In November, the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) visited the UW School of Dentistry for a site visit, which normally takes place once every seven years. After years of preparation, the six School programs evaluated will continue to be CODA-accredited.
CODA reviewed the predoctoral DDS program and the Endodontics, Orthodontics, Pediatric Dentistry, Periodontics and Prosthodontics Advanced Dental Education (graduate) programs. The School’s other programs are on a slightly different review cycle.
Dr. Sara Gordon, associate dean for academic affairs, was tasked with chairing the accreditation self-study team in 2018. She and her team worked tirelessly to ensure the UWSOD’s programs were strongly positioned for this site visit, which was originally planned for Nov. 2023, but was pushed back one year due to COVID-19.
“Accreditation is a powerful tool that pushes programs to higher levels of excellence, avoiding stagnation,” said Dr. Gordon. “Almost every faculty and staff member and many students pitched in to ensure the success of this enormous project. The secret to any huge project like this is the collaborative process across units, departments, faculty and staff – and we were fortunate to have amazing teams from the very beginning.”
The CODA site visit team, which consists of faculty members from other American dental schools, highlighted several strengths in the UWSOD’s programs. Those included the integration of the biomedical sciences foundation curriculum, the RIDE and service learning rotation (SLR) programs, the strong commitment of the pediatric dentistry faculty to education and clinical care of diverse populations, and, in prosthodontics, strong lab support staff, the commitment of its program director, and the research program for the Prosthodontics graduate students. The team also acknowledged the steadfast support the UWSOD receives from the University of Washington leadership.
In the DDS program, the site visit team made two potential recommendations related to patient experiences and competency assessments in fixed prosthodontics and implant dentistry, which the school will respond to in the context of ongoing process improvement. The site visit team also made a few minor suggestions for the DDS, Endodontics and Prosthodontics programs.
While everyone at the School had responsibilities leading up to and during the site visit, Dean Ritter thanked many individuals/groups in his address to the School including: Dr. Gordon, Patti Howell, Dr. Cheryl Cameron, Jennifer Grant, Dr. Anna Forsyth, program directors and administrators, RIDE faculty and staff in Spokane, DDS students who attended the Open Student Session and former Dean of the UWSOD Gary Chiodo.
“This CODA site visit is now behind us, but there is still considerable work ahead,” said Dean André Ritter in his address. “I truly believe that the accreditation process, albeit stressful, is extremely helpful in assessing our strengths and weaknesses and a reinvigorating process improvement.”