D'Souza Rena N, Colombo John S
Dr. D'Souza is Associate Vice Provost for Research, Professor in School of Dentistry, and Professor in Departments of Neurobiology, Anatomy, and Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Utah; and Dr. Colombo is with the School of Dentistry, University of Utah.
J Dent Educ. 2017 Sep;81(9):eS73-eS82. doi: 10.21815/JDE.017.037.
This is a critical time in the history of the dental profession for it to fully embrace the responsibility to safeguard its reputation as a learned profession. In this golden era of scientific and technological advances, opportunities abound to create new diagnostics, preventions, treatments, and cures to improve oral health. Dental schools are the largest national resource entrusted with the responsibility to educate, train, and retain oral health researchers who can leverage such technologies and research opportunities that will benefit the profession at large as well as patients. This article reemphasizes the theme that research training and scholarship must be inextricably woven into the environment and culture in dental schools to ensure the future standing of the profession. An overview of the history of support provided by the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research for the training and career development of dentist-scientists is presented. In addition, new data on the outcomes of such investments are presented along with a comparison with other health professions. This overview underscores the need to expand the capacity of a well-trained cadre of oral health researchers through the reengineering of training programs. Such strategies will best prepare future graduates for team science, clinical trials, and translational research as well as other emerging opportunities. The urgent need for national organizations like the American Dental Association, American Dental Education Association, and American Association for Dental Research to create new alliances and novel initiatives to assist dental schools and universities in fulfilling their research mission is emphasized. To ignore such calls for action is to disavow a valuable legacy inherited by the dental profession. This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21 Century."
对于牙科专业而言，这是其历史上的一个关键时期，需要充分承担起维护其作为一门学术专业声誉的责任。在这个科技进步的黄金时代，创造新的诊断方法、预防措施、治疗手段和治愈方法以改善口腔健康的机会比比皆是。牙科学院是国家最大的资源之一，肩负着教育、培训和留住口腔健康研究人员的责任，这些研究人员能够利用此类技术和研究机会，从而使整个专业领域以及患者都受益。本文再次强调一个主题，即研究培训和学术研究必须紧密融入牙科学院的环境和文化中，以确保该专业的未来地位。文章概述了美国国立卫生研究院和国家牙科与颅面研究所为牙医科学家的培训和职业发展提供支持的历史。此外，还展示了此类投资成果的新数据，并与其他健康专业进行了比较。这一概述强调了通过重新设计培训项目来扩大训练有素的口腔健康研究人员队伍的能力的必要性。此类策略将为未来的毕业生在团队科学、临床试验、转化研究以及其他新出现的机会方面做好最佳准备。强调了美国牙科协会、美国牙科教育协会和美国牙科研究协会等全国性组织迫切需要建立新的联盟并开展新的举措，以协助牙科学院和大学完成其研究使命。忽视此类行动呼吁就是否认牙科专业继承的宝贵遗产。本文是“推进21世纪牙科教育”项目的一部分。
