Me and my groups research topic is the State of Dental Health care in Rural Alaska. A few questions that we will ask and attempt to answer in our Wikipedia entry will be
1. How are programs covering dentistry in rural Alaska funded?
2. What is the history of dental health care in rural Alaska?
3. Were do rural dentists practice their trade exactly?
4. Who exactly provides this care? And who exactly is covered by such care?
I think such questions concerning health care in rural Alaska have been largely overlooked on wikipedia in general, and its high time someone answered them. Such information will benefit anyone interested in dentistry in rural Alaska, whether they're students, professional health care providers or just any who's curious about rural health care.
My responsibilities in this project are, as of now, to find out just who's involved in the whole affair; dentists, patients, health care corporations, or branches of state government- and finding out what parts they all play in rural dentistry. Then, I'll organize my findings and craft a section of our wikipedia article concerning the people involved in rural Alaska health care. For my sources, I'll be scouring the university's library for sources concerning rural health care in Alaska. I'll probably look on the Internet as well- having looked very briefly at the library's sources, I can't say I'm too impressed with the quantity of information provided concerning Alaskan Dentistry, and I think a google search might be a more powerful research tool in this case. I might even talk to my dad or grandpa about he subject- they've both had careers that have been very closely connected to an Alaska Native Corporation that probably plays a big part in rural health care.
As for a time-table I might use for this project, lets just say that I'll try my best to get everything done by the time everything is due- as you can tell, judging by the lateness of this post, that might be a challenge for me.
Other than that, though, everything is beginning to get up to pace, and I've got a good feeling about his project. I think its cool that we are both doing a research paper for an English class and expanding the public's source of information concerning Alaskan issues.
Sorry this post was so late :s
