(Taken from project abstract): Timely and extensive dissemination of research findings to practicing dental professionals represents a significant challenge for scientific and educational organizations. A three year research project is proposed to investigate the effectiveness of computer mediated communication (computer conferencing) and an on-line information resource (MEDLINE) to provide distance education and clinical information for general dentists. Continuing education and direct mail have been employed successfully to provide information and increase dentists' knowledge, but the effectiveness of new electronic resources such as computer conferencing and online literature searching is unknown. The goal of this research is to determine whether computer mediated communication and on-line access to MEDLINE can provide information to dentists that will change their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors concerning an important contemporary dental issue: periodontal diseases. Continuing education will be provided for six months to 200 Michigan dentists through a computer conference or the mail depending upon random allocation. Both groups will also be given free access to MEDLINE. The conference group will be able to perform on-line searches while the mail group will be able to request searches by telephone or mail. Following the six month education phase, participants can perform or request MEDLINE searches for six additional months. Dentists' use and perceived value of computer conferencing or mailed information will be assessed after 12 months. Changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviors will be compared in three content areas: 1) etiology of periodontal diseases, 2) measurement and diagnosis of periodontal diseases, and 3) clinical management of periodontal diseases. Participants' use and perceptions of MEDLINE and their searching strategies will also be analyzed. Data will be collected by pre- and post-intervention mailed surveys, from transcripts of a computer conference, from MEDLINE search transcripts, and from participants'computers. This project will increase our understanding of dental professionals' acquisition and transfer of information as well as their utilization of computer-based information resources. The project will also permit investigators to explore the feasibility of community-based settings for evaluations of other informatics tools.
