Nethan Suzanne T, John Amrita, Ravi Priyanka, Dhanasekaran Kavitha, Babu Roshni, Hariprasad Roopa
Honorary Scientist, School of Preventive Oncology, Patna, Bihar, India.
Independent Public Health Researcher, Duisburg, Germany.
Indian J Dent Res. 2022 Jul-Sep;33(3):241-246. doi: 10.4103/ijdr.ijdr_8_21.
Oral cancer is the third common cancer in India. Its mortality can be reduced through early detection and tobacco cessation ideally by dentists owing to their forte of work.
This study was conducted to discuss effectiveness of an advanced tele-mentoring programme in oral cancer screening and tobacco cessation for dentists across India.
Online, interventional study.
The 14-week long training programme with 52 participants/spokes from across India had weekly hour-long online sessions comprising of an expert-led didactic and case discussions by spokes. Online evaluation (pre- and post-training, post-session), weekly and post-one-year feedback were conducted. Successful spokes attended a hands-on workshop subsequently.
One and independent sample t-tests determined the significance of the evaluation scores of the participants. Findings on attitudes and practice-related questions are presented as simple percentages.
A notable increase in the overall and per-session mean knowledge score, and confidence in oral cancer screening was observed. Many participants started these services at their clinics, thereby reducing further referrals, and were also motivated to spread community awareness about the same.
This tele-mentoring programme, based on the novel Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes model, is the first oral cancer screening training programme for dentists. This model-comprising of expert didacts, case discussions, and significant spoke-expert interaction-is a promising best-practices tool for reducing the disparity in knowledge and skills regarding oral cancer prevention among dentists across different locations. This would enable these most appropriate healthcare providers to contribute toward the overall goal of oral cancer prevention.
口腔癌是印度第三大常见癌症。由于牙医的工作专长，通过早期检测和戒烟，理想情况下由牙医进行，可降低其死亡率。
本研究旨在探讨一项先进的远程指导计划对印度各地牙医进行口腔癌筛查和戒烟的有效性。
在线干预性研究。
为期14周的培训计划，有来自印度各地的52名参与者/发言人，每周进行一小时的在线课程，包括专家主导的教学和发言人进行的病例讨论。进行了在线评估（培训前和培训后、课程后）、每周及一年后的反馈。成功的发言人随后参加了实践工作坊。
单样本和独立样本t检验确定参与者评估分数的显著性。关于态度和实践相关问题的调查结果以简单百分比呈现。
观察到总体和每次课程的平均知识得分显著提高，以及对口腔癌筛查的信心增强。许多参与者在其诊所开展了这些服务，从而减少了进一步的转诊，并且还积极传播社区对此的认识。
这项基于新型社区医疗成果扩展模型的远程指导计划，是首个针对牙医的口腔癌筛查培训计划。该模型包括专家教学、病例讨论以及发言人与专家的大量互动，是一种有前景的最佳实践工具，可减少不同地区牙医在口腔癌预防知识和技能方面的差距。这将使这些最合适的医疗服务提供者为口腔癌预防的总体目标做出贡献。
