Dentaltown November 2020 - 18

industry
news

YAPI Secures Growth Investment From M33 Growth
YAPI, a provider of patient communication and paperless software for dental practices, has secured a growth investment from M33 Growth, a
Boston-based venture and growth-stage investment firm. The investment will be used to expand the company's account management, customer
success, and research and development teams, in addition to bolstering its existing sales and marketing programs.
YAPI's product suite helps dental practices automate administrative tasks by using personalized appointment reminders and automated patient
recalls, streamlining intraoffice practice communication and digitizing paper-based forms. Founded in 2009, the company began as a small customdesigned software solution to address the pain points co-founder and CEO Dr. Gina Dorfman saw in her dental office. In 2011, the company entered the
market for dental offices.
Information: yapiapp.com

Industry News
Information in this section is culled from releases that were delivered to
news@dentaltown.com. All material is subject to editing and space availability.

Texas Tech's New Dental School Begins
Interviewing Inaugural Class Applicants
In September, the Hunt School of Dental Medicine began interviewing applicants
for its inaugural class, welcoming the first 18 potential students to new facilities on the
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso campus. Interviews are scheduled
throughout the fall and into January 2021.
Set to open in 2021, the Hunt School of Dental Medicine will be the fourth dental
school in Texas and the first on the U.S.-Mexico border. The school will be housed in the
Medical Sciences Building II, a new building on the TTUHSC El Paso campus where students
will train in the Dental Learning Center.
The center will feature 80 stations equipped with high-tech simulation mannequins
and a fabrication lab for crafting dental appliances using 3D scanners and advanced CAD/
CAM machines. Students will gain real-world experience at the Texas Tech Dental Oral
Health Clinic, a new 38,000-square-foot clinic equipped with 130 treatment chairs.
Cyd Goldfarb, MEd., the school's senior director of admissions and recruitment,
said the first pool of applicants are candidates who come from all of Texas, including
the El Paso area and other parts of West Texas, where many residents suffer from poor
dental health because of lack of access to affordable care. In El Paso County, there's only
one dentist for every 4,545 residents, compared to the national average of one for every
1,639. The Hunt School of Dental Medicine aims to help alleviate the severe shortage
of dentists in the region. The school will fill 40 spots for the inaugural class and future
classes will have 60 students.
Information: elpaso.ttuhsc.edu/sdm

Dental Industry Leaders
Form Group Focused On
Artificial Intelligence
Leaders from across the dental
industry recently announced the
formation of the Dental AI Council (DAIC),
an organization devoted to helping define
the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in
dentistry through research and education.
DAIC members represent all major
industry constituencies, including
practitioners, dental service organizations,
equipment manufacturers, practice
management software providers, insurance
carriers, laboratories and universities.
As AI begins to yield increased efficiency,
accuracy, consistency and insight in a
variety of dental applications, the DAIC will
seek to stimulate greater industrywide
understanding of the technology.
The DAIC membership is composed of
clinicians, professors and senior executives
of leading companies, including Cigna,
Delta Dental, DSG, Heartland, Henry Schein,
NDX and Walmart. The DAIC's primary
function is to lead independent research to
ascertain where and how AI will prove most
valuable to dentistry, empirically validate
its functional capabilities and performance,
and answer fundamental questions related
to AI's role in the oral health care ecosystem
of tomorrow. In addition to research, the
DAIC will facilitate AI-related educational
programming, thought leadership content
and public advocacy initiatives.
The first DAIC study is scheduled to be
released later this year.
Information: dentalaicouncil.org

NOVEMBER 2020 // dentaltown.com

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10/20/20 9:35 AM

http://www.yapiapp.com http://elpaso.ttuhsc.edu/sdm http://www.dentalaicouncil.org http://www.dentaltown.com

Dentaltown November 2020

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