Case Studies for Dentistry: A Web Page for Culturally Sensitive Students ...

To incorporate a bank of culturally sensitive cases developed by faculty portraying Hispanic oral health issues. The Hispanic Center of Excellence (HCOE) of the University of Puerto Rico School of Dentistry has created a Web Page to incorporate a bank of culturally sensitive cases developed by faculty, portraying Hispanic oral health issues. Faculty and students will benefit from the concepts, examples, references and links related to case-based learning. Navigational buttons include information on: participating faculty, the theoretical background for the elaboration of cases, cases on different topics and disciplines for study and preparation for the National Board Dental Examination – Part II, related links on case-based learning, cultural competence and oral health sites, contact information for questions and comments. Each case includes: the patient’s medical, dental and social history, related images (dental charts, clinical views, radiographs, and study models), questions, answers, discussion and references. The Web Page was originally created with Microsoft FrontPage to facilitate the process of integrating images and text from faculty members’ computer systems to a centralized website created by our educational technologist. This Web Page was redesigned with the help of a graphic artist and programmer and finally deployed with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 in order to take advantage of its CourseBuilder extensions for the creation of interactive questions. During the first two years two faculty members finished ten cases. Summative evaluation was received on content, instructional and graphical design, technological aspects, relevance for the curriculum, usefulness for the learning process and friendliness. Three faculty members will be working this year to complete 20 cases which will be evaluated again by the HCOE staff and evaluation committee, the curriculum committee, faculty peers and students. This instructional module will be published on an internal server and distributed on CD-ROM to faculty and students. This bank of cases along with the use of the www technology, will help the student and faculty get information, reference and calibration regarding the Diagnosis, Treatment and Prognosis of a Hispanic pool of patients.