Clinical and Translational Research Innovation in Dental Schools (ClinTrain-RIDeS)

Abstract Text: Abstract The overall goal of UCSF’s Clinical and Translational Research Innovation in Dental School (ClinTrain-RIDeS) is to develop future dentist-scientists and establish a clinical research enterprise at the UCSF School of Dentistry and Northern California through the following aims: 1) Provide clinical research training and skills development to UCSF Dentistry’s community of clinicians (predoctoral students, postgraduate residents, faculty) and to other collaborating partners – UCSF Dentistry- affiliated clinical faculty from Community-Based Clinical Education externship sites in California and Alaska and clinical faculty at California Northstate University College of Dental Medicine. The successful training programs and courses from the UCSF Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) will be adapted and tailored for School of Dentistry residents and faculty, and dental research faculty will facilitate small group sessions to provide mentoring on developing a clinical research protocol. For predoctoral students, the existing research methods curriculum required of all dental students will be redesigned to expand clinical research topics and a new quality improvement course will be developed. Dental students will also be supported to participate in CTSI’s Yearlong Inquiry Program and obtain a certificate/master’s in clinical research degree. 2) Develop a Practice-based Clinical Research Incubator Program at the UCSF Dental Center to foster conducting clinical research studies by building and expanding on effective mentorship and sponsorship initiatives at UCSF and in the School of Dentistry. Mentoring will be available to trainees in all phases of designing and implementing their clinical research including forming project ideas, developing them into protocols, applying for intramural funds, implementing research, and disseminating findings. 3) Conduct small-scale practice-based clinical research projects prospectively collecting data, starting with (a) validating the accuracy and adherence to evidence-based treatment guidelines of artificial intelligence (AI)- generated caries diagnoses and treatment plans compared to faculty-approved student-dentist diagnoses and treatment plans with assistance from UCSF’s APeX-Enabled Research Program and leading industry partners; and (b) assessing the usability of a real-time dental AI clinical decision support tool among predoctoral student-dentists and clinical faculty. Future small-scale research projects will be clinical faculty- generated and prioritized based on observations from their daily clinical practices. Together these aims will catalyze UCSF to be a leader in practice-based clinical research in Northern California dental schools, which have a diverse patient base permitting favorable generalizability and applicability of findings.