Search

Created in 1996, the Foederatio Europea Orthodontica or European Federation of Orthodontics represents, today, 15 associations counting almost ten thousands European colleagues. Committed to establish and develop good relationships between the national scientific orthodontic societies of the European Continent and to pursue a common goal to communicate and share an up-to-date orthodontic information, it has undertaken, with a minimal budget (one Euro/orthodontist as annual fee), several actions including a valuable and user friendly internet site (www.Feoonline.com) - an annual award for the best scientific paper published in Europe - a list of excellent speakers ready to communicate, an objective support for the national association which is selected for hosting the general assembly and a newsletter on the web that will be soon published in national journals of the FEO members. Thanks to devoted professionals that have actively contribute in the founding and the management of the federation, FEO is now grown up and ready to plan and finalize, with the specially created think tank, new common actions and some exciting steps for the future. It is time for those that have been reluctant in the past, to join the group and be part of its further development.

There has been a proliferation of Orthodontic Boards across the world but there is no uniformity in standards, purposes or in the type of examination. In order to promote discussion at the International Orthodontic Congress in Paris in September 2005 a questionnaire was sent out to 80 Orthodontic Societies on the World Federation of Orthodontists list. There was a limited response to the questionnaire but the results are described in this paper. It illustrated that there were mainly two types of Board, mandatory ones that acted to license the Orthodontist in that country on the Specialist register and voluntary ones where the orthodontist demonstrates his excellence. The paper describes the answers to the various questions asked on the purpose, eligibility and type of examination of the Boards. They were also asked about the feasibility of an International Board. This was rejected as an option but an affiliation of Boards was recommended.

This paper is an attempt to individuate some principles and guidelines apt to regulate the relationship between orthodontists and financing third parties, applicable to most western European Countries. The concepts of orthodontic treatment need, orthodontic treatment request and orthodontic screening are discussed, alongside with a short overview of some of the most common indexes to assess the severity of the malocclusion and/or the treatment priority. The screening method introduced by the Danish Ministry of Health is presented; its importance lies in the fact that for the first time a direct correlation between health risk and individual malocclusions is recognized and assessed. In the discussion, it is stressed how the screening system tightly depends on the chosen general model for orthodontic care. Different models of orthodontic care organization as presently used in many European countries are presented and shortly discussed; among these, the Norwegian model is described more in details, because of its simplicity. Eventually, some guidelines considered necessary in order to achieve satisfactory standards of quality and efficiency are presented and discussed.

The security of electronic medical information is very important for health care organisations, which have to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information provided. This paper will briefly outline the legal measures adopted by the European Community, Italy and the United States to regulate the use and disclosure of medical records. It will then go on to highlight how information technology can help to address these issues with special reference to the management of organisation policies. To this end, we will present a modelling example for the security policy of a radiological department.