This postdoctoral F32 fellowship would provide research training for Andreea Voinea-Griffin, DDS, MBA, MSHA. Her project focuses on improving the quality of dental care by fostering movement of the latest scientific advances into daily clinical practice. This application has 2 career development aims and 4 research specific aims. The career development aims are to: (1) develop expertise and experience in practice-based research and clinical trials methodologies;(2) develop grant and manuscript writing skills.
The research aims are to: (1) develop a patient handout to encourage patient acceptance of non-invasive treatment for early caries in permanent teeth and to increase dentists'use of non-invasive treatment;(2) quantify patient satisfaction with treatment options for early caries to quantify patient acceptance;(3) quantify pre- and post-intervention caries stage at which dentists place the first restoration to determine the feasibility of the intervention;and (4) develop a clinical trial grant (R21) and/or a K08 Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award applications in Year 03 using the findings from this study. This project will capitalize on two unique aspects: (1) Dr. Griffin has experience in private practice, health administration and quality improvement;and (2) the unique availability of the Dental Practice-Based Research Network (DPBRN) to conduct practice-based studies, the context in which this research must be done to close the gap between 'what is known'and 'what is done'. This F32 application entails instrument development as well as a feasibility study that will inform the design of a subsequent clinical trial in dental private practices. Semi- structured qualitative interviews with 30 patients and 10 dentists will be conducted to develop the patient handout. Specific factors from pre-existing patient satisfaction surveys will be used as quantitative tools. The handout will be tested for readability and content structure. The study design is factorial, with patient satisfaction and handout assessment data from 300 surveyed patients diagnosed with early caries by participating dentists. The feasibility study design is longitudinal with pre- and post-intervention caries stage data from each participating DPBRN dentist collected from the practice assessment questionnaires. The 10 practitioners will be recruited to participate in the study, based on their early caries treatment pattern and a stratified convenience sampling scheme that will encourage representation of minority dentists and patients. Relevance to public health: This intervention will improve early caries treatment by enhancing the translation of research findings into daily clinical practice, making use of the unique advantages of DPBRN. The final objective is better oral health at the population level as stressed by the Surgeon General's 2000 Report.
| Gilbert, Gregg H; Richman, Joshua S; Gordan, Valeria V et al. (2011) Lessons learned during the conduct of clinical studies in the dental PBRN. J Dent Educ 75:453-65 |
| Voinea-Griffin, Andreea; Rindal, D Brad; Fellows, Jeffrey L et al. (2010) Pay-for-performance in dentistry: what we know. J Healthc Qual 32:51-8 |
| Voinea-Griffin, Andreea; Fellows, Jeffrey L; Rindal, Donald B et al. (2010) Pay for performance: will dentistry follow? BMC Oral Health 10:9 |
