09 June 2025

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Dental Hygiene faculty member leads school’s Interprofessional Education initiatives

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Martha McComas, a clinical associate professor of dentistry in the Division of Dental Hygiene, is the new Director of Interprofessional Education (IPE) at the School of Dentistry.

The appointment, announced by Dean Jacques Nör, was effective May 1, 2025, for a three-year term.

McComas will coordinate and lead IPE initiatives within the dental school and represent the school across the University of Michigan campus and the broader IPE community. Her responsibilities include identifying IPE competencies for the dental (DDS) and dental hygiene (DH) programs; aligning DDS and DH curricula with the U-M Center for IPE core curriculum; leading the implementation of IPE curriculum maps; helping integrate IPE activities in the school’s Integrated Special Care Clinic and the comprehensive care clinics; and exploring potential external Interprofessional Education and Care rotations. The director also develops collaborative opportunities for faculty providers and creates a development plan for faculty and staff related to IPE competencies.

The driving force behind IPE is to promote the development of skilled expert teams of collaborative care practitioners who positively impact the delivery of high quality, safe and effective health care services. The educational goals of IPE, as defined by the U-M Center for IPE, occur “when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. Once students understand how to work interprofessionally, they are ready to enter the workplace as a member of the collaborative practice team. This is a key step in moving health systems from fragmentation to a position of strength.”

Collaborating U-M schools and colleges at the Ann Arbor campus are the School of Dentistry, School of Kinesiology, Michigan Medical School, School of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, School of Public Health and School of Social Work, as well as the School of Nursing at UM-Flint, the College of Health Sciences at UM-Flint and the College of Education, Health & Human Services at UM-Dearborn.

Leaders at those healthcare units have in recent years created an increasing number of IPE courses and programs that require or provide opportunities for students in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, social work and other related fields to modernize the teaching of future healthcare providers. The goal is to improve patient outcomes, improve patient experiences, reduce health care costs, and improve provider well-being.

McComas received her associates, bachelor and BSDH degrees from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. She earned a master’s degree in dental hygiene from the University of Texas, Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. Since joining the U-M School of Dentistry in 2013, she has been course director for preclinical courses in both dental hygiene and dentistry, including Cariology and Pain Control. Additionally, she practices in the Periodontics DFA clinic seeing periodontally involved patients regularly.

Research by McComas includes cariology curriculum, teaching methodology, and peer assessments.  She is currently program manager for the Dental Navigator, originally an IPE project, that has established a referral service between Michigan Medicine’s Emergency Department and the dental school for improved access to care and patient outcomes.

The University of Michigan School of Dentistry is one of the nation’s leading dental schools engaged in oral healthcare education, research, patient care and community service.  General dental care clinics and specialty clinics providing advanced treatment enable the school to offer dental services and programs to patients throughout Michigan.  Classroom and clinic instruction prepare future dentists, dental specialists and dental hygienists for practice in private offices, hospitals, academia and public agencies.  Research seeks to discover and apply new knowledge that can help patients worldwide.

Source: www.dent.umich.edu