Dental Research Website Gets 'X' Factor

Main Category: Dentistry
Also Included In: IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 21 Sep 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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The newly redeveloped Shirley Glasstone Hughes Trust Fund website puts research commissioning into the hands of the primary dental care team. Members of the site are now able to vote online for the questions they need answers to, to help their practice.

The new voting system is designed so that dental teams can choose a "question of the month". Each month, the question with the most votes will form the subject of a critical appraisal of relevant literature and a short summary of conclusions drawn from existing published evidence will be posted on the website. If there is poor or little existing evidence the question will be a priority for research funding from the Shirley Glasstone Hughes Trust Fund.

This mechanism allows members to ensure that the research funded by the Trust is focused on issues which are salient to practice. Ultimately it enables practice to be based on research evidence, which the website will present in an easy-to-access way.

Professor Liz Kay, Chair of the Trustees, said:

"It's important that dental practice is based on evidence. This exciting new feature of the Shirley Glasstone Hughes Trust Fund site enables dentists and DCPs at the frontline of patient care to direct research activity by voting for the questions they'd like to see answered. We look forward to seeing what really interests those in practice and doing our best to answer their questions, by either revealing what is already known or funding research which addresses practitioners' real issues."

The Primary Care Dentistry Research Forum will provide guidance for funding applications later this year when the first call for research tenders is anticipated.

Source
British Dental Association