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Early Career Professional

Mid Career Professional

Senior Career Professional

Micro-Credential: Promoting Critical Thinking

Micro-Credential: Facilitating Small Group Learning

Micro-Credential: Promoting an Inclusive and Humanistic Learning Environment

Micro-Credential:Developing a Teaching Philosophy

Micro-Credential: Technology Integration in Didactic Teaching

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Evaluation

New Technologies

NT-007 - Bridging Interprofessional Pathways: Developing AI Chatbots to Improve Dental Communication

Monday, March 23, 2026

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM EDT

Location: Room 517 B, Fifth Floor, Palais

CE: 1

Keyword: Artificial Intelligence (NT)
SoTLFest Designation: Yes
LIAA Designation: No

Heidi McNeilly, M.S.W.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Adams School of Dentistry

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Kimberly A. Sanders, Pharm.D.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Adams School of Dentistry

PDF Handouts

AI is no longer the future—it is now. In dental education, we must find ways to bridge AI’s utility and creativity to how we instruct students. Custom AI chatbots can allow students to interact with patients from diverse backgrounds before those patients ever step foot in the clinic. This allows students to learn firsthand ways to improve communication about whole-person care, strengthening interprofessional collaboration and addressing health access—ultimately learning how to build bridges of trust with communities. Participants will learn how to train custom chatbots to support teaching person-centered care, ways to incorporate chatbots in the curriculum of their home institutions to enhance learner training, and evaluation strategies.

Learning Objectives:

Describe the role of custom AI chatbots in supporting the development of person-centered care skills in dental education.
Identify key design features that make chatbot-based learning experiences effective for teaching empathy, communication, interprofessional collaboration and behavioral health concepts.
Demonstrate how to create and customize a chatbot that simulates realistic patient interactions for use in classroom or clinical skills training relevant to their home institution.