{"id":45986,"date":"2011-09-06T08:25:55","date_gmt":"2011-09-06T12:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=45986"},"modified":"2011-09-14T15:36:39","modified_gmt":"2011-09-14T19:36:39","slug":"deans-corner-dental-school-unveils-new-conncept-in-clinical-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/09\/deans-corner-dental-school-unveils-new-conncept-in-clinical-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Dental School Unveils New CONNcept in Clinical Education"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. R. Lamont MacNeil, dean, UConn School of Dental Medicine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019ve just launched a new dental practice in West Hartford that we believe could revolutionize clinical dental education.<\/p>\n

The freshly remodeled dental operatory suite at UConn Health Partners, 65 Kane St., is home to the Connecticut Comprehensive Education and Practice Team, or CONNcept. It\u2019s a clinical education and care model in which our dental students, residents, and faculty run a contemporary group practice with the feel and pace of a private practice.<\/p>\n

This is an idea that has been in the works for almost four years: a satellite facility of our clinical operations\u2014not a faculty practice, not a community clinic, but a service to the general community by way of extension of our clinics here.<\/p>\n

Students, residents and faculty are taking a team approach to treating patients. Here we are using a practice mode that merges all three groups into a training phenomenon. This is a change from the traditional model, in which the students, residents and faculty operate as separate, distinct groups.<\/p>\n

Dr. Steven Lepowsky, associate dean for education and patient care, has been instrumental in bringing CONNcept to fruition. As he describes it, \u201cThis model treats the same patient groups, but as a team. The patient moves seamlessly through. That facilitates learning. We hope to demonstrate that this is a more valid and richer educational model, because they\u2019ll learn, they\u2019ll learn better, and they\u2019ll do more.\u201d<\/p>\n

CONNcept has a primary care focus, which in dentistry means general or family dentistry and pediatric dentistry. The CONNcept team includes a hygienist and full dental assistant staff support. Our specialist faculty is also involved participating as consultants to the team and providing clinical expertise as needed.<\/p>\n

Another goal of this approach is financial viability. If our pilot can show that, then the CONNcept concept would take off in a big way. And we expect that it will. It is set up to be more productive than the traditional model, and have a patient mix that will make it sustainable. Providing care to our community\u2019s underserved is part of the mission, but it\u2019s not exclusive to that population.<\/p>\n

Dr. Naseema Maiary, our CONNcept practice leader, explains, \u201cWe expect a significantly greater volume of patient activity. A fourth-year in the student clinic traditionally sees two patients in a day. In private practice, it\u2019s more like eight to 15 patients in a day. This is almost like a mini residency, with more training, in a more mainstream process\u2014so a faster pickup there\u2014and it will help students transition to the mainstream. This helps us fulfill our patient care mission and expands our patient care capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students and residents see this as an opportunity. Out of 42 fourth-year students, 36 applied. We were able to take five, along with three full-time residents. And nearly all of their patients are following them to Kane Street. CONNcept will represent 90 percent of the students\u2019 clinical training.<\/p>\n

If CONNcept proves to be valid like we think it will, the UConn School of Dental Medicine will be a national leader in dental education models.<\/p>\n

\n

For more\u00a0UConn Health Center<\/a> news and information, follow us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dean MacNeil says West Hartford training site aims to be a national model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":46019,"comment_status":"open","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":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[94,2074],"class_list":["post-45986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 05:42:05","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\/45986","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\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45986"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46016,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45986\/revisions\/46016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/46019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45986"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=45986"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=45986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}