DTUK0813

April 1-7, 201312 MSc Blog United Kingdom Edition The fastest growing dental prac�ce so�ware  Pearl Prac�ce  Management  So�ware  Visit our website:  Run interac�ve demonstra�ons,  tutorials and DOWNLOAD   A TRAINING COPY!  Some features you asked for:   · Char�ng round the mouth in a circular sweep  (instantly accessible - no delay)  · Treatment plan generated as you chart,   the chart is automa�cally changed as you   complete items on the treatment plan. Chart   any symbol on any combina�on of tooth surface  · 24 hour diary with side by side pages, week   view, colour coding and user defined 5, 10 or 15  minute slots  · Automa�c assignment of a single pa�ent   balance payment to NHS, private, sundry   bills and to bills raised by different   prac��oners  · Drag and drop pa�ent document folder  · For Private only prac�ces all NHS addi�ons   are hidden  · For NHS prac�ces, Pearl is in the pilot scheme  for the Steele contract  We have retained our pricing* (you pay for the  number of surgeries only, recep�on desk and  office PC licenses are free!):    *Prices exclude VAT and a one off charge of £275 is made for on-site instal­ la�on and training  1 Surgery Prac�ce  £39 per month  2 Surgery Prac�ce  £57 per month  3 Surgery Prac�ce  £75 per month  4 Surgery Prac�ce  £93 per month  5 or more Surgery Prac�ce  £111 per month  See demonstra�ons at:   www.pearldentalso�ware.com   Call us for informa�on on:   0800 027 2406  page 11DTß stops? Meanwhile the questions pile up unanswered. This latest MSc unit was like the celebrated curates egg; good in parts. However, the parts which were not good really did plumb the depths. Our familiar diet of learned papers liberally seasoned with hot and spicy webinar lectures was unceremoniously dropped for the cold antiseptic sting of the University of Manchester “Blackboard”, yes, you may well ask! It’s online teaching at its most online and impersonal. I well remember late sum- mer in London, when our tutors, those kooky, impulsive, femme fatales, gleefully promising we would grow to love research. Hmmmm, are we having fun yet ??? I was until confronted with Clinical Heterogeneity, Odds Ra- tios, Confidence Intervals, Meta- analyses, Chi2 tests, Forest Plots, etc. and that’s just the tip of a very large Iceberg. I felt like the captain of the Titanic. If Sir Isaac Newton officially retired from mathematics aged 50 claiming it was a young man’s game, then I feel no shame strug- gling aged 54. Furthermore, my wife (who teaches A-level sta- tistics) suggests there is no way on god’s good earth anyone can master the finer points of statis- tics in just 12 weeks, and that’s the problem with this particular module. Statistics is a full time degree course in itself, there is no fast track, and we were left high and dry. The veneer has fallen off (metaphorically, not clinically) what has up to now been an en- joyable course. There … I’ve said it. Sorry to be the grit in the oys- ter folks. I await the inevitable twitter storm. I’m inclined to agree with one learned author who sug- gests Evidence Based Practice is no more than “the tendency of a group of young, confident and highly numerate medical academics to belittle the perfor- mance of experienced clinicians using a combination of epide- miological jargon and statistical sleight of hand”. Hear, Hear!!! Remember, for those of us with long memories and for whom time hangs heavy, pre- mature extrapolation (from the data, tut tut!!) remains a dim and distant memory; unlike the aforementioned youngsters! My generation require more than just intellectual Viagra to float our clinical boats, so don’t be too surprised if we stay stubbornly flaccid just for now. As well as being totally flum- moxed by the research mod- ule we have simultaneously been tasked to write up two more clinical cases. As usual I’ve struggled to stay within the 1,500 word count, with my sub- missions, far from being master- pieces of compression, remain- ing defiantly long. Now I like a spirited ride as much as the next girl, but this Research module has taken three months out of my life; it has even taken away my legend- ary sense of humour; roll on the next module! Perhaps Voltaire was right; “Il faut cultiver notre jardin”. I’m off to mow the lawn. DT About the author Ken Harris gradu- ated from the den- tal school of the University of New- castle upon Tyne in 1982 and passed MFGDP(UK) in 1996. He maintains a fully private prac- tice with branches in Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne specialising in complex den- tal reconstruction cases based upon sound treatment planning protocols. He is one of only two Accredited Fel- lows of BACD, holds full membership of BAAD and remains a sustaining member of AACD. He is currently UK Clinical Director for the California Center for Advanced Dental Studies and the only UK Graduate and Mentor of the Kois Center in Seattle. ‘If Sir Isaac Newton officially retired from mathematics aged 50 claiming it was a young man’s game, then I feel no shame struggling aged 54’