title: Introduction of an interprofessional oral health curriculum.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Physician assistants can incorporate a variety of oral health services into their practices, but many physician assistant programs do not dedicate adequate time to oral health education. Our goal was to develop a novel and interprofessional oral health education curriculum model for our physician assistant students that could be adopted by other physician assistant programs and dental schools in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Curricula were created collaboratively and taught by dental school faculty with a focus on the primary care setting. Prewritten and postwritten tests were administered along with a clinical skills examination. Student and faculty evaluations were administered for pedagogical evaluation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pretests and posttests demonstrated a 25% increase in knowledge acquisition (paired t test: P < .001). Physical examination skills testing achieved a 95% completion rate. Student and faculty evaluations demonstrated high satisfaction rates with the curricula delivery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Initial evaluation of this novel interprofessional curriculum for physician assistant students demonstrates that it was successful. It was well-received by the students and the faculty members and resulted in measurable knowledge acquisition. This model could feasibly be reproduced in other institutions for oral health education.
authors.affiliation: Oren Berkowitz, PhD, MSPH, PA-C, is Director of Research for the Physician Assistant Program and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine. Laura B. Kaufman, DMD, is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of General Dentistry of the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine and a Clinical Assistant Professor, Section of Geriatrics, in the Department of Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine. Matthew Russell, MD, MSc, is Medical Director for Hebrew Senior Life Rehabilitation Services.
authors.forename: Oren
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Berkowitz
authors.forename: Laura B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Russell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D009909:Oral Health / Q000193:education*; D010823:Physician Assistants / Q000193:education*; D011313:Preventive Dentistry / Q000379:methods; D014481:United States