SESSION Seq #15: Dental School Involvement in the Planning and Implementation of NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards: We are at the Table; What Do We Do Now?

Seq #15

Thursday, April 3, 2008

8:00 AM-9:30 AM
Hilton Anatole Hotel Grand Ballroom E, Symposium - Group/Division Sponsored

Dental School Involvement in the Planning and Implementation of NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards: We are at the Table; What Do We Do Now?

Sponsored by: Cariology Research, Craniofacial Biology, Geriatric Oral Research, Implantology Research, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Oral Medicine & Pathology, Pharmacology, Therapeutics, & Toxicology, Prosthodontics Research

Description: The NIH sponsored “roadmap” for medical research in the 21st century is in the early stages of implementation. One part of the “roadmap,” which has great potential for altering research and teaching in the nation’s dental schools is the planned re-engineering of the clinical reseach environment through Clinical and Translational Research Awards (CTSAs). These awards, administered though the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) cover a broad scope of activities including the development of novel integrative and multidisciplinary approaches to translational and clinical research, formal training in state-of-the-art clinical research methodologies, outreach into the community and especially underserved populations, the involvement of community health providers in the clinical research enterprise, and the development of a national clinical and translational research consortium to assure best practices, continued advancement, and maximum deployment of advances in treatment to the public. NIDCR has participated in the planning of the “roadmap” initiatives and the CTSAs. The agency has served as a strong advocate for the nation’s dental schools to assure their inclusion in the new national clinical research infrastructure. This involvement is manifest by the inclusion of dental schools in the consortiums of schools and institutions applying for CTSA awards. In the first year of the award (2007), 8 of the 12 suceessful applications included dental school participation, and several additional dental schools are expected to be represented in the 2008 awards. However, inclusion does not necessarily ensure suceess. Most CTSAs are organized around the infrastructure previously developed within medical school environments and dental schools can be at a disadvantage because of a lower level of trained faculty, resources, and clinical research infrastructure. Despite these difficulties, the opportunities for clinical research in oral health are outstanding compared with the more mature development of clinical studies in many medical fields. The purpose of this symposium is to discuss the early experience of CTSA implementation and how best dental schools can take advantage of it. Speakers will include three individuals (Dr. John Greenspan, UCSF, Dr. Ira Lamster, Columbia, and Dr. Clark Stanford, University of Iowa), who will describe the early deployment of CTSA infrastructure at their institutions and its impact at the dental college. Dr. Kim Perry, Baylor College of Dentistry, will give the perspective of a dental faculty member involved in a “roadmap” K12 training program in clinical research. Overall, these presentations and associated discussion will focus on (1) what are the goals of dental schools in CTSA implementation; (2) what is important and what should we avoid; and (3) what is working and where do we go from here?

Chairperson: P.C. DECHOW


0053	8:00 AM	The UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Insitute - Rewriting the Paradigm J.S. GREENSPAN, University of California San Francisco, USA
	8:15 AM	Implementing CTSAs: How to Enrich the Clinical Research Environment I. LAMSTER, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
	8:30 AM	Learning To Be a Oral Health Clinical Researcher in a CTSA Environment K. PERRY, Baylor College of Dentistry, Dallas, TX, USA
	8:45 AM	Spanning the River - Lessons Learned in Integrating Dental Research in Pan-campus CTSA Initiatives C. STANFORD, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA
	9:00 AM	Discussion

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