DQA Educational Resources

The DQA is committed to enhancing stakeholders' knowledge regarding performance measures, measurement and activities.

Measurement in Action

This webinar will help participants understand what the data tell us and how it can be utilized to improve on oral healthcare quality.

Oral Healthcare Quality Reports

This webinar explores what the data tell us when we starting thinking about putting measurement into action.

Data Driven Quality Improvement Strategies

This webinar explores how quality measures are supported at the program level by data-driven quality improvement strategies.

Improving Outcomes via Quality Measures

This webinar explores how quality measures are being used at the plan and program levels to support improvement.

Why, What & How

This webinar explores the history, makeup and blueprints of quality measure domains.

Dental Practice Perspective

This webinar helps participants to recognize the importance of quality measurement and improvement as it relates to dental practice.

Educational Resources

Quality Measurement in Dentistry Webinar Series.

In 2018 the DQA launched a webinar series on quality measurement and improvement as a mechanism to increase awareness and knowledge. The first four installments of this series can be found below.

Webinar 101 - Dental Practice Perspective (PDF)

This webinar helps participants to recognize the importance of quality measurement and improvement as it relates to dental practice; understand the impact of quality measures on practitioners, payers and patients in the evolving healthcare landscape; appreciate the coherence of quality improvement and measurement within a dental practice; and identify clinical practice areas that may benefit from quality measurement and improvement.

Webinar 102 - Why, What & How (PDF)

This webinar explores the history, makeup and blueprints of quality measure domains and how they can be best used to drive quality improvement at the practice level. Viewers will explore why measurement matters in dentistry; understand what a measure is, the dynamics of how they work and the makeup of a successful measure; and learn how measurement drives quality improvement and how to put it to use.

Webinar 103 - Improving Outcomes Through the Use of Quality Measures (PDF)

This webinar explores how quality measures are being used at the plan and program levels to support improvement and outcomes. Viewers will explore the Delta Dental of Massachusetts Prevention Focused program implemented to improve oral health for adults and children, and also discover the key components of the Boston Children’s Hospital Early Childhood Caries Collaborative Project, implemented to reduce the incidence of early childhood caries.

Webinar 104 – Data Driven Quality Improvement Strategies (PDF)

This webinar explores how quality measures are supported at the program level by data-driven quality improvement strategies to improve patient outcomes. Viewers will discover the key components of providing personalized care with the implementation of caries risk assessment at Forward Dental and learn about the implementation strategy of the Marshfield Clinic Health System – Dental Quality Improvement Initiative.

Webinar 105: Oral Healthcare Quality Reports – State Profiles (PDF)

This webinar explores what the data tell us when we starting thinking about putting measurement into action. Specifically, this installment in the webinar series  highlights the first of its kind National Oral Healthcare Quality state profiles. These reports of oral healthcare quality in the Medicaid and CHIP programs represent a first step to understand where we are and where we need to go to improve oral health care and, ultimately, health outcomes.  

Webinar 106: Measurement in Action - Modeling Improvement (PDF)

This webinar is presented in partnership with the National Network for Oral Health Access (NNOHA) and provides an overview of the DQA Open School Course of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) Model for Improvement and shares ongoing examples of this approach in two different dental clinics. This module will help participants understand what the data tell us and how it can be utilized to improve on oral healthcare quality.

Measuring Oral Healthcare Quality for Older Adults
Report: Measuring Oral Healthcare Quality for Older Adults (PDF)
Guidebook

The Dental Quality Alliance (DQA) has developed a resource document titled "Quality Measurement in Dentistry: A Guidebook" to serve as a tool to educate various audiences on the basic purpose, importance and scope of quality measurement within dentistry. This document is updated every three years. 

Guidance On Practice Based Measures Implementation

The purpose of this guidance document is to inform stakeholders on key implementation considerations recommended by the Dental Quality Alliance (DQA) for use of practice-based measures for accountability applications, external reporting, and internal quality improvement. The recommendations have been informed through the DQA’s Project on Pediatric Practice-Based Measures Testing: Alignment and Harmonization in Reporting Quality: Establishing Reliability Across Reporting Levels.

IHI OPEN SCHOOL COURSE

DQA, in partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), presents a unique course, the first of its kind for dental professionals that will provide you with tools to identify key areas for improvement, then drive toward meaningful change for you and your patients. Through a series of lessons, you’ll learn how to use the Model for Improvement: set an aim, select measures, develop ideas for changes, and test changes using Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles. Continuing Education credits available upon completion of the course. 

TO GET STARTED:

  • Step 1: Create a profile on IHI.org if you do not have one.
  • Step 2: Go to education.ihi.org
  • Step 3: Select “Browse Catalog” and
  • Step 4: Search for “Dental Quality Alliance: Improving Dental Care with the Model for Improvement” in the search bar
  • Step 5: Click the “Enroll” button next to the name of the course
  • Step 6: On the next page, click the “Launch” button next to the course name and the course will appear on the next page

The DQA would like to thank its Education Committee and the following individuals for their timely review and input to the course content:

  • An Nguyen, DDS, MPH, Vice-President of Dental Services, Clinica Family Health; National Network Oral Health Access (NNOHA) Learning Collaborative Faculty
  • Barbara Quinn, MSN, CNS, RN, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Sutter Medical Center
  • Dian Baker, PhD, APRN-BC, PNP, Professor, California State University
  • Man Wai Ng, DDS, MPH, Dentist-in-Chief, Boston Children’s Hospital
  • Lisa Nguyen, DDS; Ani Kartounian, DDS; Elena Budagyan, PA; Hashmat Guerra, Comprehensive Community Health Centers, Inc.
Journal Publications

DQA in ADA News