G-2306-18416

This proposal is for the next phase of the 100 Million Mouths Campaign (100MMC), which is housed within HDSM and co-led between Dr. Shenam Ticku and Dr. Hugh Silk. The 100MMC was piloted three years ago in 6 states without CareQuest Institute funding. The success of the pilot led the CIPCOH team to pursue funding for 2021 to expand the reach of the campaign. CareQuest Institute began its funding relationship with CIPCOH for this project in 2021.

The framework of the 100 MMC includes recruiting, training, and deploying state-based “Champions” to integrate oral health into non-oral health provider curricula. Over the course of the year, the Champions go through a series of virtual learning experiences and work to identify programs in their respective state that are poised for curricula integration. In addition to the training, the CIPCOH team provides yearlong technical assistance to the new and existing Champions and tools to support them in their assessments of programs and advocacy efforts to change them. In previous grant years, the CIPCOH team designed and launched a component where each Champion is required to recruit a patient advocate and partner with them on their efforts to integrate oral health into curricula in a patient-informed manner. Last year, CIPCOH built in additional budget support for patient advocate stipends and has been able to analyzed impact data from their second year of CareQuest Institute funding, which shows that, collectively, the Champions together have engaged with more than 90 health programs and more than 3,000 learners across osteopathic and allopathic medical schools, pediatrician, family medicine, and internal medicine residencies, and physician assistant and nursing practitioner programs. Furthermore, the program reports that 537 learners have been trained in the application of fluoride varnish during that same period.

Over the course of this year, the CIPCOH team developed a framework whereby, starting in the coming year, 2023-2024, Champions who had been involved the longest would become “self-funded by Year 4” and that the CIPCOH team would start this year developing training materials to strengthen the capacity of Champions to raise funds within their states. This is a major strategy to move the campaign towards long-term sustainability, however, CIPCOH is still working to identify new funding partners to invest in the central infrastructure (i.e., CIPCOH) in hopes of reducing CareQuest Institute’s total investment.

Despite continued program expansion, this proposal is being recommended for additional due diligence to develop a more streamlined and effective funding mechanism to potentially sustain support to HSDM. Additionally, reviewer feedback revealed strong desires for deeper evaluation on the impact of this campaign on adoption of oral health practices among primary care providers following the educational component to more accurately assess effectiveness as opposed to the existing goal of broadly establishing champions in every state. This is a project that has received CareQuest Institute for the past two years, therefore, the Philanthropy team will work with HSDM to determine next steps for support.