History

The pursuit of Dental Informatics at the UB School of Dental Medicine formally started in 1989 (though some may say that it really started back in 1978) when Dean William Feagans and Dr. Lisa Tedesco (who is now vice-provost of academic affairs at Emory University) hired Ronald Vullo (who was then a graduate student in instructional design) to work in the School's Office of Educational Planning. Dr. John Eisner joined the group several months later and in 1991 the Office of Educational Services and Information Resources was separated from the School's Planning Office. In 1993 Dr. Vullo left UB to become the Director of Information Systems at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine. Also in 1993, at the direction of the newly appointed Dean, Dr. Louis Goldberg, the office changed its name to simply the Office of Information Resources (OIR).

OIR operations were overseen by Michael Breene, who started out in 1993 as the Director of the fledgling Office. He subsequently served as Chief Information Officer until he left the School in 2007, at which point Gunther Kohn was named Chief Information Officer and became the Director of OIR.

Below is a short list of some of our proudest accomplishments over the many years OIR has been in existence.

1992 - CURRICULUM ANALYSIS

The School of Dental Medicine formed a coalition of 40 dental schools to design and develop curriculum analysis tools for the management of dental curriculum. It is currently being developed as an open sourced product.

1993 - CLINIC SYSTEM

With National Institutes of Health funding, the School of Dental Medicine developed a prototype electronic oral health record, which served as the basis for a highly regarded system in use today and under continued development.

2001 - COMMERCIAL SUCCESS

Academic Management Systems, today a successful commercial company with sales in excess of 2.5M, was formed as a spinoff of School of Dental Medicine software engineers who developed applications to manage student admissions, evaluate courses, and track faculty accomplishments.

2001 - ELECTRONIC CURRICULUM

The School of Dental Medicine was one of three institutions in the country to develop and adopt an all-electronic curriculum, a program still in place today and implemented by at least 19 other dental schools.

2003 - CODA RECOGNITION

Received several commendations for innovative and effective use of Information Technology in dental education.

2009 - POINT-OF-CARE

An award winning design, developed by the School of Dental Medicine, placing almost 400 computers at the point of care, went into production in the Dental School clinics in the Fall of 2009.