THE Unimed Dentaldental operator of the Unimed System, the Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (Unesp), the São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp) and the technology company infinite constituted an unprecedented partnership in Brazil for the development of a virtual oral health consultancy with Artificial Intelligence (AI). The digital platform assesses the risk of oral pathologies, offers personalized guidance and can indicate professionals who are more likely to solve the user’s problem. In this first stage, Tina will assess the risk of developing caries and dental erosion, however, new features are already planned to be made available.
Funded by the Pipe program (Innovative Research in Small Businesses — with incentive to Research and Technology) by Fapesp and by Unimed Odonto, the platform will be integrated into the Unimed Odonto Super App and, in this initial phase, will be made available to all users of the application.
The creation of the tool was curated by researchers in dentistry and technology linked to Unesp, who structured the questionnaire and the decision algorithm that will be used by users to obtain information and specific guidelines. Among the questions that will be asked are questions about hygiene habits, food and health care.
According to Fábio Nogi, Superintendent of Dentistry and Master in Social Dentistry at the University of São Paulo, Tina will have intuitive navigation and will empower users through self-knowledge of their oral conditions and the provision of qualified information, contributing to people assume a greater role in oral health self-care, avoiding diseases such as cavities, dental erosion, as well as more serious pathologies in the next stages of the project. “This is a public-private partnership in dentistry that connects academic research with the private sector, being innovative in the dental plan sector. It is important to emphasize that, in a second moment, through the tool, the user will also be able to find the nearest dentist in our accredited network, in the indicated specialty, for clinical evaluation and treatment”, adds Nogi.
“We will have an unprecedented mapping of the oral health condition of Unimed customers and people interested in having better dental health. This is revolutionary, because in addition to empowering people through self-knowledge, it allows the development of personalized and potentially more efficient health promotion programs”, says Osmir Batista de Oliveira Jr, PhD and professor in Dentistry at Unesp Araraquara.
The project has Prof. Tamara Carolina Trevisan as the responsible researcher and had the participation of Fábio Nogi, MSc and National Manager of Unimed Odonto; Denis Henrique Pinheiro Salvadeo, PhD; Dennis Nakamura, startup mentor; Fábio Leite Gastal, PhD and New Business superintendent at Seguros Unimed; Stephen Kunihiro, MSc; and Osmir Batista de Oliveira Jr., PhD and free professor in Dentistry from Unesp Araraquara, all as associate researchers.