TY - JOUR
T1 - Practices participating in a dental PBRN have substantial and advantageous diversity even though as a group they have much in common with dentists at large
AU - Makhija, Sonia K
AU - Gilbert, Gregg H
AU - Rindal, D Brad
AU - Benjamin, Paul
AU - Richman, Joshua S
AU - Pihlstrom, Daniel J
AU - Qvist, Vibeke
AU - DPBRN Collaborative Group
N1 - Keywords: Clinical Trials as Topic; Cultural Diversity; Dental Research; Dentist's Practice Patterns; General Practice, Dental; Humans; Information Dissemination; Questionnaires; Translational Research
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - BACKGROUND: Practice-based research networks offer important opportunities to move recent advances into routine clinical practice. If their findings are not only generalizable to dental practices at large, but can also elucidate how practice characteristics are related to treatment outcome, their importance is even further elevated. Our objective was to determine whether we met a key objective for The Dental Practice-Based Research Network (DPBRN): to recruit a diverse range of practitioner-investigators interested in doing DPBRN studies. METHODS: DPBRN participants completed an enrollment questionnaire about their practices and themselves. To date, more than 1100 practitioners from the five participating regions have completed the questionnaire. The regions consist of: Alabama/Mississippi, Florida/Georgia, Minnesota, Permanente Dental Associates, and Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden). We tested the hypothesis that there are statistically significant differences in key characteristics among DPBRN practices, based on responses from dentists who participated in DPBRN's first network-wide study (n = 546). RESULTS: There were statistically significant, substantive regional differences among DPBRN-participating dentists, their practices, and their patient populations. CONCLUSION: Although as a group, participants have much in common with practices at large; their substantial diversity offers important advantages, such as being able to evaluate how practice differences may affect treatment outcomes, while simultaneously offering generalizability to dentists at large. This should help foster knowledge transfer in both the research-to-practice and practice-to-research directions.
AB - BACKGROUND: Practice-based research networks offer important opportunities to move recent advances into routine clinical practice. If their findings are not only generalizable to dental practices at large, but can also elucidate how practice characteristics are related to treatment outcome, their importance is even further elevated. Our objective was to determine whether we met a key objective for The Dental Practice-Based Research Network (DPBRN): to recruit a diverse range of practitioner-investigators interested in doing DPBRN studies. METHODS: DPBRN participants completed an enrollment questionnaire about their practices and themselves. To date, more than 1100 practitioners from the five participating regions have completed the questionnaire. The regions consist of: Alabama/Mississippi, Florida/Georgia, Minnesota, Permanente Dental Associates, and Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden). We tested the hypothesis that there are statistically significant differences in key characteristics among DPBRN practices, based on responses from dentists who participated in DPBRN's first network-wide study (n = 546). RESULTS: There were statistically significant, substantive regional differences among DPBRN-participating dentists, their practices, and their patient populations. CONCLUSION: Although as a group, participants have much in common with practices at large; their substantial diversity offers important advantages, such as being able to evaluate how practice differences may affect treatment outcomes, while simultaneously offering generalizability to dentists at large. This should help foster knowledge transfer in both the research-to-practice and practice-to-research directions.
U2 - 10.1186/1472-6831-9-26
DO - 10.1186/1472-6831-9-26
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 19832991
SN - 1472-6831
VL - 9
SP - 26
JO - BMC Oral Health
JF - BMC Oral Health
ER -