Before the 2024-2025 academic year, PDM last underwent curriculum revision in 2015 with minor updates every year after its implementation. These updates were informed by feedback from faculty, students and recommendations from an internal curriculum review committee that had evaluated the curriculum during its first four years after implementation. PDM underwent a successful accreditation site visit in 2022 with the status of accreditation with no reporting requirements. Since its implementation, objective outcomes of the current curriculum, including performance on the National Board Dental Examinations and then the Integrated National Board Dental Examination (INBDE), had been consistently excellent. The impetus and vision for the 2024 curriculum change arose during the self-study process prior to the 2022 CODA site visit at which time we recognized opportunities to further enhance the quality of education at PDM. PDM faculty designed a new curriculum that builds on its existing curricular strengths and retains all core content material in biomedical, behavioral and clinical sciences as required by the CODA standards. The new curriculum further integrates scientific and clinical information by consolidating courses under general themes, with each course being centered around patient evaluation, diagnosis and/or care. This includes ensuring that all courses include important discussions centered on social and environmental determinants of health to enhance our students’ understanding and application to clinical practice to promote and improve oral health equity.
