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Dental Tribune United Kindom Edition

T he Technology Strategy Board and the Depart- ment of Health are to invest up to £7.5m in new re- search and development that aims to improve the future di- agnosis, detection and manage- ment of sepsis, a life-threaten- ing illness caused by the body overreacting to an infection. The funding will be made available through two new col- laborative R&D funding com- petitions. The first, Multi-path- ogen detection and/or simple discrimination, opens on 30 Au- gust and will see government investment in R&D of up to £5m in collaborative R&D projects to develop point-of-care diagnos- tic tools to assist clinicians and health workers in the manage- ment of sepsis. The second competition, Ad- vancing biomarker use in sepsis management, opens on 26 Sep- tember and up to £2.5m will be invested in collaborative R&D to advance the effective use of biomarkers in the management of the condition. Commenting on the new competitions Zahid Latif, the Technology Strategy Board’s Head of Healthcare, said: “Sep- sis causes around 60,000 deaths in the UK every year and costs the NHS about £2.3 billion an- nually. The risk of death from severe sepsis increases six-10 per cent every hour from the onset of septic shock to the start of effective treatment. There is universal agreement that there is a need for new and improved diagnostic tools to help clini- cians in the management of sepsis. The products developed will help to reduce the eco- nomic burden, death and ill- ness from sepsis and infectious diseases and create opportuni- ties for British companies in the huge global market for di- agnostic devices.” A third funding competi- tion, Assessing the impact of near-patient testing, will also open on 26 September. Man- aged through the SBRI pro- gramme, the competition will result in investment of up to £1m in projects to produce new and improved health econom- ics related products, tools or capabilities to assist companies in the design and evaluation of diagnostic clinical trials All three competitions are part of the Technology Strat- egy Board-managed Detection and Identification of Infec- tious Agents (DIIA) Innovation Platform, which will see government investment in in- novative research and develop- ment into diagnostic tests and devices that will help to cut the number of deaths and cases of illness caused by infectious agents in humans and animals, while reducing the economic burden. More information can be found at www.innovateuk.org. DT Research investment to tackle sepsis threat A new 27-year research project suggests that mothers with poor oral health are likely to have children who also have poor oral health when they reach adulthood. The long-term study, of over a thousand children born in New Zealand in 1972 and 1973, pro- vides strong evidence that the children of mothers with poor oral health are more likely to grow up with above average lev- els of tooth loss, tooth decay and fillings. The findings strengthen the notion from previous re- search that adult oral health is affected by a combination of ge- netic and environmental factors. The research, published in the Journal of Dental Research in May 2011, compared the oral health of the children at the age of five in 1978, and again at the age of 32. The findings were compared with the mother’s own self-rated oral health meas- ured in 1978. Analysis 27 years later indicated that approaching half of children (45.1 per cent), whose mothers rated their oral health as ‘very poor’ had severe tooth decay. Around four in every ten children (39.6 per cent) expe- rienced tooth loss in adulthood. The research commented on the influence of environmen- tal risk factors on oral health including social economic sta- tus (SES), attitudes, beliefs and oral health related knowledge persisting across generations, providing further evidence in how a mother’s view of her own oral health can affect that of her child’s. The article can be found on the Journal of Dental Research website (http://jdr.sagepub.com/ content/90/5.toc). DT Study shows OH generation game Study shoes a link between mum and child’s oral health T he Dental Complaints Service (DCS) is en- couraging patients to talk more to their dental pro- fessional and be confident in asking questions about private dental treatment. The DCS helps dental pa- tients and dental professionals in the UK resolve complaints about private dental services. They aim to do it fairly, ef- ficiently, transparently and quickly by working with both parties. Head of the DCS, Hazel Adams commented: “Patients should feel able to ask how much treatment will cost, when they will have to pay and what happens if they are unhappy with the results. The patient might also want to ask whether the work is guaranteed for a certain length of time and how long any particular course of treatment will take. “We try to be imaginative and flexible in helping to re- solve a complaint. But we al- ways ask people to try to resolve things with their dental profes- sional first. In my experience, the majority of complaints are caused by some form of break- down in communication; if people can just keep talking to each other many situations can be avoided.” To help people better under- stand the service and how to deal with problems when they arise, the DCS has produced a new leaflet Making a com- plaint about private dental care which is available through the GDC website at http://www. gdc-uk.org/Newsandpublica- tions/Publications/Pages/de- fault.aspx DT Patients, it’s good to talk - DCS The DCS is encouraging patients to talk more T he General Dental Coun- cil (GDC) has launched a review of its mandatory continuing professional develop- ment (CPD) scheme. It will be considering the role CPD plays in helping registrants to stay up to date and to practise in accordance with its Standards; as well as explor- ing the most effective forms of CPD activity, and the best way of monitoring and administer- ing it. A key aim is also to en- sure that the CPD requirements are woven into a proportion- ate scheme of revalidation in due course. The review process will include, among other steps, research and various forms of consultation with registrants and other stakeholders. A pub- lic consultation on any future proposals is planned for early 2012. The GDC is keen to hear comments from registrants, CPD providers and other stakeholders about their CPD experiences. More information about the review can be found at www.gdc-uk.org, including how to respond to an open call for views. Any general com- ments can be emailed to CP- DReview@gdc-uk.org Evlynne Gilvarry, Chief Executive and Registrar said: “A key aim is to ensure that our CPD requirements sup- port registrants in meeting our Standards. We are therefore very keen to hear from regis- trants and other stakeholders about their CPD experiences and how the scheme might be improved.” All registrants are reminded that the GDC’s current CPD re- quirements remain in force. DT CPD review launched by GDC Time to review CPD July 18-24, 20114 News United Kingdom Edition