As an example of its ongoing commitment to improving oral health, Philips Oral Healthcare recently announced the launch of i care, an ongoing initiative that seeks to partner with dental professionals to achieve a common goal of better oral healthcare for patients. As one of the first i care programs, Philips Oral Healthcare has introduced the Mentor of the Year Award to recognize an exceptional dental hygienist who has mentored another dental hygienist to develop and contribute to the profession, thereby improving the standard of patient care.
"Philips Oral Healthcare continually focuses on developing new ways to go 'beyond the brush' and the new i care initiative is a perfect example," said Frank McGillin, Vice President of Marketing. "We strive to be the best partner possible to the dental professional community by providing them with all the resources and tools they need to help improve their patients' oral health."
The goal of i care is to unite with dental professionals and provide clinical, educational and motivational support for them, their patients and the community at large. This program will introduce a number of new initiatives in 2003, including the Mentor of the Year Award. The 2003 Mentor of the Year Award recipient, Amy Nieves, RDH, was recognized for her tireless efforts in providing an online forum for all dental hygienists and students to interact and provide mentorship through AmyRDH.com and the Yahoo.com RDH e-mail group.
To help communicate these and other i care programs, Philips Oral Healthcare is developing a new semi-annual newsletter and, Web site, which will debut throughout the year at numerous key annual meetings including American Dental Hygienists' Association, American Academy of Periodontology, American Dental Association and Greater New York Dental Meeting.
The i care program was officially launched at the "Emerging Trends in Oral Care" Symposium in January, attended by 85 leading dental hygienists from all over the world. The event provided an incredible forum for networking and education. Presentations from the Symposium will be available as CE accredited courses on the sonicare.com Web site in early March.
For information on Sonicare, dental professionals and patients may call 1-800-676-7664 or visit www.sonicare.com
