Since receiving a five-year grant, totaling almost $1.5 million, the UW School of Dentistry is working to triple the placements of fourth-year dental students in Washington state rural and urban community clinics.
Earlier this fall the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation granted a Pipeline Profession & Practice: Community-Based Dental Education initiative to 10 dental schools nationwide to increase access to oral health care for low-income and other underserved populations, as well as to help recruit applicants with diverse backgrounds into dentistry. The chosen institutions will work together to develop strategies to increase recruitment and retention of under-represented and economically disadvantaged students.
The grant calls for utilizing the experience and contacts of the School of Medicine’s WWAMI program and the regional AHEC (Area Health Education Center) to assist the School of Dentistry in the development of the support systems necessary for additional clinical interactions. Thomas Morton, Jr., professor in the departments of Oral Biology and Oral Medicine, is principal investigator for the grant.
The first year of the grant focuses on curriculum planning. Initial plans call for expanding student placements in clinics in Seattle, Bellingham and the Yakima Valley, while identifying new clinical sites, such as in the Spokane area.
October 25, 2002