G-2107-17129

Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (PA AAP) is an educational organization of approximately 2,300 pediatricians dedicated to promoting the health and well-being of children and the value of pediatric practice.

PA AAP has been a long-term partner of CareQuest Institute since 2011, having served as the fiscal host of the Pennsylvania Regional collaborative from 2014 to 2019. The organization applied for funding last year independently through the Healthy Teeth Healthy Children program, which is an educational program that aims to improve oral healthcare for children by educating primary care providers, expanding oral health literacy in the community.

PA AAP received a grant from CareQuest Institute in 2022 through the Emergent and Relief Fund. Over the course of last year’s grant, the PA AAP team first performed a landscape review of existing virtual oral health resources and practices being implemented in telehealth locally and nationally. The team hosted 13 focus groups targeting two groups: health care providers and community members/parents. These focus groups allowed PA AAP to learn how local health care providers are using virtual tools to incorporate oral health information into primary care visits, and with parents, their current experiences with oral health information in primary care visits, and most importantly, how they would like this information delivered to them.

Using this information, in Year 1, the PA AAP team piloted its first “modality” or tool for integrating virtual oral health information into primary care visits. This is a “Badge Buddy” - an eye-catching badge that primary care practitioners wear during child-care visits that hosts a QR code to oral health hygiene and prevention information. Pilot materials were distributed across two UPMC Primary Care Practices. Implementation guidance and engagement materials were shared with an on-site coordinator. Within this pilot, the Badge Buddy tool was used by 15+ pediatricians and connected 125+ individuals to oral health information. Qualitative feedback from participants indicated that the tool substantially increased oral health conversation among parents of young children and their pediatricians.

In Year 2, PA AAP will host additional focus groups in order to determine additional tools to pilot within pediatric visits, with a goal of facilitating between three and five additional pilots this year. Focus groups will target both providers and patients in Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas in PA. These pilots will be evaluated though both health care professional and patient feedback, and adjustments to each tool’s dissemination method and the information itself will incorporated before dissemination to the public.

Concurrently with the second phase of pilots, PA AAP will create an online compendium for healthcare providers that will host the project’s tested virtual modalities for incorporation of oral health information into pediatric care visits. Using this repository (likely a website), PA AAP will develop a virtual learning community on oral health and telehealth, that will serve as a platform for promotion of the tested tools, as well as a stakeholder group that can serve to further define and identify new modalities or tools to be added to the website.

The proposed budget of $150,000 represents 3% of the organization’s overall budget. About $108,000 of the budget is allocated for staff time. Other budget line items are for travel, printing, postage, meeting expenses, subcontracts with content experts, focus group facilitation fees and stipends for focus group participants.