Communication and Health Behaviour Change Education (CHBCed)

Chairs

This SIG which held its first meeting at ADEE 2016 Barcelona was chaired by Christoph Ramseier from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and Johan Wölber from the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Aims and Objectives

1. Discuss current evidence on effective communication and health behaviour change education
2. Create suggestions and guidelines for the adoption, (further) implementation and assessment of CHBCed in Dental curricula
3. Organise a European workshop

2016 ADEE Barcelona Meeting

Dear attendee of the CHBCed SIG in Bercelona

At this year’s ADEE annual meeting in Barcelona you kindly contributed to the Communication and Health Behaviour Change Education (CHBCed) Special Interest Group.  With this message we wanted to thank you for your attendance and your contribution to the subgroups’ discussions on Thursday afternoon!

About one year ago, both Johan and I were very enthusiastic when submitting our application to create this SIG immediately following the 2015 ADEE annual meeting in Szeged on the topic of Communication and Interaction in Dentistry.  Today, reflecting on the outcome of our SIG’s group discussions we are even more excited about the level of agreement and creativity that was reached in a very short amount of time.

We certainly hope that you had an equal benefit from sharing your ideas and hearing the subgroups’ statements that were summarized on the blackboard.  We do hope that this SIG will encourage you to move forward implementing CHBCed in your school.  As we all noticed, communication and health behaviour change education is getting better acknowledged in dentistry. Furthermore, this evolvement is currently taking place on a global level.  Thank you very much for being a part of it!

Please find our summary of the blackboard notes within the presentation available for download bellow. Do feel free to use these statements in any form suitable for you.

Group Discussions on the implementation of Communication and Health Behaviour Change education in dental curricula:

Group 1: Own experiences

• Takes a change of attitude
• Requires more education time
• Is a multi- and inter-disciplinary subject
• Is implemented into final assessments
  • OSCE, national board exam

Group 2: Skills being educated

• Theoretical and practical content is based on
  • public health responsibility of dental professionals
  • management of risk factors
• Introductory lectures and group learning
  • Virtual patients and clinical experience
• Need indications to provide HBC

Group 3: Assessment methods

• Assessing HBC at various stages of
  • dental education
  • patient’s stages of change
• Standardized patients
• Audio / Video recordings
• Peer review

​Group 4: Engaging dental school

• Diversities of situations (during entire process)
• Top-down
  • Networking
• Bottom-up
  • Evidence-based
  • Benefit system

Both Johan and I are look forward to welcoming you again at the next ADEE/SIG annual meeting in 2017. By then we anticipate to be able to review more evidence and more experience concerning the implementation of CHBCed into the dental curriculum.

We will always be delighted to hear about your own experiences and please let us know in case you’d like to present them to the SIG at the next ADEE annual meeting. In the meantime, we want to take the opportunity to again thank you for your time, your contribution and enthusiasm!

Our very best wishes,

Christoph Ramseier
Department of Periodontology, University of Bern, Switzerland

Johan Wölber
Department of Operative Dentistry and Periodontology, University of Freiburg, Germany