Welcome to the newest member of the JBI Collaboration 

Recently we welcomed a new Entity to the JBI Collaboration: Amrita Centre for Evidence Based Oral Health: A JBI Affiliated Group. The Amrita Centre for Evidence Based Oral Health is part of the Amrita School of Dentistry, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, which is a multi-campus, multi-disciplinary research university and is ranked as one of the best research institutions in India. The Amrita School of Dentistry is situated on the Kerala campus, which is a stunning part of India, with nearly 600km of Arabian Sea shoreline on India’s tropical Malabar Coast. 

The Amrita Centre for Evidence Based Oral Health brings with it a new area of expertise as it is the first JBI Affiliated Group to focus on oral health. Director Dr Chandrashekar Janakiram tells us that:  

The Centre will focus only on oral health and will strive to become a Centre of Excellence for oral health in India. India is reported to have high prevalence of oral diseases, with a prevalence of 84.7% for dental caries [tooth decay] and 89.2% for periodontal disease. Evidence-based synthesis for oral health promotion and prevention is deficient in Indian oral health scenarios. The aim of developing an oral health–specific centre is to promote oral health to the Indian population and to bring global attention to this matter. 

Dr Janakiram further explains that:  

…our proposed group will provide systematic reviews and implementation case reports related to oral health that will be published in both JBI Evidence Synthesis and JBI Evidence Implementation, for access by clinicians globally. We know that there is a lack of centralised health data available, and that evidence synthesis and evidence-based practice needs to be promoted in dentistry in India. We hope that this can bring standardization to research design and data collection, identify research gaps and facilitate meaningful inference from the data. Also, the JBI Collaboration can facilitate partnerships with local and government organisations for knowledge translation. This can be made possible by conducting dissemination events from time to time and promoting evidence-based administrative decision- and policy-making. 

To celebrate joining the JBI Collaboration, Amrita Centre for Evidence Based Oral Health hosted an event to commemorate the inauguration of the Group. It was a joyous event with many dignitaries in attendance, such as Dr Vasudevan Damodaran (Head of Post Graduate Research), Dr Balagopal Varma (Principal, Amrita School of Dentistry), Dr Vishal Marwaha (Principal, Amrita School of Medicine), Prof Sabitha M (Principal, Amrita School of Pharmacy), and JBI’s own Prof Ritin Fernandez (Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Initiatives in Health Care: A JBI Centre of Excellence, NSW, Australia) and Ms Bianca Pilla (Global Relations Manager, JBIC). In difficult global times, celebrating initiative and success is so important, and our new Group was able to share its enthusiasm and the power of collaboration at the well-coordinated event.  

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We have so much confidence in our newest Group and are so excited to work alongside the Amrita Centre for Evidence Based Oral Health as it strives to achieve, and attain, future success.