Recent ADA Board activity update by MARK ZUST, DDS I

consider it a privilege to be your trustee to the ADA. As you might imagine, I take my job very seriously, and I want to represent my district the best I possibly

can. The Board has just completed the March meeting and it was very productive.

I serve on the three board committees: Gov- ernance, Strategic Planning and Board Rules.

The Governance committee is addressing the council structure as directed by the House of Delegates, and a report and recommenda- tions will be ready far in advance of the next House meeting.

The Board Rules com- mittee, which I have

the honor of chairing, has made recommen- dations clarifying rules and will continue in that regard throughout the year.

The Strategic Planning committee is working on the next plan that will be implemented in the year 2015. We are laying out a schedule of the various steps that we intend to complete. One of the first steps is gathering data which we intend to do by using an environmental scan. We intend to engage the membership on a much more grassroots level than has been done before. We want the ADA to be relevant to all of our members. We have iden- tified the firm that we would like to engage as the facilitator in developing the plan, and the ADA is currently in contract negotiations with that firm.

The Board has asked the Council on Dental Practice (CDP) to continue meeting with the American Dental Hygiene Associa- tion (ADHA) about its agenda. The Board recognizes that CDP plays an important role in keeping the ADA engaged on issues raised by ADHA. The Board also directed that two trustees will sit on the Inter-Agency Workgroup on Group Dental Practice. That Workgroup will develop a specific charter and report back to the Board on its work.

Although I am no longer on the Board of the Dental Quality Alliance, I am pleased to report on its accomplishments. The DQA has established itself as the accepted source of quality measures for dentistry. It is important for the ADA to appropriately influence this endeavor, and the means to do so is through the DQA. Quality measurement is likely to be a major factor in the future of dental care financing, so it is critical that the ADA main- tains its ability to have a significant voice.

and make recommendations on addressing the perceived vagueness and variability of several of the standards. The Board voted to accept three recommendations from CDEL, including among other things, the addition of the ADA’s definition of dentistry to the “Definition of Terms used in the Accredita- tion Standards;” and suggested modification of the self-study guide to require supportive documentation to show how dental students interact and collaborate with dental special- ists.

As part of an ongoing pilot project, the chair of the New Dentist Committee, Dr. Chris Salierno, attended our meeting and made a

In addition, we discussed the successful completion of negotiations over the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) pro- posed treaty on mercury in the environment. As we know, amalgam was targeted for a ban by some delegates to those negotiations. The proposed treaty contains no ban or restric- tion on dental amalgam and, in fact, calls for a focus on prevention and research into other alternative materials in order to reduce the demand for all restorative materials.

In fulfilling our fiduciary duties, we engaged in a discussion with our investment advisor, Elwood and Associates. Following that dis- cussion, we reviewed our developing budget process, with a focus on how our programs are compared against the universal assess- ment criteria. It is important that we all are comfortable with the development of our draft budget, and I think our meeting helped us in this work.

The Board considered a detailed report from the Council on Dental Education and Licensure related to the revised Pre-doctoral Dental Education Accreditation Standards, which will be implemented for all den- tal education programs on July 1, 2013. In particular, the Board had directed CDEL to review the revised accreditation standards

brief presentation. He also participated in our strategic discussion session. Dr. Salierno focused on advocacy and the involvement of new dentists with ADPAC and on the chal- lenges the committee faces in establishing a new dentist network throughout the tripar- tite. We all recognize the importance of the new dentist perspectives for the future, and Dr. Salierno’s overview was most appreciated.

Our Call to Action initiative is key to our in- volvement in the access to care debate. Mike Graham briefed us on the implementation of that initiative in the states, in addition to briefing us on developments in our nation’s capital. Ken Ohr added an explanation of the on-going development of the Call to Action initiative and our retention of a new national communications agency which will provide further support for that initiative.

The Board works very well together; I look forward to a very productive year. As always, I am open to the thoughts of our district, so please do not hesitate to contact me. f

DR. MARK ZUST is the Sixth District Trustee to the ADA Board. He represents the states of Missouri, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Contact him at zustm@ada.org.

ISSUE 2 | MAR/APR 2013 | focus 27