Benn earns silver in Code Blue Now health-care reform competition

Professor Douglas Benn, B.D.S., Ph.D., a professor of oral and maxillofacial radiology at the University of Florida College of Dentistry, earned second place and $5,000 from the Code Blue Now “Build an American Health System” competition for his innovative health-care reform proposal.

A panel of nine judges chose Benn’s proposal out of 10 finalists selected from a pool of 109 proposals in the competition. Benn’s proposal outlines a blueprint to combine vocational training with health education in a “village” attached to a nursing home. Single mothers participating in the program would be provided with housing, food and daycare while being trained toward becoming a licensed practical nurse, filling a critical health-care staffing shortage in nursing homes.

Benn labels his plan “pragmatic capitalism” and estimates that if only 500 out of the nation’s 17,000 nursing homes established these training villages, they could train 50,000 single mothers over a five-year period, thereby bringing 150,000 children into a healthy environment.