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Projects
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| | IMPROVING PERINATAL AND INFANT ORAL HEALTH | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | PROMOTING STATE ORAL HEALTH POLICIES | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | AWESOME SMILES | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | INTERFACES | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | FILLING GAPS | | | | | | Grant Achievements Timeline | | | | | | | | | |
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Grant Achievements Timeline
| 1999 |
Dr. Rutkauskas established the Filling Gaps (FG) Leadership Council, an organization of health care providers, payors and consumers, to identify best practices and facilitate their dissemination. |
| February 2000 |
The first meeting of the FG Leadership Council was held, at which they developed a system for identifying and evaluating best practices was developed Criteria for Evaluating Best Practices. Through the Leadership Council, information on 29 potential "best practices" in pediatric oral health from 14 states was collected in a standardized format. |
| September 2000 |
The FG Task Force met to review the potential best practice submissions. They agreed that no one program could serve as a national model, but elements of certain programs would make up a set of best practices. The Task Force decided to outline a detailed model program for oral healthcare for early childhood, for which guiding principles were adopted from existing sources, including AAPD policies and guidelines and Bright Futures. Of the 29 submissions, the Task Force decided the Washington ABCD program most closely mirrored the model program and warranted a site visit. |
| February 2001 |
Members of the FG Task Force went to Washington for an in-depth review of the ABCD Program in 5 counties. This program enrolls Medicaid-eligible kids ages 0-6, giving them a dental home and access to preventive dental care. The ABCDE program trains family practice physicians and pediatricians to provide preventive dental services to Medicaid-eligible children ages 0-19. The FG Leadership Council met to review the Task Force's evaluations of the 29 potential best practices. Leadership Council member organizations disseminated information about Filling Gaps via their routine communication vehicles - newsletters, listserves, annual meetings, etc. AAPD issued a press release about MI Healthy Kids. |
| June 2001 |
Members of the Filling Gaps Task Force visited two programs in North Carolina: Into the Mouth of Babes and Smart Smiles. Into the Mouths of Babes is a statewide program that provides training for primary care providers on oral health prevention and reimburses trained providers who provide oral health assessment, counseling and fluoride varnish for Medicaid-eligible children ages 0-3. Smart Smiles is a 9-county project targeting children 9-36 months in families under 200% of poverty providing dental screenings, anticipatory guidance and fluoride varnish by physicians and other non-dental providers. When the FG Task Force met in September 2001 they noted that the ABCD program had not integrated non-dental health care providers as the North Carolina programs had. The Task Force made special efforts to reach out to their pediatrician colleagues at both the local and national levels, since the original goals of the Filling Gaps grant included best practice dissemination and exploration of opportunities for increased integration of the medical and dental delivery systems. They agreed to visit one more program and then turn their attention to systems integration.
 Project staff began work with the Children's Dental Health Project to develop the Interfaces Project. The goal of the Interfaces Project was to develop a body of literature exploring the issues that have been raised by dentists and physicians about coordination of medical and dental primary systems. |
| November 2001 |
FG Task Force members visited the Healthy Kids Demonstration (HKD) programs in Michigan. Michigan came the closest to approximating the ideal model of oral health care for low-income children. HKD is a state-wide demonstration program with a commercially administered plan with benefit and reimbursement levels widely accepted by the state's dentists. Of the programs reviewed, the Michigan HKD Program came the closest to approximating the ideal model of dental care delivery for low-income children. |
| 2002 |
The Interfaces Project published six background papers, a summary white paper and executive summary. The white paper was distributed to 60 communities of interest for comment (see Communities of Interest Responses) and nine experts from medicine, dentistry, and health policy provided written responses.
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| July 2003 |
An Interfaces invitational meeting was keynoted by Dr. Elizabeth Duke, Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, and engaged more than 80 participants to discuss:
- What should constitute oral health promotion for children under 5?
- How should oral health training be incorporated into health professions education?
- What dental services should non-dental health professionals provide to children under 5?
Presentations by national experts contributed to a robust discussion of these issues.
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