Show-me dental — ASDOH’s dental program expanding to Missouri
Posted: June 16, 2011
This announcement by ATSU Board of Trustees Chair Carl Bynum, D.O., M.P.H., caused the standing-room-only crowd on ATSU’s Missouri campus, in attendance for a Feb. 17 news conference by President Jack Magruder, to erupt in spontaneous applause. It was news the Kirksville community had been waiting to hear since a feasibility study began last September.
Because of sustained applause by ATSU faculty, students, staff, and the Kirksville community and press, President Magruder re-read the complete announcement, emphasizing critical steps to be taken as the project moves forward: “We [the board] also advise the president that capital requests must be approved by the board and that the program must achieve accreditation from the Commission on Dental Accreditation and the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association.”
“A dental program on ATSU’s Kirksville campus is perfectly aligned with the mission of the university and the vision of the board to address an unmet patient need in Missouri and to serve rural locations and underserved populations,” said President Magruder, who thanked the residents of Kirksville and of the region for their generous support.
Through the independent group Community Friends for ATSU Dental, numerous local businesses, organizations, and citizens raised more than $1 million to help ATSU start the program in Kirksville. He also thanked ATSU’s faculty and staff, who gave generously in support of the new program.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon sent the following statement that was read at the event: “I am extremely pleased that the A.T. Still University Board of Trustees has decided to bring a branch of its school of dentistry and oral health to Kirksville. When it comes to higher education, Kirksville is truly a center of excellence in Missouri, and this new dental program will add to that existing strength. A.T. Still University has a long history of educating outstanding medical professionals and providing care to individuals in need. We are proud to have this fine institution expanding here in Missouri. I congratulate the A.T. Still University Board of Trustees, President Magruder, and the people of Kirksville for taking this important step forward for our state.”
ATSU also received resolutions of support from Truman State University’s Faculty Senate and from Truman’s Board of Governors. The board resolution stated in part, “The addition of a dental school at A.T. Still University would enhance the opportunities for future Truman State University students, thus strengthening both schools and providing an opportunity for increased collaboration between the two institutions.”
Opportunities for collaboration and inter-professional education exist not only with Truman but also with Moberly Area Community College, the Kirksville R-3 School District, and KCOM and SHM faculty, who will be an integral part of any decisions.
The idea for an ATSU dental program in Kirksville began many months ago at a meeting of the Missouri Primary Care Association in Jefferson City, which included representation by ATSU, where 21 CEOs of Community Health Centers (CHCs) presented cogent information about the need for dentists in Missouri and asked ATSU to consider establishing a dental program in the state.
The Kirksville program will be a branch campus of the innovative and successful model of dental education at ATSU’s Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health in Mesa, Ariz., and will not be a new school per se; the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) uses the terminology “distant site.”
Current plans call for the distant site of ASDOH in Kirksville to begin with a cohort of 40-45 students in the fall of 2013. If all goes well, increasing the number of students is likely. Students will spend their first two years on the Kirksville campus; in the third and fourth years, students will rotate to CHCs throughout Missouri, including one in Kirksville, in order to receive necessary training in a full scope of services.
Led by Wayne Cottam, D.M.D., M.S., ASDOH associate dean for community partnerships; Michael McManis, Ph.D., ATSU vice president for planning & assessment; and ASDOH Dean Jack Dillenberg, D.D.S., M.P.H., negotiations are proceeding with several CHCs in Missouri. The Kirksville CHC is farthest along in terms of an agreement with ATSU, and plans are to have its new building constructed on ATSU’s Kirksville campus.
Next steps include investigating the availability of faculty for the pre-clinical program in Kirksville and the clinical program in regional CHCs, completing agreements with Missouri CHCs, breaking ground on the Northeast Missouri Health Council’s CHC, and engaging an architect to work with all stakeholders on ATSU’s building to be constructed next to the CHC on Kirksville’s campus. Dr. Magruder says he hopes to present to the ATSU Board a clear financial picture for the program and new building at its meeting on Founder’s Day in Kirksville at the end of September.
Associate ASDOH Dean Wayne Cottam believes that “the real opportunity in Missouri is to be involved in something literally transformative in both dental education and CHCs. When we do it, we will be famous.”
Watch a video of the press conference here.
By the Numbers
About one year ago, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ Office of Primary Care and Rural Health published Creating a Healthier Missouri: A Statewide Oral Health Plan 2009, which called for an expansion on the number of dental training slots in Missouri. According to this document:
- Missouri loses approximately 70 dentists annually.
- Only 45-50 new graduates begin practice in the state each year.
- Licensure data indicates a statewide shortfall of about 250 dentists in 2008, with the shortage increasing annually.
- Six counties were completely without a practicing dentist in 2008, and 12 had only one dentist.
- Fewer than 40 percent of Missouri workers have dental insurance.
- Missouri has eliminated adult dental Medicaid coverage, adversely affecting thousands.
- Missouri exceeds the national average in the portion of adults who have had all teeth extracted.
- Missouri ranks 47th in the nation in the number of residents visiting a dentist.
A February 2011 report on dentistry published by the Pew Center on the States places Missouri 49th in the country for the percentage of children ages 1-18 receiving any dental service (only 27.5 percent). It found that more than 31 million people nationwide are “unserved,” and that the strain on the dental health system will only worsen.
The new dental program in Missouri will graduate its first class in 2017, when the statewide shortfall of dentists promises to be at least 410. Its first class will address this shortage and, with cooperating CHCs in Missouri, ATSU will provide a first step in serving the large numbers of unserved, underserved, uninsured, and underinsured residents in the state.
This just in… MFH gives program financial boost
The Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH), the largest nongovernmental funder of community health in Missouri, has awarded an initial one-year grant of $500,000 to ATSU’s Missouri dental program, beginning April 1.
ATSU has requested additional MFH funding of approximately $2.5 million for the program’s 2012 developmental/ start-up phase and 2013 launch/implementation phase. Both are contingent upon successful planning and development of the program