{"id":133536,"date":"2018-01-22T12:07:52","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T17:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=133536"},"modified":"2019-01-28T16:51:18","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T21:51:18","slug":"lawmakers-get-hands-experience-uconns-medical-dental-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/01\/lawmakers-get-hands-experience-uconns-medical-dental-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers Get Hands-On Experience at UConn\u2019s Medical and Dental Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday local legislators took an exciting tour of UConn Health\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n

The legislative tour included stops at UConn School of Medicine and Dental Medicine giving lawmakers a hands-on experience with the latest, innovative tools being used to train the next generation of Connecticut\u2019s doctors and dentists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of smart kids in Connecticut,\u201d said Dr. Bruce T. Liang, dean of UConn School of Medicine. \u201cEighty-five percent of our medical students come from the state. We hope to train them and keep them here. As our hope is that they will stay here and serve Connecticut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second-year medical students, Kelly Nedorostek of Canton and Colin Pavano of Avon, guided legislators through the Virtual Anatomy Lab and a demonstration of the high-tech Anatomage tables.<\/p>\n

Legislators learned first-hand how students gain deep insights about the human anatomy virtually through the state-of-the-art table\u2019s medical images of the human body and additionally through training in radiology techniques like X-Ray, electrocardiogram, MRI and point-of-care ultrasound, a rapidly growing tool in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is amazing,\u201d said State Representative Pam Staneski after demoing the Anatomage table. \u201cThis really is cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Dr. Steven Lepowsky giving a tour to legislators of UConn School of Dental Medicine and its advanced simulation training laboratories for dental students (UConn Health Photo\/Kristin Wallace).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Virtual Anatomy Lab has been a very unique educational experience for us,\u201d shared Pavano, a second-year UConn medical student. \u201cI don\u2019t know any medical school that is using ultrasound like we do. It just gives one more example of how UConn is always one step ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn School of Dental Medicine\u2019s Dr. Steven Lepowsky, senior associate dean for education and patient care, took legislators through a walking tour of the Grasso Simulation Lab where all dental students train on patient simulation models prior to gaining patient care experience.<\/p>\n

Lepowsky proudly shared: \u201cWe are the only public dental school in New England. Plus, we are one of only four dental schools in the U.S. with a biomedical sciences program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legislators also had the opportunity to tour the brand new Advanced Dental Simulation Lab. Using 3D virtual reality simulation, the lab\u2019s technology allows students to practice their dental skills and procedures on actual teeth, with a real-feel and sound experience. Also, the teaching dental faculty are able to record and review each student\u2019s work to track their training progress. \u00a0UConn\u2019s dental school is one of only four schools in the nation to have the innovative training technology.<\/p>\n

State Senator Paul Formica really enjoyed his virtual reality dental drilling experience removing a cavity from a tooth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great,\u201d Formica said. \u201cI\u2019m impressed with the technology at both schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
State Senator Paul Formica enjoying a hands-on visit to the new Advanced Dental Simulation Lab at UConn Health where he learned on virtual reality dental school training technology how to drill a cavity from a tooth (UConn Health Photo\/Kristin Wallace).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition, Lepowsky toured the legislators through the dental clinics established in 1972 and then through the newly renovated dental clinics. The new dental clinics are more patient-focused with brighter, quieter and larger private patient care areas. The dental clinic renovations are the last phase of UConn Health\u2019s construction projects under the state\u2019s Bioscience Connecticut initiative launched in 2012.<\/p>\n

State Representative Kevin Ryan\u2019s favorite part of the UConn Health tour was the medical school\u2019s Virtual Anatomy Lab. \u201cThat was pretty impressive,\u201d said Ryan. \u201cAlso, the dental lab where students are able to do things hands-on.\u201d
\n<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s really nice to get young people excited about science and medicine,\u201d said Dr. John Harrison, the director of the Human and Virtual Anatomy Lab at UConn Health.<\/p>\n

Harrison added: \u201cThanks so much to the legislators for all your support of our educational initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A legislative tour on Jan. 19 gave state lawmakers new knowledge about the latest happenings at UConn Health and a hands-on experience using the latest innovative tools helping train medical and dental students to be the next generation of healthcare providers in Connecticut. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":133540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2166,1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-133536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdm","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 07:17:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/133540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133536"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=133536"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=133536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}