SPRING
Dr. Eli Whitney
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US Looks to UBC Faculty Member for New Postdoctoral Oral Medicine Competencies
Recognizing the need for an updated competency document for oral medicine residency programs, Dr. Nathaniel Treister, then chair of the American Academy of Oral Medicine (AAOM) Program Directors Committee, recruited Dr. Eli Whitney, program director of UBC Dentistry’s Oral Medicine– Oral Pathology residency program, as lead author. The competency document outlines what is expected of residents upon graduation. Treister, assistant professor of oral medicine at Harvard School of Dental Medicine and associate surgeon in the Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is also a co-author on the project. The other authors are Drs. Eric Stoopler, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, Michael Brennan, Carolinas Medical Center, and Scott DeRossi, Georgia Regents University, all recruited for their expertise in oral medicine. Whitney’s team reviewed the “Curriculum Guidelines for Postdoctoral Oral Diagnosis/ Oral Medicine” that were published in the Journal of Dental Education in 1992. That original document was published at the beginning of the move toward competencybased training in North American dental education. It was both descriptive and prescriptive, but did not incorporate measureable outcomes, and its focus in areas strayed from educational outcomes into areas such as operational and facility needs. They also reviewed an internal AAOM competency document from 2009. It was
a lengthy, detailed document that included many lower-level and subjective learning objectives. In addition, it focused on specific conditions and treatment details; however, with scientific advancement, these had become outdated in some content areas. Whitney notes that, among other documents reviewed by the project authors, one of the key reference documents guiding the team was a paper co-authored by UBC Dentistry professor emerita Dr. Marcia Boyd and colleagues, which was published in the European Journal of Dental Education in 2002. After many teleconferences and shared early drafts, and using a consensus approach, the team developed a more contemporary, high-level competency document to describe the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of postdoctoral oral medicine graduates. Once the document had reached an advanced state, it was circulated to stakeholders in the field of oral medicine for feedback. “We decided to submit the final document, titled, ‘Competencies for the New Postdoctoral Oral Medicine Graduate in the United States,’† to the well-respected journal Oral Surgery Oral Medicine Oral Pathology Oral Radiology, because of its widespread readership, not only in the oral medicine community; it would also provide exposure to practitioners in the other dental diagnostic sciences disciplines,” explains Whitney. This journal is the official publication of the American Academy of Oral Medicine and the Canadian Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial
Pathology and Oral Medicine (CAOMPOM). Treister remarks that this competency document will be very helpful to the oral medicine residency programs in the United States. “Publication was the culmination of many years of collaboration between the authors, all of whom are oral medicine experts and thought leaders from across North America,” he says. The document supports the requirements outlined in the United States Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) “Accreditation Standards for Advanced General Dentistry Education Programs in Oral Medicine.” It provides a common set of expectations for US oral medicine programs, while still providing sufficient latitude for developing, delivering, administering and evaluating programs based on particulars of staffing, resources and expertise. While this competency document was composed with an American audience in mind, its content is fully compatible with the content and resident expectations of Canadian oral medicine–oral pathology residency programs. In fact, Whitney points out, “It helps Canadian programs ensure that their graduates are prepared to write the American Board of Oral Medicine examinations.” †Whitney EM, Stoopler E, Brennan MT, DeRossi SS, Treister NS. (2015). Competencies for the new postdoctoral Oral Medicine graduate in the United States. Oral Surgery Oral Medicine Oral Pathology Oral Radiology, 120(3): 324–328. doi.org/10.1016/j. oooo.2015.04.007.
U B C D E N T I S T RY I M P R E S S I O N S
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