Research Association Offers Perspective on ‘Advancing Dental Education’ Project
The American Association for Dental Research (AADR) has issued comments on the completion of the first phase of the “Advancing Dental Education: Gies in the 21st Century” project, which is developing a strategic plan for the future of dental education.
The American Association for Dental Research (AADR) has issued comments on the completion of the first phase of the “Advancing Dental Education: Gies in the 21st Century” project, which is developing a strategic plan for the future of dental education. The AADR’s assessment of the initial stage of the three-phase project, specifically, the research section, appears in the Journal of Dental Research. In this perspective piece, members of AADR staff and leadership, including President Raul Garcia, DMD, CAGS, MMSc, and Immediate Past President Jack Ferracane, PhD, MS, provide specific recommendations for meeting the challenges of dental training and research over the next 25 years, and enumerate AADR’s role in supporting the dental research community in this endeavor.
In the article, AADR stresses the need for dental schools to participate in research and foster the integration of multidisciplinary research teams, bring more PhD students into dental, oral and craniofacial research, and to improve the quality of training for dual-degree (e.g., DDS, PhD) students. “Every dental school has a role to play,” says Garcia. “Dental schools are the primary source for producing clinician scientists in dental, oral and craniofacial research. William Gies emphasized that dentistry is both a learned profession, as well as a specialized area of medicine, and his insights remain relevant today. We are excited to see how this project builds on Gies’ vision and validates the foundational role that research and scholarship play in the profession.”
From Decisions in Dentistry. October 2017;3(10):12.
