Reynolds, Damiano receive funding to continue development of Patient-Centered Dental Home model

Drs. Julie Reynolds and Peter Damiano were awarded a grant renewal from the DentaQuest Foundation to continue developing the Patient-Centered Dental Home (PCDH) model.

Currently, there is not a nationally recognized dental home model for the delivery of dental care that is integrated with other health care and focused on quality improvement. In the first phase of this project, the project team, together with a 55-member National Advisory Committee composed of a diverse group of experts, developed a definition for the PCDH: “a model of care that is accessible, comprehensive, continuous, coordinated, patient- and family-centered, and focused on quality and safety as an integrated part of a health home for people throughout the life span.” The goal of the PCDH model is that it be used to evaluate and assess coordination and quality within dental care delivery systems.

Through the grant renewal, Reynolds and Damiano will continue to engage the project National Advisory Committee to build the next level of the PCDH framework.

“The renewed funding is a testament to the need for increasing quality measurement in dentistry and moving toward integration of dental and medical care,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds is a researcher in the Public Policy Center’s Health Policy Research Program and Visiting Assistant Professor in the UI College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics. Damiano is Director of the PPC, Health Policy Research Program director, and Professor of Preventive and Community Dentistry in the UI College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics.

More information about the PCDH project is available here.