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University of Michigan School of Dentistry Nominated for
Computerworld Smithsonian Award

"Virtual Patient" Helps Dental Students and Benefits Patients

Ann Arbor, MI - March 7, 2000 - The University of Michigan School of Dentistry today announced that its Comprehensive Treatment Planning Internet Site will become a part of the Smithsonian Institution’s Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology housed at the National Museum of American History.

The School’s information age tools are included in a collection of more than 440 innovative applications of technology from 38 states and 21 countries. A ceremony honoring those who submitted innovative applications will be held Monday, April 3, in Washington, D.C. when the Information Technology Innovation Collection is formally presented to the Institution. The School of Dentistry’s site was nominated for the Education and Academia category by Scott McNealy, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Using a "Virtual Patient"
When it was created, the Comprehensive Treatment Planning Internet site was the first Internet site of its kind at the dental school to use a "virtual patient," instead of 35-millimeter slides, to teach dental students about the benefits of various oral health care treatments.

The site, which integrates and applies knowledge from all disciplines, was so well received that other School of Dentistry faculty members used it as a model to create their own courses.

Dr. Dennis Fasbinder, associate clinical professor and director of the School of Dentistry’s Advanced Education in General Dentistry program, and Dr. Jeffrey Shotwell, associate professor of dentistry, developed the content for the virtual patient course. They received technical support to create the Internet site from the School’s education resources group.

Benefits Cited
"Although lectures and slides were effective in delivering information to all students simultaneously, they were not effective in teaching student dentists to integrate and apply their dental training in designing treatment plans for their patients," Dr. Fasbinder said. "With some of the new technology available to us, we modified our approach and developed a ‘virtual patient’ that allows students to refine and further improve their skills."

The site on the School’s intranet enables students to practice treatment planning skills including data analysis, differential diagnosis, decision making, and planning treatment sequences prior to actually seeing a patient. "By the time the patient comes to the clinic for treatment, the student dentist is even more prepared," Dr. Fasbinder said. "This, in turn, benefits patients because the time they spend in clinics is shortened."

Dr. William Kotowicz, dean of the School of Dentistry, said, "We are proud to have this technology included in the Smithsonian’s Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology. The achievement of Drs. Fasbinder and Shotwell demonstrates that our use of new technology has many benefits to faculty, students, and patients."

Executive Director of the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards program, Dan Morrow, said, "The laureates in this year’s collection are using new information age tools to extend the benefits of technology to society."

The University of Michigan School of Dentistry is one of the nation’s leading dental schools engaged in oral health care education, research, patient care, and community service. General dental care clinics and specialty clinics providing advanced treatment enable the School to offer dental services and programs to patients throughout Michigan. Classroom and clinic instruction train future dentists, dental specialists, and dental hygienists for practice in private offices, hospitals, academia, and public agencies. Research seeks to discover and apply new knowledge that can help patients worldwide. More information is available on the Web at http://www.dent.umich.edu.