Social accountability - The missing link in dental education

In this century, dental colleges will be gauged by their capacity to anticipate the kind of doctors required by evolving health systems. They will need to consider the challenges these systems face as they grapple with critical health concerns in society. The roots of ill health lie in poverty, discrimination, lack of education, misdistribution and misuse of often scarce resources; and in any given country, those who identify health issues, act on health determinants, decide on the use of resources, deliver health services, or train health manpower are usually different groups that may not share the same value system and priorities. Thus, fragmentation is a serious threat to the efficiency and effectiveness of health systems everywhere. Meeting requirements of social accountability is a real challenge for dental colleges as it is for the dental health professions, health service organizations, health insurance schemes, and health policy leaders. So this article tries to evaluate the need for social accountability in the dental education system.