Interview Continued »
the Gulf states, India and some workshops in New Zealand. More recently, one of our masters students from Oxford has estab- lished a centre in Alexandria in Egypt.” Derek also became involved in another
world-leading centre in the form of the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP) as a special advisor when he moved up to Scotland. He said: “The programme is probably unique because, up until the Americans started producing evidence-based guidance, it was the only solely dental programme. So it was a nice opportunity for me at the time.” And, just as SDCEP aims to distil
research, evidence, guidelines and legisla- tion so that it is more accessible for dental professionals, one of the key aims of the CEBD is to help the dental team make clin- ical decisions based on the best available evidence. A vital part of this is enabling them to find the most valid and up-to-date evidence in the first place on which they can base their treatment decisions. Derek explained: “Good research is diffi-
cult to do and it is also difficult to present and present well. So, even if the research has been done well initially, sometimes it is not written up well, or not written up in a format that people can easily understand. Certainly not your average practitioner, whether that is a medical practitioner, a dental practitioner or a nurse practitioner. “Getting the evidence from the
researcher to the patient, where it can do most good, is the biggest challenge. There is a long way between the two and a lot of it is about understanding the research in the first place. “One of the key barriers for most clini-
cians is that issue of time. Practitioners are very busy and they can’t keep up to date with all the latest research all the time. And a lot of what is published isn’t directly relevant to clinical practice.” Sifting through the mountains of litera-
ture that is published every day is no easy task and once you have found something that is of relevance to your field, it might not be relevant to clinical practice for five or ı0 years. Derek said: “Newspapers can pose significant problems as well. They usually give details of the research break- throughs the day they are published and it is often ı0, ı5 or 20 years before they are in clinical practice. This generates pressure at the practitioner/patient interface because they have seen these things in the Daily Mail and it might be 20 years before it ever comes to pass.” So, finding what is relevant and finding
out quickly is vital. Derek said: “Having an ability to decide whether a paper is good
Derek Richard: ‘the world has probably looked to the UK for a lead in evidence-based healthcare for a number of years now’
or not, at a relatively rapid run through, is a key skill. Increasingly, it is coming in at a post-graduate level into examinations and with the new changes with the GDC curriculum it is increasingly coming in to the undergraduate curriculum. “But there is still an awful lot of change
to go through and it will be good few years before we have got people coming out of dental schools and out of post-graduate qualifications who are completely confi- dent about reading papers.” Now that the centre has moved up to Dundee, Derek has started developing a masters programme in evidence-based healthcare that he hopes to be able to advertise later this year. He said: “The feed- back that we have had for people who have done the similar programme in Oxford is that if they have an interest in research, it has given them an awful lot of confidence in their own ability to read and understand papers, and their ability to keep up to date. In fact, we have had several PhDs doing the programme saying that they wished they had all this training when they were doing their PhDs.” As well as his evidence-based dentistry
commitments and public health role, Derek has for some time been involved with the
ScottishDental.org website, a portal for dental information for practitioner and patients. The site, Derek explained, came about following frustrations at not being able to find relevant dental information online and, following discussions with Ray Watkins, the chief dental officer at the time, funding was secured. The website is run by Derek and Doug Badenoch. Doug used to work for the Centre for Evidence-based Mental Health in Oxford and is also one of the men behind the
NationalElfService.net
He has persuaded Derek to get involved
with the Dental Elf side of the project – at
www.thedentalelf.net and on social media,
www.facebook.com/thedentalelf and on Twitter @TheDentalElf. The project aims to provide another way for dental professionals to keep up to date with reliable dental health research, policy and guidance. Derek said: “It’s another tool or avenue for disseminating good quality information out to practitioners. So we put together a simple summary of the latest information that is relevant to practice and put it on a website and link through social media.” Looking to the future, Derek, who turns
60 this year, says he will continue to carry on with the CEBD and his public health role as long as he is still enjoying it, some- thing that he insists is showing no sign of tailing off. And, it is his desire to establish the centre on an ongoing and permanent basis that is driving him just now. He said: “There are a lot of people who are interested in evidence-based dentistry and participating in evidence-based activities, but maintaining a centre for the future is what I really want to achieve so that it continues. “Because, despite the fact that it is now
in the undergraduate curriculum, there is still the need for a lead, I think, and to maintain that lead. “It was the first centre of it’s type in the
world, so maintaining a UK lead is impor- tant. The Cochrane Collaboration was established at a meeting in Oxford, and the world has probably looked to the UK for a lead in evidence-based healthcare for a number of years now and it would be nice to maintain that presence within the evidence-based healthcare fraternity.”
Scottish Dental magazine 29
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