ABOUT thaT Intersection thing...
Find me somewhere in the confluence of the information technology revolution we live in, the firm conviction that education is the key to a better future, and my dentistry and teaching backgrounds.
I understand Information Communications Technologies (ICT) as a valuable resource to improve our quality of life. I believe that properly used that can help us to build a better world, and that they are particularly useful to improve access to quality education and healthcare, as well as other aspects of our lives.
If education is all about permanent development of capabilities of understanding our role in the world and to act accordingly in responsible and constructive ways (and I believe it is), then information is indeed a requirement for education. Obviously, it is not enough by itself, but it is also obvious that without pertinent and reliable information, education suffers.
ICT are the modern tool to access information spread though time and space. Consider your computer, your phone, your tablet and other devices allow finding, gathering, creating and distributing information, and how they provide the tools to facilitate comprehension and its reconstruction, and you have in computer technologies a very powerful educational tool.
Now, apply this power to dentistry and multiple applications appear for healthcare, research and dental education. Possibilities multiply, from online education of dentists, patients and communities to tele-consults, to artificial intelligence algorithms and models to evaluate clinical conditions and offer treatment alternatives; from real-time health monitoring to advanced digital diagnostic imaging and computer assisted design to robotic solutions to producing restorations. From local records to online availability of updated health related information of patients to healthcare providers, insurance companies and other authorized parties, to automated updates of the electronic health record instantly available to authorized users...
The web used to be about linking information. Now, beyond that, is about linking people. We may like or not like this impact, but the fact is it is here, and it is here to stay. How does it affect education, healthcare, and our whole lives? Think of the possibilities!
It is subversive, in a good way, as it undermines a less-than-desirable-desirable status-quo, and hopefully, improve practices… including educational dental practices. It also challenges millenary power relations between those who know, teach, learn and do, shamans and the tribe, doctors and patients. This is big… okay, okay I am letting myself go.
I don’t want to miss a thing, but with all that is happing in this confluence, I am sure I am. Feel free to drop a line when you find something interesting, to share your position, or just because.
