About the OHIO Project
The College of Dentistry was the recipient of a 5 year, $1.5 million
grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to become A "Pipeline
Profession and Practice" program. The end result is a program titled,
The OHIO Project “Oral Health
Improvement Through Outreach” (OHIO) and is under the co-directorship
of Drs. Canise Bean and Hilary Soller.
The OHIO Project has two broad goals: first, to change dental
education so that by the end of a student's 4th year in dental school
he or she will have spent at least 50 days of their clinical education
in community-based sites providing services to an underserved
population. Secondly, to increase the number of underrepresented students
within the dental profession. Although the primary emphasis is
on the general dentistry graduate, we involve residents and
dental hygiene education also.
The College’s community-based education initially involved
four primary community-based sites; Nisonger Center, the Columbus
Health Department, the Cincinnati Health Department, and Children’s
Hospital. Over time the program has grown to over 20 sites across
the state of Ohio to include Toledo, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.
The OHIO Project has required the College to look at changes in the
clinical and didactic curriculum to meet its objectives. The grant
had an initial year of planning during which curricular changes, arrangements
with external sites, and relationships with community partners were
established. This has been a college-wide effort, with participation
by the Curriculum Committee, Admissions Committee, Outcomes Committee,
Sections, and the Division of Dental Hygiene.
Students work in community-based sites
such as clinics, hospitals, and private practices, all under the supervision
of dentists who will be adjunct clinical faculty of the College. The
program provides for an exchange of community-based and College faculty,
periodic updates, calibrating, and sharing of information.
The RWJ grant program represented a great opportunity for the College
of Dentistry
to advance dental education. The fifteen funded schools have
developed programs that serve as a models for dental education
in the areas of recruitment and access to care. Ohio provides the
ideal setting for this program with its significant
dental access problem and professional and government commitment to
solving the problem. We now know that by placing our students in
the community, we can give them a sense of the oral health needs of
Ohioans, build stronger relationships with our practice colleagues,
enhance the future dental workforce, and provide a model for dental
education.
