An interview with Dr. Alan Winter

 16) How was the idea of http://www.experdentalce.com born?
The idea of http://www.experdentalce.com evolved out of the recognition that the world is changing. Dentists (especially young ones) are studying dentistry on the computer. We did not have computers when we went to dental school, now dental students don’t have textbooks! So my partner, Dr. Frank Murphy & I felt there would be a need for meaningful, purposeful, high quality dental education provided online that was geared to the generalist. That has been our goal from the beginning & I believe we have accomplished this. Cobbling together courses that are connected into modules has furthered this goal. Our mission is to enhance dentists training so that outcomes are better & risks are reduced.

17) Advantages of online dental CE: The advantages for online dental CE are many. Theses courses can be taken at the convenience of the dental professional, whether from the clinic when it is quiet or from home. They can be taken day or night, during the week or on weekends. They require no travel or loss of income, or leaving one’s family. They can be reviewed more than once. Lecturers can answer questions via email. This saves time and money for everyone, while improving skill sets and knowledge.

18) There is no human interaction in online dental CE with the speakers. Your comments: On the contrary, questions can be emailed & answered. But if you want to have a one-on-one personal interaction that is live, then this can’t be done via the internet unless one is skyping or participating in a webinar. These formats are fine, but they have specific times attached to them. Our courses are available 365/24/7. Having said that, online CE is not meant to eliminate in-person lectures or courses. It is a means to augment one’s education, in a convenient, high-quality way.

19) How to keep dental deliberations free from the influence of dental trade?
Don’t accept dental trade ads or involvement. We don’t. We are self-sustaining without any corporate relationships. To further insure the purity of our courses, each program is vetted by an academic advisor before we post it to insure the content is current, accurate, & meaningful.

20) Your future plans for http://www.experdentolce.com: Our future plans include creating more & more valuable courses for dentists around the world. We hope that our library of courses will serve as a reservoir of knowledge for the dental profession & we will augment the learning curve for every dentist who wants to grow & provide the best dental care for their patients. In addition, we are seeking strategic partners that will help deliver our message.

21) Your plans for countries other than USA: Our plans are straightforward: http://www.expertdentalce.com is a global company. Our mission is to provide online dental CE for the world’s dentists. If anything, the US is a bit saturated for online CE, we encourage dentists from all over the world to take our courses. We expect to announce in the near future, an alliance that will bring us to an additonal 150,000 dentists from around the world.