aphistis said:
Sorry, Gav, but I'm with DDSSlave on this one. As soon as you take our education out of the hands of clinicians whose primary objective is training us to treat our patients' best interests, and place it before a corporation whose interest in profit-making far surpasses its interest in patient care, you've inherently and unavoidably compromised the profession. I'd be extremely interested in seeing documentation to compare OEC's curriculum with that of a few academic residencies. I highly doubt the results would be flattering to OEC.
Once again it seems people have an extremely limited knowledge of the ADA accreditation process. Please, go to the ADA website and learn about the rigorous details that are necessary for CODA to grant a site accreditation. OEC's curriculum MUST match that of other residencies in order to be accredited. Whether or not they follow through with those plans is iffy, hence the "initial" accreditation that must be reviewed prior to graduation of the first group of residents. We also must remember that graduates must pass their specialty exams in order to practice.
Further, I think many are naive (Bill I'm not saying you are) if they think that education isn't already a profit-making business. It's truly a rarity to find a program that consistantly focuses on the best interests of patient care. This spans the board from medicine to dentistry. Education hasn't been in the hands of the clinicians (at least not as it ought to be) for years now.
AEGD programs are by and large sponsored by hospitals which are corporate institutions unto themselves. When budgets roll down and money is tight then residency programs (both dental and medical) are trimmed down. Does this affect the learning process? Absolutely. Are there ways to ensure it doesn't completely harm the process? Sure, it's called accreditation.
Corporations and sponsors touch every facet of our education, although we aren't accustomed to seeing their corporate badges slapped on everything we contact (yet). That doesn't mean there isn't heavy lobbying and politics happening behind the scenes, or massive amounts of money changing hands in the upper-wings.
And finally, we must remember that not every position at OEC programs is filled by a an "OEC scholarship" student. Some will attend these programs with not interest of ever working for the OEC.
The standards the OEC program is held to, along with every other Ortho program, are here:
http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/accred/standards/index.asp#advanced