Systematic screening and assessment of oral health workforce innovations

The Systematic Screening and Assessment of Oral Health Workforce Innovations project is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and ICF International to identify innovations that increase access to and availability of preventive oral health services. Researchers identified and screened 99 real-world innovations and selected those that appeared most promising in terms of their plausible effectiveness. Using a set of criteria related to potential impact, generalizability, feasibility of implementation, researchers convened an expert panel to select 25 innovations for evaluability assessments to determine whether the innovations were ready for a rigorous, outcome-based evaluation. Innovations included dental providers who expanded access to oral health services in settings such as WIC clinics, Head Start programs, schools, mobile clinics, and senior centers; non-dental providers, such as physicians, nurses, and nutritionists, who integrated oral health into their workflow and were trained to educate patients, perform dental screenings, and make referrals for dental treatment; and new dental professionals who focused on preventive services and functioned independently or under general supervision of a dentist. While the innovations examined typically had clinical data available, very few are conducting rigorous evaluations to measure outcomes and impact. Provisions of the Affordable Care Act will affect delivery of health services, and a thorough evaluation of these innovations may be used to inform new approaches to access issues under health care reform.