The Institute for Oral and Systemic Health (IOSH) recently received a RO1 supplement, in collaboration with the HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research (HPIER), from the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR).  Dr. Amit Acharya, Director of IOSH and Dental Informatics Scientist at BIRC, will serve as the Site PI and will work closely with Dr. Bill Rush from HPIER to conduct human factors research studies to improve usability of the Dental Decision Simulation™ (DDS) software – which was recently developed as part of the RO1 grant.  IOSH will work closely with the usability analysts at the Interactive Clinical Design Institute (ICDI) to conduct the many research aspects of the grant. “This is a true testimony of the valuable expertise and resources that are available within BIRC and MCRF, that are attracting collaborators from other organizations to jointly work with us,” said Dr. Acharya.

The purpose of DDS is to provide evidence based training in a simulated clinical setting.  DDS presents clinical cases that demonstrate concepts associated with one or more evidence based guideline.  In this application, the dental professional will treat a virtual patient in accordance with these evidence based guidelines.  The dental professional’s clinical care diagnosis and treatment plan will be compared with a care protocol based on the guidelines.  Suggestions will be provided to the dental professional at the end of the exercise.  These suggestions are to assist the dental professional in managing care in accordance with the evidence based guidelines.