title: Medical screening in dental settings: a qualitative study of the views of authorities and organizations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The practice of identifying individuals with undiagnosed diabetes mellitus type II or undiagnosed hypertension by medical screening in dental settings has been received positively by both patients and dentistry professionals. This identification has also shown to be cost-effective by achieving savings and health benefits, but no investigation has been made of the attitudes of authorities and organizations. The aim of this study was to describe the views of authorities and organizations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirteen authorities and organizations were interviewed of the sample of 20 requested. Seven approached authorities and organizations did not believe it was relevant to participate in the study. The manifest analysis resulted in four categories: medical screening ought to be established in the society; dentistry must have relevant competence to perform medical screening; medical screening requires cooperation between dentistry and health care; and dentistry is not the only context where medical screening could be performed. The latent analysis resulted in an emerging theme: positive to, but uncertain about, the concept of medical screening in dental settings. The spokespersons for the approached authorities and organizations had a positive view of medical screening but the respondents experienced a lack of facts concerning the scientific communities' position, guidelines and procedures in the topic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Approached authorities and organizations generally had a positive view of medical screening in dental settings but were uncertain about the concept. Further scientific knowledge and guidelines concerning the topic are needed before it can be commonly introduced and additional research on implementation strategies and long-term follow-up of medical screening are needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Medicine and Academic Centre of Gerodontics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. goran.friman@ki.se.|Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden. goran.friman@ki.se.
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Friman
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Medicine/Division of Periodontology, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden. margareta.hultin@ki.se.
authors.forename: Margareta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hultin
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden. gunnar.nilsson@ki.se.
authors.forename: Gunnar H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Medicine and Academic Centre of Gerodontics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. inger.wardh@ki.se.
authors.forename: Inger
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Wårdh
mesh_terms: D003813:Dentistry; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics; D009909:Oral Health / Q000191:economics; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013548:Sweden