This application proposes to build on established institutional and personal relationships between faculty at the University of Washington School of Dentistry and affiliated Faculties of Dentistry at Thammasat University and Khon Kaen University in Thailand in order to establish short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term training programs in clinical, public health, and behavioral oral health research training for Thailand (which eventually should be of benefit across all of South East Asia). The training programs proposed include short-term one-to-two week workshops on clinical research methods held in Thailand, intermediate term 3-month training programs which include the Summer Institute in Clinical Dental Research Methods in Seattle, and long-term programs which include a year working in Seattle on existing research projects, taking advanced coursework, and planning a dissertation research project, followed by a year conducting the research project in Thailand. The program is designed to attract students to and enhance the Ph.D. in Oral Science offered at Thammasat and Khon Kaen Universities in Thailand by offering access to additional clinical, public health, and behavioral oral health research methodology and research experience to Thai Ph.D. students at UW, especially for students who are in Ph.D. pathways that emphasize clinical, public health, and/or behavioral research. Director of the program is Dr. Timothy A. DeRouen, Professor and Executive Associate Dean for Research and Academic Affairs in the School of Dentistry at UW;Associate Director is Dr. Prathip Phantumvanit, former Dean of Dentistry at both Thammasat and Khon Kaen Universities. Upon completion of the proposed 5-year funding, approximately 50-75 dentists and graduate students from Thailand and other South East Asian countries will have participated in workshops, 16 will have participated in the UW Summer Institute in Clinical Dental Research Methods, and 4 will have completed Ph.D.'s at the Thai institutions with enhanced long-term training through the University of Washington.
