The overall goal of this application is to develop the organizational infrastructure for a Center in Oral/Facial Hard Tissue Studies at the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). Affiliated institutions include: Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Oregon Area Health Education Centers, and Portland Veterans Administration Medical Center. The planning grant will involve basic scientists, clinical scientists, behavioral scientists, information transfer specialists, biostatisticians, and dental clinicians. The resources will be used to organize these individuals in a unified effort to develop and distribute-scientific information on disorders affecting oral hard tissues. Multidisciplinary projects involving clinicians from the large network of dental study clubs in the Northwest will be conducted in orofacial hard tissue research, distance learning, behavioral science, demonstration research and clinical research.
Three specific aims are:
Aim #1 : Further define and foster collaborative links between basic scientists, clinicians, information specialists, and industrial partners relating to the development, degradation, and replacement of cranial-facial bone and hard tooth tissues.
Aim #2 : Augment service components to support research, information transfer, and outreach activities. Service components will be used to facilitate collaborative research and to disseminate information about oral hard tissue disorders and their treatment to health care providers and the public.
Aim#3 : Convene external and internal review groups to guide the development of the infrastructure for a COHRCD. They will objectively measure and guide the progress towards achieving the aims of the grant. The end result will be to develop the infrastructure for a Comprehensive Oral Health Research Center of Discovery (COHRCD). The primary function of the COHRCD will be to: 1) conduct multidisciplinary research on oral hard tissues, and 2) effectively transfer the knowledge gained from these studies to oral health care providers and patients.
