Awardees at event, from left to right: Angie Stone, RDH, Dr. Paul Glassman, Dr. Labbe, with MouthWatch CEO, Brant Herman. (Miquel McRae, RDH, accepted via video.)
We’re very happy to announce the Teledentistry Innovation Award winners for 2019!
They are:
Dr. Paul Glassman — Teledentistry Pioneer Special Award
Miquel McRae, RDH — public-health Program Innovation Award
Dr. Paul Labbe — dental-innovation Award
Angie Stone, RDH — Dental Hygiene Innovation Award
The Teledentistry Innovation Awards began in 2018. Our goal with the awards is to inspire healthcare professionals and advocates to drive change with telehealth applications across the spectrum of care in dentistry and oral health.
Here’s briefly why each of the “Tellies” 2019 award winners were invited to join us in New York during the Greater New York Dental Meeting as awardees.
Dr. Paul Glassman
Dr. Paul Glassman is the Assistant Dean for Research at the College of Dental Medicine at California Northstate University and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni, School of Dentistry in San Francisco.
Dr. Glassman won in a special category as a teledentistry pioneer. His visionary recognition of the opportunity that telehealth connected teams could bring to the delivery of dental care has made a lasting change throughout public-health programs around the country.
Dr. Glassman helped support legislative policy changes to allow for increased access to care in California and his efforts have continued to support progressive states looking for innovative and effective ways to bring convenient dental care to more patients with an emphasis on preventive care for patients in need.
In addition, his vision and tireless efforts to help implement the value of the Virtual Dental Home model of care — including speaking, consulting, writing and supporting any program interested in learning more about teledentistry — were key reasons we wanted to highlight Dr. Paul Glassman with a special Pioneer Award.
MiQuel McRae, RDH
As a dental hygienist, MiQuel McRae realized that there was a huge disparity in oral health care in her community and that the children in her community were suffering from high rates of dental disease and did not have access to much needed care.
MiQuel founded ToothBUDDS, a non-profit organization employing affiliated practice dental hygienists to provide the needed education and care to her area of rural Arizona. They provide screenings, cleanings, fluoride and SDF free of charge in school settings and they use teledentistry to connect children with urgent dental needs to the dentist in their community.
MiQuel and her team are working to decrease children’s pain and suffering from dental decay though education and prevention of oral disease at the convenience of their school locations allowing these children to thrive socially, physically, mentally and academically. We’re recognizing the impact her innovative use of teledentistry is making with an award in the public-health category.
She accepted her Tellies award via video from a snowy retreat!
Dr. Paul Labbe
Dr. Labbe and his team across multiple practices in Texas at Planet Dental provide education and dental screenings for school children of all ages using teledentistry to document and complete risk assessments that are shared with families — encouraging them to bring children into the office for restorative care.
By extending care out of the traditional dental office and out into the community, Dr. Labbe can reach more children and reach them before they develop advanced dental disease.
What is the impact of community-centered outreach?
He estimates that using teledentistry has meant reaching already upwards of 10,000 children so far, with new schools actively reaching out to him and his team to bring teledentistry to their locations. We’re recognizing Dr. Labbe for using teledentistry to innovate in combining community outreach with private-practice dentistry.
Angie Stone, RDH
Angie Stone is the founder of HyLife Oral Health Alliance and the author of Dying From Dirty Teeth. Angie’s innovative approach and utilization of teledentistry is making a measurable impact on the health and quality of life of her patients.
She realized that due to many factors — including inability to travel and lack of resources — the senior population was experiencing an epidemic of advanced oral disease, severely compromising their health and in some cases even contributing to death. HyLife provides weekly oral health care and education to seniors in the community and use intraoral cameras and teledentistry to document conditions and connect their patients to vital and difficult to access dental care. She is being recognized with a Tellie for making it her mission to raise awareness and improve the oral health and overall health of the seniors in this country.
Where will you take teledentistry?
It was an honor to have these innovators and pioneers join us to help highlight how the growth and evolution of telehealth in dental and oral health care is happening because of individuals that push the envelope.
Where will you take teledentistry next?
Dr. Glassman in New York for the Tellies sitting down for an in-depth interview on the foundations and future of teledentistry.
Dive deeper? Stay tuned!
We’ll be posting in-depth video interviews with “Tellies” award winners and others exploring the new terrain of telehealth in dentistry captured in New York before the Tellies award ceremony. Stay tuned and subscribe to our YouTube channel!