The ADA has introduced the Robert H. Ahlstrom New Investigator Award for Dental Informatics Research to encourage an interest in dental informatics standards among dental students, new dentists, and dentists pursuing postdoctoral studies.
The award highlights the role that dental informatics standards play in improving the quality of patient care, ensuring patient health and safety, and increasing efficiency through use of information technology, according to the organization.
An ADA board member and leaders from the ADA Council on Dental Practice and the ADA Standards Committee on Dental Informatics (SCDI) comprise the awards committee. Applications are due February 1, 2015, and a winner will be selected in May 2015. The winner will receive airfare and accommodations to present the award-winning project in November 2015 at the ADA SCDI annual meeting in Washington, DC.
As the first chairman of the ADA Standards Committee on Dental Informatics, which was formed in 1999, Robert Ahlstrom, DDS, brought together dental informatics experts from across the dental profession, representing dentists, government, academia, and industry. He led the group's successful efforts to develop standards for information exchange, clinical informatics systems and knowledge management. Dr. Ahlstrom served as chairman of the SCDI until 2006.
More information about the award is available on the ADA website.
