Newsletter 67 from the Head of Department

INTERNAL AT THE INSTITUTE

The Aarhus Model of Dental Education: Patient access has been digitalised, streamlined and merged for all our educations
There has long been a bottleneck, many workflows and employees involved when new patients would like to register for various types of treatment with us at the Department. Therefore, we have had a desire for an entry route for new patients that is easier, more digital and merged for all our educations, as part of The Aarhus Model of Dental Education. This has now happened via the website, where new patients must fill in a form about the desired treatment, which automatically generates a reception email for the patients and forwards their inquiry in the inbox to the relevant divisions. The project is still in its infancy, but we can already see that the number of patients calling in has dropped considerably, in fact by 75-80%. The next step is to automate the telephone input with the "press 1 for" option.

Head of Clinics Rikke Svanterud Larsen has been at the forefront of the project together with teaching dental nurse Linda Fischer and secretarial staff Helle Jakobsen, Tove Damgaard, Christina Rasmussen and Kim Sørensen.

RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND TEACHING

Research evaluation: Expert panel evaluated our research
As part of the research evaluation that all departments at Aarhus University are going through, we had a visit from an international panel of experts at the end of October. Their task was – with a view from an outside lens – to investigate the development potential in our research. It was a super good and constructive visit, and here is the gist of what they said:

• Strengthen the Department’s profile and impact further, i.a. via more and larger research grants and fewer but higher impact publications.
• Support more clinical and interdisciplinary research also in collaboration outside the Department, because this is where great potential lies.
• Work targeted and politically in a Danish context to be allowed academic license that gives the right to act as dentists for educational and research purposes in universities, as this will facilitate the recruitment of international staff.

The panel particularly praised our work with junior career development and that we have a joint and good PhD environment. I am especially glad that they really think we have a good research site here with great potential, and that they could see that we are in a transition phase and are building something. I have elaborated on points from the visit in the Faculty of Health article here.

The external evaluation panel has drawn up a report with the conclusions, which, together with input from our steering group and the strategic research areas, must now qualify the final action plan, which we must submit to an overall research evaluation by the Faculty of Health.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Department's research evaluation – this also applies to the conduct of the panel visit.

The panel consisted of:

• Professor Mike Curtis (Chair) from King's College London

• Professor Liisa Suominen from the University of Eastern Finland

• Professor Frauke Müller from the University of Geneva

• Professor Ivo Lambrichts from the University of Hasselt.

We are closing our academy and diploma programmes
For the past 15 years, we have offered an academy education in dental practice and a diploma education in oral health. However, fewer and fewer dental nurses and dental hygienists have applied for the two further and continuing education programs, and those who have, have only taken one or two modules instead of completing an entire education. Therefore, it has been ressource-intensive to maintain an education offer with a limited uptake of students.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Science has now approved our request to close the two further and continuing education programs, and this means that we will stop accepting new students from 1 September 2025 and in the longer term the programs will close completely. We are now focusing our efforts on our core task, namely training skilled dental hygienists, dentists and clinical dental technicians who are well equipped to handle dental care tasks well into the future.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to these educations over time and especially to Helle Hornhaver, who with wit and drive has been the prime mover in high-quality continuing and further education at the Department.

Exhibition and seminar on the 50th anniversary of municipal dental care
The Act on Municipal Children's Dental Care came into force in 1972 and became a milestone in the history of the Danish healthcare system. The well over 50-year-old law is being marked at the Steno Museum with an exhibition and the publication of a new book "The toothbrush on the school schedule", edited by museum inspector Morten Skydsgaard and Hanne Fuglsang Nielsen, who some of you may know from the municipal dental care in Aarhus.

It all takes place on Monday 20 January 2025 at 10-14.30 at the Steno Museum. The event requires a ticket and participation fee (of DKK 300). See more here: https://www.eventim-light.com/dk/a/64197d8b3768b053f1eedd79/e/67220cf55ed7247ea1708014

Research security: The first URIS guidelines on employment have entered into force
Aarhus University has increased security in international research and innovation collaboration, and from November 1, a new set of guidelines was rolled out. The first guidelines are mainly about recruitment and employment, and they must be used to increase the overview and qualify the decision-making about potential employees, PhD students and guest researchers to the university from so-called high-threat countries - i.a. by using background checks.

The basic principle in the URIS guidelines for Aarhus University's research collaboration is that it must be as open as possible and as closed as necessary. Few will probably be affected by the URIS guidelines, but since they cover the whole of Aarhus University, it is essential that we all know that this is an area that is in focus. The acronym ‘URIS’ stands for ‘Udvalget om retningslinjer for internationalt forsknings- og innovationsamarbejde’ – or ‘The committee on guidelines for international research and innovation collaboration’. The committee was established by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science.

NEWS ABOUT NAMES

Peter Stoustrup receives DKK 3 million from the Independent Research Fund Denmark
Associate Professor and Section Head for Orthodontics Peter Stoustrup has applied for and received DKK 3,020,256 for a PhD project entitled "Utilizing Artificial Intelligence to Identify Root Resorption Risk among Orthodontic Patients". Using data from 1,200 former patients, they will develop artificial intelligence-based models to predict the risk of severe root resorption in orthodontic patients. The aim is to improve treatment and reduce complications such as tooth loss. Big congratulations!

Scholarships for three of our dental students
Dental students and now research year students Sara Volf Jensen, William Kaaber and Karina Herholdt Petersen have all three been awarded a research scholarship of DKK 186,000 from the Danish Dental Association's Research Fund. During the coming year, William Kaaber will research factors that influence root-treated teeth survival in the long term. Sara Volf Jensen will investigate how caries can be prevented in head and neck cancer patients who have received radiation therapy, and Karina Herholdt Petersen will research inequality in dental health in an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Faculties of Health and Arts at Aarhus University and the NGO Social Health. Congratulations to all three of you and enjoy your research journey.

From front page in Jyllands-Posten to expert in Ultra Nyt
In a new law, the government has set out to remove the possibility for patients to complain about dental treatment. The Department has submitted a response during the consultation period, but Associate Professor, Section Head and Director of the Postgraduate Education in Orthodontics Peter Stoustrup has also contributed to Jyllands-Posten's article [In Danish] from 10 October, where Peter is critical of the new law. The article is behind a paywall.

There was also demand for Peter and his expert knowledge, as DR's children's news programme, Ultra Nyt [In Danish], wanted to know whether the orthodontic treatment that FC Barcelona's 16-year-old great talent Lamin Yamal is undergoing can make him even better at football, and whether orthodontic treatment is dangerous when playing sports.

Professional communication has many facets. Thanks, Peter, for standing up and sharing your knowledge.

Article about being a research year student at IOOS
The independent university newspaper Omnibus has written a nice article about life as a research year student at IOOS. In the article "Twins studying dentistry have received a total of almost DKK 350,000 to do research for a year" William Kaaber and Laurits Kaaber, who are both dental students, contribute. "I've had one of the best years," says one of the brothers about the research year, and both express great enthusiasm for research worklife, the environment at the Department, the supervisors and colleagues in the sections.

Wishing you all a Merry Festive Season and thank you for your efforts in the past year, 

Siri