Hot Off the Press! The new issue of Mdental is now available. Please contact Regina Davis (6-5805) or stop by the Dean's Office for copies. The Department of Health Promotion and Policy Adds a New Division Submitted by Norman Tinanoff, DDS As of Jan. 1, 2005, the Department of Health Promotion and Policy has added a new division to its existing divisions of Dental Hygiene, Health Services Research, and Pediatric Dentistry. The new division, headed by Dr. D. Douglas Barnes, includes the managers, the AEGD Program, and Special Patient Care. The name of the new division will be decided at a retreat in February. In the past year, there have been many changes in the efforts of the Department. The Division of Dental Hygiene will expand its entering class to 30 students. It is placing greater emphasis on service learning, especially in underserved sites in Maryland. Dental Hygiene also is exploring collaborative arrangements with several community colleges, which could greatly expand the class size and influence across the state. Substantial curricular changes, led by Sheryl Syme, will be necessary to teach dental hygiene students at these community colleges via distance learning. Health Services Research continues to be active with grant applications and submissions, as well as aligning its course work to more fully emphasize critical thinking. The first-year course, Introduction to Dental Research, will now have a directed literature search HSL lab session and several independent applied lab sessions. The new third-year course, Applied Scientific Evidence, emphasizes the critical appraisal of the literature and includes four faculty directed group lab sessions. These two courses will help students to better understand evidence-based dentistry, as well as provide them the basis for a greater scientific rationale for treatment planning in the third and fourth years. Pediatric Dentistry continues to foster significant efforts in community sites through its Fellowship Program. These seven Pediatric Dental Fellows work at community health centers throughout the state supplying dental care to underserved children. The Externship Program has been shifting emphasis over the past few years to have greater impact for Maryland’s underserved patients. The Externship also now gives credit to those individuals who are providing care to sites out of the country. It is hoped that next year the program will increase to three weeks.
Dean's Faculty We are pleased to report that the Dean's Faculty Program is a success. Warren Morganstein, reports that the total number of Dean’s Faculty now totals 130 individuals who volunteer their time at the Dental School. An additional 60 volunteers participate in local communities as Dean’s Faculty members, primarily as clinical preceptors in the Extramural Training Program. Although the Dean’s Faculty Program was initiated in January 2004, faculty recruitment did not begin until last April, after 3 months of program development. For a more in-depth look at the Dean's Faculty Program, see our Alumni News section and the Student News page in this issue. | 
