcare professionals have already been ini ated in certain ter ary referral centers like the King Faisal Specialist Hospital.[2] Saudi Arabia has approximately 6000 registered den sts [1] who have to provide dental services for a Access this article online Quick Response Code:
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popula on of about 30 million ci zens and residents. Currently, much of this dental workforce is concentrated in certain urban centers making the den st popula on ra o even more skewed. The e-health strategy aims to completely digitalize all Ministry of Health records which should facilitate the spread of specialist knowledge across the length and breadth of the Kingdom. In such an era of digitaliza on, the ques on dental educators need to ask is “are we doing enough to train our students to enter the digital dental workforce?” While the digitaliza on of den stry in the form of digital radiographs has entered most dental schools, challenges still remain. There remains a lack of integration of digital den stry into formal dental educa on curricula. Faculty members who are trained in the conven onal methods of dental educa on need to be flexible to adapt themselves to newer technology. As with most things digital, more experienced faculty find themselves in the face of students who are perhaps more adept at opera ng so ware; and the challenge of preven ng digital chea ng. These challenges, while real, cannot serve as an excuse for dental schools and educators to shy away from promo ng digital educa on. In this context, we are proud to be associated with the digital educa on model Address for correspondence: Prof. Abdullah R. AlShammery Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy, P. O. Box 84891, Riyadh 11681, Saudi Arabia. E-mail:
[email protected] This is an open access ar cle distributed under the terms of the Crea ve Commons A ribu on-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new crea ons are licensed under the iden cal terms. For reprints contact:
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DOI: 10.4103/1658-6816.160755
Cite this ar cle as: AlShammery AR. Educa on in the era of digitaliza on: The role of the dental school in the promo on of digital den stry. Saudi J Oral Sci 2015;2:53-4.
© 2015 Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences | Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow
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AlShammery: Education in the era of digitalization
of the Riyadh Colleges of Den stry and Pharmacy. What began in 2010 as digital pa ent management so ware has now morphed into DentoPlus® a complete pa ent management so ware for dental educa on. Over the past 5 years, the Riyadh Colleges has invested countless man hours in pu ng together so ware that not only looks at pa ent management but also allows the student to monitor his or her own progress. The incorpora on of several tools that allows monitoring of students, as well as their instructors, has resulted in a more objec ve measurement of performance for both instructors and the management. The greatest benefit of this system has been the crea on of students and faculty who embrace technology and are ready to face the future. Keeping in mind, the importance of minor details in educa on, the system allows for detailed recording and char ng and is every bit as thorough as the previous paper documenta on system.
here at Riyadh Colleges has shown us that we must “be the change we wish to see.” Digitaliza on of dental prac ce in the near future is inevitable, and dental educators today have two choices. We can embrace the digitaliza on of den stry and use our experience and wisdom toward developing a thorough and comprehensive digital dental system, or we can play catch-up, chasing whatever system industry throws at us. Dental educa on today must realize that the ques on of the hour in not “if” we should incorporate digital den stry into our curricula and our schools, but rather one of “how soon” and “how.” Abdullah R. AlShammery Riyadh Colleges of Den stry and Pharmacy, P. O. Box 84891, Riyadh 11681, Saudi Arabia
References
The dental school is the training ground for the prac oners of tomorrow. Dental educators, therefore, cannot step away from the responsibility of training den sts for the prac ce of tomorrow. Our experience
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Na onal eHealth Strategy and 5 Year Roadmap: Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 2011. Available from: h p://www.moh.gov.sa/ en/Ministry/nehs/Pages/default.aspx. [Last accessed on 2014 Apr 20]. Alsanea N. The future of health care delivery and the experience of a ter ary care center in Saudi Arabia. Ann Saudi Med 2012;32:117-20.
Jul-Dec 2015
