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Disquieting Change– Extraordinary ChallengeSchool of Dentistry, University of California-San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Ave., S630, San Francisco, CA 94143-0430; bertolamic{at}dentistry.ucsf.edu
Key Words: AADR • change • challenge I cannot resist the temptation to state the obvious: We are living at a time of disquieting change, extraordinary challenge—and exceptional opportunity. But this is not really anything new. It is always the case, because life is a rushing river, and there is just no steady nesting place within it where you can be forever secure. What is different now, however, is that we as scientists and as members of the dental profession are beginning to comprehend this truth to a greater degree than we have in recent memory. There is a renewed appreciation that we cannot function in isolation, whether as an organization or as individual scientists and educators. Individuals are not "safe" within their own little laboratory, their own little school, or their own little profession—not if they expect to prosper, to contribute meaningfully, and to be real players in the exciting opportunities now available to us. Consider the cornerstone reports of recent years:
We need to understand that these reports and the organizations that commissioned them are not so much the engines of change as they are the reflections of change—a change that is not in the future but that has already taken place—at least in the minds of decision-makers and, more importantly, in the collective mind of the public. These reports are important as public expressions of a dawning realization that we are beginning to "get it". What is it, exactly, that we are beginning to "get"? Let me put it this way: If I had to pick a theme song for the dental profession over the past 50 years—and by derivation, for dental education and for dental research—it would be "Doing Well—Doing Good". In other words, we have all benefited from dentistry as a profession in which one could do well financially and materially while also doing good; that is, helping patients through clinical care, through our role as educators, and as research scientists contributing to the discovery of new treatments, new cures, and new diagnostic methods. But this world has changed, and the new world has a new theme song: "The public gets what the public wants". Any organization that does not accept this truth will find itself marginalized and circumvented—with new organizations and whole new professions materializing to meet the public's demands. We in the AADR—in the closest possible collaboration with ADEA, ADA, and NIDCR—all have to be mindful of this reality by trying to answer some fundamental questions, including: Who is this new public? What do they want? What do they need? Responding to this reality entails responsibilities for the elected leadership of AADR, but also for the membership: For the leadership, we have to realize that we have gotten what we have wished for: Oral health and the oral health sciences are being taken seriously by a much broader audience of health practitioners and scientists than ever before. With that recognition, we have to expect that the number of non-traditional participants in oral health research will go up—possibly dramatically. Therein lies an opportunity for AADR: At the very least, every NIDCR grantee (a significant percentage of whom are not AADR members) needs to be approached and vigorously encouraged to become a member. After all, these are already scientists who have evinced interest and success in our field. This might prove a little disquieting, but it could re-energize our organization by an infusion of new people and new ideas. And our existing members have to be open to our efforts to present them not only with new members, but also with new kinds of members—colleagues with very non-traditional backgrounds—perhaps new to oral health research but with a great deal to contribute. The mission of AADR is to "Advance research and increase knowledge for improvement of oral health". That is our core ideology. If we are serious about what those words actually mean, we may well be embarking on the most exciting and important phase in the life of this organization and in our individual careers.
Journal of Dental Research, Vol. 81, No. 5,
366 (2002) This article has been cited by other articles:
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