News archive 2009

MoU with Harvard for dental leadership programme

03 Apr 2009, PR 68/09

King’s Centre for International Child Oral Health and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)  for a close working relationship on the Global Child Dental Health Taskforce’s leadership programme.

The collaboration is to be led by Professor Raman Bedi,  Head of the Centre for International Child Oral Health at the Dental Institute of King’s College London, and the Global Child Dental Health Taskforce and Professor Bruce Donoff, Dean of the Harvard Dental School. The Global Child Dental Health Taskforce aims to identify, train and mentor 400 dental leaders over the next ten years, who will in turn significantly shape the dental profession and drive forward its aims in the first half of the 21st century. The programme is designed to develop leadership skills specifically in the area of child dental health.

The Global Child Dental Health Taskforce was established in January 2006 after 40 senior dental advisors and chief dental officers called for its formation at a European Union Presidency meeting. Its aims are to significantly improve the dental health of children by developing Public Private Partnerships, to coordinate services, national educational programmes and to promote evidence based oral health messages. A key part of its strategy is to build a global network of national taskforces, headed up by local, leading senior dental and public health specialists, who work together to spearhead drives to improve oral health by developing cutting edge preventive strategies.

The agreement was signed by Dr Nairn Wilson, Dean of the Dental Institute at King’s, and Professor Bruce Donoff during a gala dinner at Chandos House.

Benefits of the programmes

Professor Bedi comments on the new collaboration: 'This collaboration between two giants in the field of dental institutes is an important opportunity to train our next generation of dentists as they search for ways to push the serious problem of dental disease up the global health agenda.

'The leadership programme presents a unique platform for open discussion, exchange of experiences as well as problem-solving, making it an invaluable forum for global learning and support within the profession. We are already witnessing the benefits of the programmes:  Many who attended our leadership courses went on to spearhead successful and sustainable national prevention programmes. This is the way forward if we are to see an eradication of dental disease world-wide.'

Professor Donoff, Dean of the Harvard Dental School, comments: 'Harvard has a long and illustrious history in training individuals from all walks of life.  Now with this new collaboration we can upscale our work in the dental field. I am excited about the possibilities this collaboration can bring and the improvements we can expect in both the oral health of our global society and the way dental services are delivered.'

For more information on the Global Child Dental Health Taskforce, visit http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/dentistry/research/gcdht/. More details on the dental leadership programme can be found on http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/dentistry/research/gcdht/act/programme/.

[Image Professor Nairn Wilson and Professor Bruce Donoff]

Notes to editors

King’s College London
King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2008) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King’s has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries, and more than 5,700 employees. King’s is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King’s has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King’s has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King’s Health Partners. King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world’s leading research-led universities and three of London’s most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.

Harvard University – Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Harvard University, located in Cambridge Massachusetts, was established in 1636 by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  It was named after the college’s first benefactor, the young minister John Harvard.  It has a distinguished history of achievement in education and scholarly activity.  The Faculty of Medicine, located in Boston, consists of Harvard Medical School and the School of Dental Medicine and several major teaching hospitals which are outstanding academic health centers in their own right.

The first university-based dental school in America, Harvard Dental School was founded in 1867.  It was also the fist to be established in close affiliation with a medical school (Harvard Medical School) and to make the full scholarly and scientific resources of a university available to dental education.  In 1940, under President James B. Conant, the School was reorganized as Harvard School of Dental Medicine to place stronger emphasis on the biological basis of oral medicine and to institute multidisciplinary programs of dental research.  A unique feature of the curriculum placed dental students in joint classes with medical students for two years of basic science and pathophysiology and for an introduction to clinical medicine on the wards of Harvard teaching hospitals and in community health centers.  The philosophy that dentistry is a branch of medicine directs all the school’s activities in education and research.

In 2008 the school was awarded a Gies Foundation prize for innovation in dental education.  This recognized programs like a four-year Doctor of Medical Sciences in Oral Biology program; a six-year Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/MD/General Surgery program; and a group of three and four-year, joint-degree programs combining advanced clinical training and research in health-care systems, health policy or biomedical sciences to produce clinician scholars.  Harvard’s vision is to set the standard of excellence in and to define the future for dental education, practice and research.  HSDM’s mission is to develop and foster a community of global leaders advancing oral and systemic health.

Further information
Melanie Haberstroh, International Public Relations Officer,
Public Relations Department, King's College London
Email: melanie.haberstroh@kcl.ac.uk, Tel: 020 7848 3076

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