Education in oral health is important to prepare future medical professionals for collaborative roles in maintaining patients' oral health, an important component of general health and well-being. The aims of this study were to determine the perceptions of medical students in Malaysia and Australia of the quality of their training in oral health care and their perceptions of their professional role in maintaining the oral health of their patients. A survey was administered in the classroom with final-year Malaysian (n=527; response rate=79.3%) and Australian (n=455; response rate: 60%) medical students at selected institutions in those countries. In the results, most of these medical students reported encountering patients with oral health conditions including ulcers, halitosis, and edentulism. A majority in both countries reported believing they should advise patients to obtain regular dental check-ups and eat a healthy diet, although they reported feeling less than comfortable in managing emergency dental cases. A high percentage reported they received a good education in smoking cessation but not in managing dental trauma, detecting cancerous lesions, or providing dietary advice in oral disease prevention. They expressed support for inclusion of oral health education in medical curricula. These students' experience with and perceptions of oral health care provide valuable information for medical curriculum development in these two countries as well as increasing understanding of this aspect of interprofessional education and practice now in development around the world.
A rapidly aging population along with the increasing burden of patients with chronic conditions in Asia requires efficient health systems with integrated care. Although some efforts to integrate primary care and hospital care in Asia are underway, overall care delivery remains fragmented and diverse, eg, in terms of medical electronic record sharing and availability, patient registries, and empowerment of primary health care providers to handle chronic illnesses. The primary care sector requires more robust and effective initiatives targeted at specific diseases, particularly chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, depression, and dementia. This can be achieved through integrated care - a health care model of collaborative care provision. For successful implementation of integrated care policy, key stakeholders need a thorough understanding of the high-risk patient population and relevant resources to tackle the imminent population demographic shift due to the extremely rapid rate of increase in the aging population in Asia.