Oral Inflammation and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders: A Practice-Based Reseach Approach - 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.
