ADEA, American Dental Education Association

Resource Number

JDE18 

Title

Use of Handheld Computer Technology to Monitor General Practice Residents' Clinical Experiences 

Author

Marc D. Dyer et al 

Publisher

Journal of Dental Education (American Dental Education Association) 

Year of Publication

2006 

Abstract

The Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) requires that General Practice Residency (GPR) programs report a summary of each resident’s clinical experiences. The goal of this study was to determine the effectiveness of handheld computer technology in tracking residents’ clinical procedures. In the academic years 2004-05 and 2005-06, University of Kentucky GPR residents were provided a Palm M130® with customized forms. These menu-driven forms allowed residents to record procedures. Residents synchronized the data to a centralized database. A separate reporting system interfaced with the database to allow administrators to produce detailed reports on each resident. At the end of the academic year, data were tabulated, clinical procedures were correlated with respective costs, and annual production was determined. Data from fourteen residents were analyzed. Types and frequencies of various clinical experiences were tabulated, financial production summaries assessed, and percentage distribution of procedures by discipline was examined. Palm technology has proven to be an effective tool in monitoring each resident’s clinical experiences. This methodology was beneficial to residency directors by allowing the examination of the experience distribution of each discipline in dentistry to determine the range of experiences that residents achieved.

Resource Type

 

Resources for Teaching Category

 

Resources for Teaching Topic

 

Category

 

Topic

Curriculum Development 

RFT URL

Attachments
Use of Handheld Computer Technology.pdf    
Content Type: ADEARFT
Created at 4/22/2008 1:16 PM  by Lapointe, Maria 
Last modified at 5/5/2008 1:20 PM  by Lapointe, Maria