Anne Christine Johannessen and Daniela Costea (in the middle, front), both Professors at the Pathology department, participated at workshop in Moldova
Several representatives from K1 participated last month at an International Workshop in Oral Pathology at the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy «NicolaeTestemitanu», Chisinau, Moldova. The event is the first one from a series of workshops, joint courses, staff and student exchange activities that are taking place in the context of a new 3 years project coordinated by prof DE Costea, K1 and funded by the Norwegian Center for International Cooperation in Education (SIU) under the EURASIA program. The project, entitled ‘Collaboration for education and research in oral pathology between Norway, Moldova, Belarus and Armenia’ has as general aim to standardize education in oral pathology and increase the awareness on oral cancer and oral mucosal diseases in the collaborative countries. This is planned to be achieved by developing joint standardized curriculum requirements and training experts for high quality education, research and practice in oral pathology.
At the Workshop, the teaching curriculums for dental students and dental hygienists in Norway, Belarus, Armenia and the Republic of Moldova were first analyzed, and a ‘blueprint’ of a harmonized curriculum has been generated. The workshop was followed by a full day of lectures under the title ‘Oral pathology awareness day’ on the role of the specialist in oral pathology, diagnosis and prevention of oral cancer and lesions with malignant potential, autoimmune diseases with oral manifestations, Sjogren’s syndrome, vesicular-bullous lesions , etc. This event emphasized the importance of studying oral pathology, a borderline discipline between pathology and oro-maxillofacial surgery, which often creates confusion to a dentist that did not receive teaching and training in oral pathology, such is the case of the dentists educated at the universities from Moldova, Belarus or Armenia. Knowledge on various oral pathology topics will enable these dentists also to take the right decision when he or she will encounter a patient with an oral mucous lesion and will increase the quality of the health care provided to the patients in these countries.
In addition to the educational and scientific component, the project has also administrative and IT components, that are meant to help building up the appropriate administrative and IT platforms at the EURASIA collaborative countries necessary for the implementation of the project. As part of this, H Aass from K1 administration was joining the delegation from UiB to Moldova and together with SIU Representative Bård Hekland and the project managers participated in several meetings with the rector of USMF «NicolaeTestemitanu», and representatives from the administration and IT Department.
As a result of the discussions during the workshop, several activities have been initiated and two dental hygienist (tannpleier) students and one dental student will travel for a student exchange in December to perform interviews and surveys as part of their projectoppgave. Several representatives from USMF Moldova will next visit K1 and UiB, two representatives from Belarusian State University will visit University of Tromso and two from Yerevan Medical State University from Armenia will visit University of Oslo.