MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

August 2010

It has been a privilege to be a member of the ACFD Deans’ Committee over these past six years, and to now have the opportunity to serve as President. Under Past President Dr. Rick Bohay, the ACFD embarked on the task of creating a strategic plan for the Association that would enhance the ACFD’s role as the voice and resource for academic dentistry in Canada.

Over the next year, the ACFD will continue to develop its strategic plan with a particular emphasis, from myself as President, on political advocacy. During my term as President, I intend to encourage the Deans of the Canadian Faculties of Dentistry to communicate with their local Members of Parliament and advocate for oral health care research in their province, as well as draw attention to the community outreach work each dental faculty does. By compiling a central data base with information regarding all the outreach activities, particularly those in remote areas of service, we can draw attention to the social and financial impact the Canadian Faculties of Dentistry have in their surrounding communities. This increased visibility would empower us to lobby for resources to increase these activities.

Emphasizing the Canadian Faculties of Dentistry’s contributions to the underserved population, the importance of oral health to overall health, and the shortage of funding for dental research is an ongoing endeavor. I intend to propose to the ACFD Board the formation of an ACFD Political Advocacy Group, a small group whose focus will be to advocate and work with granting agencies to gain funding and support for initiatives that will assist dental school programs and research.
Our colleagues in the United States are also working on these types of activities and I feel strongly that ACFD should not only learn from them, but share best practices and new ways to draw attention to the needs of academic dentistry and research in Canada. In this regard, I aim to visit ADEA in Washington and meet with members of the ADEA National Advocacy Network to gather information to bring ACFD into a better position to advocate for support on a large scale.
I hope that with an increased focus on advocacy within the dental faculties, we will be in a position to help inform our governments and, in time, make an impact on oral health care/research policies. In addition, if any of the Faculties are involved in having Faculty patients act as the advocates for your Faculties, I encourage you to share these best practices with the rest of us.

We have great relations with our regulatory partners, CDRAF, NDEB, RCDC and CDAC, and I will continue to build on these solid foundations. I would like to coordinate ACFD activities with CADR to open new opportunities in enhancing Oral Health Care research. Our profession collectively needs to reflect on who we want to be if we want to be respected as oral health care physicians and the team leader in our practices. We need to reflect on our collective priorities as a profession. We need to partner with other health care professionals and be willing to share our ideas with them for the benefit of our patients. I invite CDA and provincial dental organizations to join in this collective vision for the welfare of our profession.

Finally, I encourage each of you to be actively engaged with Oral Health Total Health chapters that are in the planning stage at several schools across Canada. This special needs advocacy and education program initiated by University of Toronto students has positively demonstrated the social responsibility we all hope our students glean from us as educators.
All the best,

Harinder Sandhu, DDS, PhD, Cert. Perio, FACD, FICD
President