Cultivating Researchers in Oral and Systemic health Studies (CROSS)

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY The myriad connections between oral and systemic health, the relevance of those connections for population health, and the fact that medicine and dentistry are highly siloed from each other with respect to both research and practice justifies efforts to expand the pool of researchers with the necessary skills to conduct cross- disciplinary research at the intersection of oral and systemic health. Although interdisciplinary research across dentistry and medicine will be important to improve health outcomes on individual, community, and population levels, the rigorous clinical training provided in medical and dental school leaves little time for training in clinical research and social science-based methods. Moreover, the siloed graduate education systems for training medical and dental providers impede cross-training and collaboration of clinician-scientists in these disciplines. To develop innovative research across professional silos, it is critical to develop research education programs for future clinician-scientists that instill interest and build skills in interdisciplinary oral health related clinical research at an early stage. To address these gaps in research training integrated across professional disciplines, we propose a research education program, Cultivating Researchers in Oral and Systemic health Studies (CROSS), to train a next generation of researchers to be leaders in cross-disciplinary clinical research at the intersection of oral health, systemic health, and the social sciences. The CROSS program will offer undergraduate students enrolled in colleges across the Chicago area the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in research that integrates oral health, medicine, and the social sciences while learning about the overall relationship between oral health, systemic health, and well-being on an individual and at population level. The program will take place over 15 weeks in one academic year, with a full-time summer experience and part-time engagement during the academic year. CROSS will be based at the University of Chicago within the Center for Health and the Social Sciences’ Program on Oral Health, Systemic Health, Well Being and the Social Sciences and will build on a robust infrastructure for undergraduate training programs in CHeSS, including successful strategies for recruiting and retaining students across the Chicagoland area. CROSS will embed trainees in one of several longitudinal, clinical research studies related to oral health and systemic health in outpatient settings and among hospitalized patients. Participants will complete a training curriculum to learn about clinical research, to consent patients to their respective studies and collect data that is used to assess oral and systemic health outcomes. Participants will be paired with faculty mentors to conduct a faculty-mentored research project using data they helped collect with a final poster presentation at an end-of-year symposium. In addition, students will participate in complementary research education activities, including oral and systemic health related didactics, clinical shadowing in dental or medical settings, and exposure to data analytics, scientific writing, and presentation skills.