Lynn Johnson

Making a mark--taking assessment to technology.

During any course of study, students are assessed usually through a range of methods which may include written examinations, coursework assignments, professional practice, oral tests and practical examinations. This article considers the various forms of assessment in dental education and how information and communication technology is being applied to them. As innovative teaching and learning methods such as computer simulations are introduced, the assessment of results, successes and failures is taking on new forms in many traditional courses. The web is also spreading its tentacles into assessment, with the benefits of offering almost instant feedback and support. However, technology brings its own problems, not least by making ever more ingenious methods of plagiarism easier. Educational establishments, therefore, must be aware of such problems and have policies in place to counteract them.

Signal Detection Performance with a Haptic Device

Haptic interfaces are becoming more widely used in virtual reality simulations because of their enhancement to performance in training and simulation. Unintended vibration degrades the effectiveness of a haptic device and can reduce the users ability to detect small details in the surface of simulated hard objects. Two important design factors for controlling haptic device vibrations are servo update rate and resistive force magnitude. This work employs a signal detection and receiver operator characteristic methodology to evaluate the interaction of these two factors on a users ability to perceive small details in a hard surface. In a two-factor, full factorial experiment, six male research participants rated their confidence in detecting a 5mm upward step along a simulated hard surface. The independent variables were resistive force magnitude (1.63N or 4.88N) and update rate (468Hz or 1630Hz). The results indicate a significant interaction of the two variables. Participants demonstrated a 69% success rate with the strong force, slow update rate compared with a 86% success rate in the other 3 conditions. The participants may have employed a strategy of detecting the lack of oscillations when entering the surface and then noted their kinesthetic motion while moving back to the oscillating state experience when sliding along the surface of the simulated edge. Either increasing the update rate or reducing the resistive force magnitude can mitigate the effects of vibration when using a haptic device.

Perceptions and Attitudes toward Data Sharing among Dental Researchers

Introduction: Increasing attention is being given to the roles of data management and data sharing in the advancement of research. This study was undertaken to explore opinions and past experiences of established dental researchers as related to data sharing and data management. Methods: Researchers were recruited from the International Association for Dental Research scientific groups to complete a survey consisting of Likert-type, multiple-choice, and open-ended questions. Results: All 42 respondents indicated that data sharing should be promoted and facilitated, but many indicated reservations or concerns about the proper use of data and the protection of research subjects. Many had used data from data repositories and received requests for data originating from their studies. Opinions varied regarding restrictions such as requirements to share data and the time limits of investigator rights to keep data. Respondents also varied in their methods of data management and storage, with younger respondents and those with higher direct costs of their research tending to use dedicated experts to manage their data. Discussion: The expressed respondent support for research data sharing, with the noted concerns, complements the idea of developing managed data clearinghouses capable of promoting, managing, and overseeing the data-sharing process. Knowledge Transfer Statement: Researchers can use the results of this study to evaluate and improve management and sharing of research data. By encouraging and facilitating the data-sharing process, research can advance more efficiently, and research findings can be implemented into practice more rapidly to improve patient care and the overall oral health of populations.

Health Information Technology (Health IT): The Future of Personal Medicine

Health IT is changing the focus of healthcare providers from curing illness to empowering the individual to improve their personal health. Cloud computing stores big data for safe and easy access by individuals, mobile devices are used to enter data during a health event, wearable sensors detect changes in our bodies’ physical changes, and social media permits sharing our health information to support communities. These four health IT trends combine to generate the big data that personalizes healthcare and feeds the electronic systems of the learning health system (LHS). The learning health system continuously analyzes this data as well as the data from hospital electronic health records and other healthcare entities. The continuous data aggregation and analysis allows the “learning” of the learning health system to occur. Subsequently, each of us, as well as our healthcare providers, uses health IT to access this “learned” knowledge to proactively improve our health. Health IT combined with the learning health system is anticipated to shorten the 17-year “bench-to-bedside” gap between knowledge discovery and its application in personal health to 17 months.

THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE CRITICAL HAPTIC STIMULUS FEATURES IN A CLINICAL DENTAL TASK

This paper reviews evidence from a series of experiments that identify a characteristic 250–350 Hz tool vibration that may enable a dentist to make a specific clinical determination during a dental exam. The specific task is a generalized version of crown margin gap estimation. The results suggest that the vibration of the dental tool may be the salient haptic characteristic perceived by the dentist. Our previous experiments indicate that this vibration occurs when the probe releases potential energy after moving across the gap. A Fourier power spectrum of the vibration indicates that the vibration energy is in the maximally sensitive range of the Pacinian corpuscle, an organ which senses fingertip skin vibration. This paper discusses follow-up experiments designed to verify that including the vibration makes the size of the crown margin gap more salient while damping the vibration makes the size of crown margin gap more difficult to estimate. Defining the essential characteristics of the haptic signal is essential for redesigning, implementing and assessing the next generation of our dental surgical simulator.