| Popis: |
BACKGROUND Public Health Dentistry is one of the nine recognized specialties of Dentistry by Dental Council of India. Reaching out to poor and undeserved, screening, policy framework implementation, development of newer techniques and materials of preventive procedure, echoing the agenda of tobacco cessation are a few listed leading activities of Public Health Dentist (PHD). These Dentists are the voice of dentistry in community research and policy level. Hence adequate opportunities of sharing must be available on a common platform. OBJECTIVE To assess the need, develop and validate an innovative and informative common web-based platform for all Public Health Dentist METHODS The exploratory study was conducted for a duration of 6 months. The study was divided into four phases. In the first phase the webpage was developed after a thorough web-based search, a systematic and organised outline of the webpage was laid down. Technical guidance was obtained from web designers who helped us design the web page into various components. In second phase of the study validation of the web page and need assessment of the website was done. This was done by self-administered, structured and validated 18 item questionnaire among 30 faculty and 30 Post Graduate Students [(PG) (in public health dentistry)]. The website was developed in the third phase of the study. The various sections of website were ‘About Us’, ‘Continuous Dental Education (C.D.E)’, ‘Webinar’, ‘Health Programmes’ and Information Education Communication (I.E.C) material’ etc. Fourth phase of the study was validation of fully developed and functional website. The validation of the website was done by self-administered, structured and validated 13 item questionnaire by the same subjects. RESULTS All faculty and PG felt the need of such common platform for public health dentist. Around 82% (n=23) PHD realized need of a common platform during their post-graduation days. Approximately, 85% of PHD (n=24) and 81% of PG (n=20) felt that more information needs to be added in this website once it was fully functional. A scholastic and interactive web portal was developed with domain name www.publichealthdentistryworld.com. All the PHD (n=25) and 92% of PG (n=23) considered research section appropriate. Majority of PHD (n=24) and PG (n=22) agreed Literature Search Section of the website was appropriate . More than three fourth of the study participants agreed that the website was user friendly and aesthetically designed. CONCLUSIONS www.publichealthdentistryworld.com is a scholastic platform designed for Public Health Dentist and is a novel approach as till date no such interactive and innovative platform exits which will bring all the public health dentist in India on one platform. |
