G-2407-21918

Apple Tree Dental (ATD) operates eight centers for dental health in Minnesota, as well as on-site pop-up clinics at 145 Head Start Centers, schools, group homes, senior assisted living programs and long-term care facilities. CareQuest Institute has supported Apple Tree Dental’s participation in the Oral Health Progress and Equity Network since 2016 and broadened the partnership in 2021. 

Over the course of the last three years, CareQuest Institute has provided funding through grantmaking and in-kind support from the Analytics & Data Insights team to expand ATD’s research collaboration capacity. Early in its history, ATD implemented a research-compatible Electronic Dental Record and as a result, they have 38 years of patient data that can be used for research by academic entities, non-profits and public health organizations. Prior to partnership, this data, that can strengthen advocacy around issues like Medicaid dental benefits, workforce innovations, and improvements in geriatric and special care dentistry, has been largely untapped. CareQuest Institute’s prior support has allowed ATD to build data infrastructure and processes for collaboration with researchers, many of whom will build products (reports, white papers, etc.) that will support advocacy across the country. It also supported the creation of a research-specific strategic plan for ATD and allowed the formalization of data governance policies, procedures, and documents to ensure compliance with legal, ethical, and best practices in health research.

This third year of funding will build upon previous work and strengthen ATD’s research infrastructure in three specific ways. Firstly, branding, communication, and stakeholder engagement as outlined in the Research Strategic Plan to strengthen organizational commitment to research. Secondly, by advancing security systems, critical data linkage, and storage capabilities to reflect emerging threats and protect both our systems and our research partners. Thirdly, by creating strategic opportunities to network with professional colleagues including conferences (such as NOHC, AADOCR) and virtual venues (such as accepting the invitation to be featured as a Data Source on the NIDCR DDS Hub) to foster further collaboration. Each of these activities will enhance the security and accessibility of our unique community-based data resources for researchers committed to advancing oral health equity.

CareQuest Institute’s ADI team is also targeting ATD as a data contributor to the data exchange work. ATD will share their research data with ADI and ADI will help clean, model, and make the data useful. ATD will contribute unique data, given their nonprofit focus, medical-dental integration, and integration of innovations in oral health care, like Overjet and Grin.

The budget for this proposal is $287,530 which represents <1% of ATD’s overall budget. Funding will support staff time, conference fees, consultant fees, and indirect costs.