Dental school receives $500K technology grant from USDA
The ECU School of Dental Medicine received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to upgrade and expand its teledentistry capacity in rural North Carolina communities. The school is one of more than 130 schools and health care organizations to receive a Rural Utilities Service – Distance Learning and Telemedicine (RUS DLT) grant from the USDA.
Dr. Andres Flores of the School of Dental Medicine demonstrates how one part of the teledentistry process helps diagnose and pursue treatment for oral health conditions. (Photo by Rhett Butler)
The grant is the school’s fourth and largest RUS DLT grant to date. The grant program is designed to provide access to education, training and health care resources for rural Americans.
“With this award, we will again modernize our facilities with the latest technologies for collaboration and telemedicine,” said Phillip Allen, senior director of informatics for the School of Dental Medicine, “increasing our ability to provide rural residents with a variety of specialty care.”
The school operates 10 clinical sites across North Carolina, including eight community service learning centers in rural locations where senior dental students and residents gain hands-on experience caring for patients. The school relies heavily on video teleconferencing to bring students and residents together with faculty to seamlessly continue their course work while on rotation.
Faculty, staff, students and residents at all clinical sites can consult with specialists at ECU through leading-edge teledentistry equipment, which can save rural patients the expense of a long-distance visit to a specialist.
“Funding this technology also aids our rural residents by alleviating their need to travel for a specialty consult,” said Allen. “In addition to dental medicine, we have partnered with specialty providers across the university to provide patient consultations regarding pregnancy, nutrition and diabetes care.”
With the grant, the school can replace a majority of the video conferencing equipment in Ross Hall, the school’s main teaching facility at ECU, and at four of the school’s community service learning centers located in rural areas, including Ahoskie, Elizabeth City, Lillington and Sylva.
Upgrades will include video conferencing technology in patient consultation rooms for meetings with specialists and the latest generation intra-oral cameras for consultations with dental specialists. Video conferencing equipment for educational seminars and meetings will also be upgraded.
RUS DLT grants are part of a multi-year initiative by the USDA to helps rural communities use the unique capabilities of telecommunications to connect to each other and to the world.
-by Peggy Novotny, University Communications