Industry News

YAPI Secures Growth Investment From M33 Growth
YAPI, a provider of patient communication and paperless software for dental practices, has secured a growth investment from M33?Growth, a Boston-based venture and growth-stage investment firm. The investment will be used to expand the company’s account management, customer success, and research and development teams, in addition to bolstering its existing sales and marketing programs.

YAPI’s product suite helps dental practices automate administrative tasks by using personalized appointment reminders and automated patient recalls, streamlining intraoffice practice communication and digitizing paper-based forms. Founded in 2009, the company began as a small custom-designed software solution to address the pain points co-founder and CEO Dr. Gina Dorfman saw in her dental office. In 2011, the company entered the market for dental offices.

Information: yapiapp.com

Dental Industry Leaders Form Group Focused On Artificial Intelligence
Leaders from across the dental industry recently announced the formation of the Dental AI Council (DAIC), an organization devoted to helping define the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in dentistry through research and education.

DAIC members represent all major industry constituencies, including practitioners, dental service organizations, equipment manufacturers, practice management software providers, insurance carriers, laboratories and universities. As AI begins to yield increased efficiency, accuracy, consistency and insight in a variety of dental applications, the DAIC will seek to stimulate greater industrywide understanding of the technology.

The DAIC membership is composed of clinicians, professors and senior executives of leading companies, including Cigna, Delta Dental, DSG, Heartland, Henry Schein, NDX and Walmart. The DAIC’s primary function is to lead independent research to ascertain where and how AI will prove most valuable to dentistry, empirically validate its functional capabilities and performance, and answer fundamental questions related to AI’s role in the oral health care ecosystem of tomorrow. In addition to research, the DAIC will facilitate AI-related educational programming, thought leadership content and public advocacy initiatives.

The first DAIC study is scheduled to be released later this year.

Information: dentalaicouncil.org

Texas Tech’s New Dental School Begins Interviewing Inaugural Class Applicants
In September, the Hunt School of Dental Medicine began interviewing applicants for its inaugural class, welcoming the first 18 potential students to new facilities on the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso campus. Interviews are scheduled throughout the fall and into January 2021.

Set to open in 2021, the Hunt School of Dental Medicine will be the fourth dental school in Texas and the first on the U.S.-Mexico border. The school will be housed in the Medical Sciences Building II, a new building on the TTUHSC El Paso campus where students will train in the Dental Learning Center.

The center will feature 80 stations equipped with high-tech simulation mannequins and a fabrication lab for crafting dental appliances using 3D scanners and advanced CAD/CAM machines. Students will gain real-world experience at the Texas Tech Dental Oral Health Clinic, a new 38,000-square-foot clinic equipped with 130 treatment chairs.

Cyd Goldfarb, MEd., the school’s senior director of admissions and recruitment, said the first pool of applicants are candidates who come from all of Texas, including the El?Paso area and other parts of West Texas, where many residents suffer from poor dental health because of lack of access to affordable care. In El Paso County, there’s only one dentist for every 4,545 residents, compared to the national average of one for every 1,639. The Hunt School of Dental Medicine aims to help alleviate the severe shortage of dentists in the region. The school will fill 40 spots for the inaugural class and future classes will have 60 students.

Information: elpaso.ttuhsc.edu/sdm