The purpose of the Rochester Training Program for Oral Health Clinical Research is to provide dentists with theoretical, methodological and practical training in clinical research to prepare them for careers in academic dentistry. The program will emphasize the fundamental aspects of oral and dental biology, oral microbiology, salivary research and craniofacial development. Strong feature of the program is the interdisciplinary collaborative nature of the training environment designed to encourage interaction among the dental trainees, and the strong cadre of biomedical and social scientists. Training opportunities will be structured around two tracks; an oral biology track leading to a Master of Science and a clinical epidemiology track leading to a Master of Public Health in Clinical Investigation. The curriculum in these tracks is designed to complement and enhance (but not replace) the mentored research experience so vital to research training. Both tracks emphasize this mentored clinical research experienced focused on craniofacial dental and oral health and disease, epidemiological, and outcomes and health services research. All trainees will participate in the core of skill building workshops in clinical research. In addition, the training will ensure that the trainees are conversant with the design, budgeting, implementation, data management and statistical methodology of controlled, dental, oral and craniofacial clinical trials. We will recruit individuals who have completed a D.D.S. or D.M.D. degree, those who, in addition, have done residency training in Postdoctoral General Dentistry or a clinical specialty, and junior and mid career dental faculty who wish to retrain as clinical researchers. The large number of training programs in Rochester provide a rich intellectual environment for trainees. Furthermore the program proposed in this grant application is unique in that it draws on a large base of excellent postdoctoral clinical training programs, faculty with major clinical research programs, the availability of diverse populations for clinical research, skilled interactive statistical support and close ties with other health science colleagues involved in clinical research. The environment is enhanced by the experience that investigators have had in multiple interactive groups, the strong position of the dental academic enterprise in the Medical Center and the history of interaction of dentistry with other academic units.
| Kopycka-Kedzierawski, D T; Billings, R J (2006) Application of nonhomogenous Markov models for analyzing longitudinal caries risk. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 34:123-9 |
| Kopycka-Kedzierawski, Dorota T; Billings, Ronald J (2004) A longitudinal study of caries onset in initially caries-free children and baseline salivary mutans streptococci levels: a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 32:201-9 |
