Press Release

WVU School of Dentistry – Spring 2003

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pipeline Grant

The West Virginia University School of Dentistry is one of only ten U.S. dental schools selected to receive The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pipeline Profession & Practice: Community-Based Dental Education grant. Through this five-year, $1,350,000 initiative the School of Dentistry will strengthen its linkage with West Virginia communities in need of dental care and enhance underrepresented minority and low-income dental student enrollment numbers.

The Pipeline Project has three-pronged objective: expansion of community-based dental education program, recruitment and retention of under-represented minority and low-income students, and enhancement of cultural sensitivity among students and faculty. The dental school will use the West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships (WVRHEP) as a key platform to expand its community-based programs and seek additional partnerships as it lengthens the existing community-based rotations for senior dental students. This expansion will significantly increase the school’s contribution to the care of underserved populations in West Virginia.

Strategies will be employed to better prepare students for the cultural diversity they will encounter in their community rotations and dental practices. To assure that cultural training is integrated throughout the dental curriculum, the Dental Pipeline project utilizes curriculum consultants with expertise in multicultural issues.

The recruitment plan emphasizes strategies of early identification and nurturing to encourage students, who otherwise would not attend dental school, to consider dentistry as a career. Dental student recruitment and retention strategies will provide a continuum of support beginning in grade school and continuing through dental school. Geographic areas targeted include Appalachian towns with poor economic indicators. The recruitment and retention component of the Dental Pipeline program will rely heavily on the existing infrastructure available through the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) and the Central Appalachian Health Careers Opportunity Network (CAHCON).

We will utilize the WVRHEP infrastructure to implement a HSTA-WVRHEP mentoring program through which dental students on rotation in the rural underserved community will be assigned as mentors to HSTA students as part of their community service activity.

The mission of the Pipeline project is to contribute to the future generation of dentists who will assist West Virginia and the nation in reducing oral health disparities due to economic, race, ethnicity, or geographic barriers. With the expanded community program, the volume of oral health care provided by dental students is expected to increase significantly. Through focused recruitment strategies the School hopes to increase representation of under-represented and low-income students in the dental program. Over the long-term, the Dental Pipeline project is expected to positively impact the availability of dental professionals in underserved areas by better preparing students to serve culturally diverse and rural populations.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse-tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.

The Pipeline Profession & Practice: Community-Based Dental Education program national program office is based at Columbia University’s School of Dental and Oral Surgery under the direction of Allan Formicola, D.D.S., M.S., at Columbia University and Howard Bailit, D.M.D., Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut Health Center and Harford Hospital.

Other dental schools receiving Dental Pipeline grants up to $1.5 million each are Boston University School of Dental Medicine, Howard University College of Dentistry, Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry, The Ohio State University College of Dentistry, University of California, San Francisco, School of Dentistry, University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry, and University of Washington School of Dentistry. “These dental schools will work to reduce gaps in care through community-based education programs that expand patient care to underserved patients,” said Judith Stavisky, senior program officer at RWJF.

WVU School of Dentistry participation in the Pipeline Profession & Practice project is under the direction of Sheila S. Price, DDS, EdD. For more information about the program, visit dentalpipeline.columbia.edu or contact Sheila Price by email at dentaladmit@hsc.wvu.edu.

This article first appeared on page 5 of the West Virginia University School of Dentistry Alumni Bulletin, Spring 2003. The Dental Pipeline program has received permission from WVU to reprint it on this Web site.