PROJECT SUMMARY: The overarching goal of this project is to develop organized, sustainable clinical
research programs that enable faculty and students to conduct practice-based research at the Midwestern
University Colleges of Dental Medicine. It is expected that once students graduate from these two dental
schools, they will be adequately trained to fully participate in the National Dental PBRN. To accomplish this
goal, this project will form a partnership between the two independently operated dental schools that are part of
Midwestern University (MWU) Colleges of Dental Medicine (the College of Dental Medicine-AZ in Glendale,
AZ, and the College of Dental Medicine-IL in Downers Grove, IL)) and an inter-institutional partner: the
University of Chicago (UC) Biological Sciences Division Center for Health and the Social Sciences Program in
Oral Health (CHeSS POH). In Approach Area 1, we will leverage the expertise and resources of the UC
CHeSS POH to provide foundational clinical research training to clinical faculty and student teams at both
dental schools. Concurrently, MWU will develop an infrastructure of video recorded training materials and a
mentor network of research-oriented faculty to provide sustainability to this program by making clinical
research training a fundamental component of the institution and dental student education. In Approach Area
2, we will build upon the existing intra-institutional collaboration between both MWU dental schools, which
already share a common Research Team comprised of research-oriented faculty and laboratory technicians.
We will expand this team to include CHeSS POH members as inter-institutional partners and work
collaboratively to mentor clinical faculty and students in the conduct of practice-based research. In Approach
Area 3, we will expand the current faculty mentor-dental student pairing that occurs at both dental schools
when students enter their third year of education. Each incoming 3rd-year student is paired with a 4th-year
student already working in the clinic. These two students work for the remainder of the year as clinical
colleagues under the direct supervision of a specific clinical faculty member. By training a cohort of students
each year to conduct clinical research under the mentorship of a research-trained faculty member, the program
will produce competent clinical researchers entering the workforce as well as a research mentor network that
fosters clinical research activities in both schools. In Approach Area 4, we will provide practical experience for
the faculty/student research mentor system by conducting a practice-based research project wherein we
systematically measure longitudinal relationships between oral inflammation and functional gastrointestinal
disorders. This multisite, noninterventional prospective clinical study will provide applied training in day-to-day
study operations, including consenting, enrolling, and data collection. Upon successful completion of this
project, we will have built a sustainable, enduring clinical training program that will produce approximately 32
practice-based research trained new dental practitioners every year.
