Section of Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Dental Medicine, and the Department of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Am J Public Health. 2011 Oct;101(10):1831-5. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300235. Epub 2011 Aug 18.
Dental therapists-midlevel dental providers who are roughly analogous to nurse practitioners in medicine-might constitute a disruptive innovation within US dentistry. Proponents tend to claim that dental therapists will provide more equitable access to dental care; opponents tend to view them from a perspective that focuses on retaining the current attributes of the dental profession. Therapists display traits similar to those of disruptive innovations: their attributes are different from dentists', they may not initially be valued by current dental patients, they may appeal to current dental underutilizers, and they may transform the dental delivery system. Whether dental therapists constitute a disruptive innovation will only be determined retrospectively.
牙科治疗师是一种中级牙科服务提供者,大致相当于医学领域的执业护师,他们可能会给美国的牙科领域带来颠覆性创新。支持者倾向于认为牙科治疗师将提供更公平的牙科护理机会;而反对者则倾向于从关注保留当前牙科专业属性的角度来看待他们。治疗师表现出与颠覆性创新相似的特征:他们的属性与牙医不同,他们最初可能不受当前牙科患者的重视,他们可能吸引当前未充分利用牙科服务的人群,并且他们可能改变牙科服务提供系统。牙科治疗师是否构成颠覆性创新,只有通过回顾才能确定。