No lectures. No slides to copy. No right answers.
Just students, faculty, a room full of real problems — and 30 minutes to come up with something bold.
BMIIL called it the Dental Innovation Sprint for a reason. 10 teams. 10 real-world problem statements from dentistry — rural access gaps, patient compliance, diagnostic overload, paediatric fear, workforce burnout. Each team had to pick one, sit with it, and pitch a working idea to a panel of judges.
Students who had never “pitched” anything in their lives stood up and spoke with conviction. Faculty members who’ve spent decades in practice found themselves genuinely rethinking problems they’d accepted as acceptable. And somewhere between the two — in that collision of clinical wisdom and fresh thinking — some ideas emerged that I genuinely believe deserve to go further.
A few of them will.
Organising this session reminded of something important: innovation in healthcare doesn’t always start in a lab or a boardroom. Sometimes it starts in a classroom, when you stop asking students to memorise and start asking them to “think”.
Dentistry has real problems. Today, a room of young clinicians and experienced faculty decided to take that seriously.
Proud of every team that pitched. Watch this space. 🦷
A big thank you to Dr. Satyajit Naik the principal of IDS and the ever so energetic and committed Dr. Shivangi Sharma.
