The Clinical Core of the Center for Oral Health Research (C-COHR) emerged from a strong community-based initiative and consolidation of the former Clinical Core and Biostatistics Core, both initiated with the first phase of COBRE funding. By consolidating and further fostering the expertise developed over the last decade of activities in clinical and biostatistical methods needed specifically for oral health research, CCOHR meets a critical need for the established and growing cadre of MUSC investigators incorporating oral health components into their translational and clinical research. The tailored oral health expertise ensures the unique position of C-COHR among research facilities at MUSC and, more broadly, in South Carolina, supporting projects investigating the relationships between oral health and systemic disorders; evaluating new oral diagnostic and intervention methods; and that are active community interventions aiming to decrease oral health disparities in our state, especially among the underserved Gullah population and at the same time developing models that can be widely applied. The objective of C-COHR is to optimize the clinical research process engaging academic and community partners in the development of clinical research that will enable the MUSC research team to effectively bring their dental and educational expertise into the Gullah and/or other minority communities. The CCOHR has established the infrastructure to engage disparity populations in South Carolina and is on course towards becoming independent with community-based, clinical and biostatistical investigators. Through further synergy with other programs, our unique oral health program will strengthen biomedical, clinical and behavioral oral health research capacity on campus and address the otherwise unmet needs of investigators pursuing oral health clinical and community-based research hypotheses; and of engaging our unique population, the Gullah African Americans. As a result, we expect to reduce oral health disparities through discovery, and development of knowledge and interventions.
C-COHR is an essential resource to conduct oral health research, that provides necessary physical as well as human infrastructure with clinical and laboratory capacities and in addition provides unique expertise in clinical, community-based and biostatistical issues relevant to Oral Health research.
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