title: An interdisciplinary approach to case-based teaching: does it create patient-centered and culturally sensitive providers?
abstract: This investigation explored whether teaching a case-based seminar influenced dental students' perceptions of the importance of various factors for diagnosis and treatment planning. In addition, the effects of an interdisciplinary approach to case-based teaching were analyzed. During the winter semesters 2004 and 2005, 204 second-year dental students participated in a case-based comprehensive care seminar. The students were randomly assigned either to a section with a behavioral science instructor present or to a section without a behavioral science instructor. At the beginning and end of each semester, the students evaluated the importance of various factors for diagnosis and treatment planning in self-administered questionnaires. This seminar increased students' importance ratings of subjective oral health-related factors (such as dental fear) and diversity-related factors (such as the patient's ethnicity/race) from the beginning to the end of the semester. Students in the section with a behavioral science instructor rated the importance of behavioral and diversity-related factors higher than students in the section without the behavioral science instructor. These findings suggest that interdisciplinary, case-based teaching increased students' appreciation of the complexity of patient care and of a patient-centered, culturally sensitive approach to diagnosis and treatment planning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, School of Dentistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1078, USA. philrich@umich.edu
authors.forename: Philip S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: Marita R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Inglehart
mesh_terms: D001525:Behavioral Sciences / Q000193:education*; D019090:Case Management; D003190:Comprehensive Dental Care; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000379:methods*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D017145:Models, Educational; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D012655:Self-Evaluation Programs; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*