Meharry Medical College (MMC) is a historically black college that routinely oversees the healthcare needs of
underserved populations and patients with low socioeconomic status inflicted with multiple medical and dental
comorbidities. The majority of our School of Dentistry (SOD) students and residents are from underrepresented
minority groups. At the MMCSOD clinics, they serve patients of low socioeconomic backgrounds, many of whom
are underinsured or uninsured. Therefore, MMCSOD is uniquely positioned to provide the clinical training
required to serve underserved patient populations. Unfortunately, only a small number of MMCSOD graduates
thus far, if any, have become dentist-scientists. This could be due to the lack of sufficient research training in the
clinical setting. Implementing a) clinical research skills development through research education and b) practice-
based approach research at MMCSOD will enhance the critical thinking skills necessary to incorporate the
acquired knowledge into best practices among our trainees. Furthermore, it will boost the graduation of more
competent dental scientists. We aim to engage our pre-doctoral, post-doctoral residents and dental faculty
(trainees) in a multidisciplinary project that will allow them to gain research skills and experience while treating
underserved patients at the MMCSOD clinics. To enhance clinical research and multidisciplinary practice-based
research skills among trainees, we will a) implement evidence based clinical research courses and training; b)
leverage intra-institutional collaborations with Meharry Schools of Medicine, Graduate Studies and Applied
Computational Sciences and inter-institutional collaborations with Vanderbilt University Medical Center; and c)
enhance peer and student mentoring partnerships with faculty focused on clinical research. We will implement
“Clinical Research Immersion Program” with the support of Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA).
The trainees will evaluate the program at the end of their rotation. Our trainees will also conduct clinical chart
reviews, case study sessions, collect and process oral specimens, and perform critical appraisal of the literature.
Collectively, this will boost our trainees to acquire the clinical research experience in treating periodontal disease
(PD) and HIV patients because of the high incidences of these diseases among the patients they see. They will
learn about and apply omics analysis in the identification of biomarkers for increased PD risk. They will also learn
to correlate their patients’ microbiological and immunological profiles with the severity and activity of PD. The
multidisciplinary practice-based research opportunities will enhance the clinical training of minority trainees at
MMCSOD. Our proposed training program will ultimately help improve the overall community/public health
outcomes for underserved populations affected by PD and HIV.
