The deans of three Ivy League dental schools have joined together in a project which supports their commitment to lifelong learning.

Through the collaboration, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, along with the dental schools of Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, intend to advance the delivery of lifelong learning to dental professionals. The collaboration, the Ivy Dental Consortium, or IDC, has an initial goal of the implementation of educational material on the Internet for use by graduates of the three schools. Immediate activities planned for the IDC include the development of a Web page and an online continuing education program, the first of which should be available in spring 1997.

The steering committee of the IDC consists of R. Bruce Donoff, Dean at Harvard, Ray Fonseca, Dean at Pennsylvania, and Allan J. Formicola, Dean at Columbia. The three deans are supported by working groups from each institution which have been charged with establishing future goals and programs for the IDC. The working group representing the Harvard School of Dental Medicine includes Howard Howell, Ellen Libert, and Karl Matlin.

According to Dean Donoff, "The venture promotes the ideals and principles of the new program in dental education at Harvard."

Discussions with Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania for more than a year have led to this cooperative venture.