The first four recipients of the inaugural HSDM Dean’s Innovation Challenge were recently announced. The Dean’s Innovation Fund awards up to $25,000 of grant funding to HSDM faculty who propose innovative projects aimed at enhancing research, education or patient care.
Projects in basic, clinical, translational or social sciences were considered and evaluated based on the following criteria: their ability to gather pilot data that may be used to support future grant applications; their likeliness not to be funded by other mechanisms; their ability to build collaborative relationships across disciplines; and their sustainability and future growth potential.
Twenty-two applications were submitted in January 2016, and evaluated by Dean Bruce Donoff and six members of the School’s faculty and staff. The following four projects were selected for funding:
Dr. Jason Lee (Restorative Dentistry and Biomaterials Sciences) – Virtual Patient Project
This project is a proof-of-principle for the development of a 4D virtual patient model. It aims to fuse several discrete data subsets to create a virtual patient with a dynamic jaw and facial tissue movements to redefine the approach to medical care.
Dr. Lisa Simon (Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology) – Preventative Periodontal Treatment
This project will assess the feasibility and impact of providing periodontal treatment to hospitalized patients with diabetes.
Dr. Rosalyn Sulyanto (Developmental Biology) – Human Oral Microbiome
This project will investigate the acquisition of the human oral microbiome and examine the effect of minimally invasive caries treatments on the oral microbiome in children.
Dr. Alessandro Villa (Oral Medicine, Infection and Immunity) – Mobile Health Application
This project will evaluate an innovative, smartphone-based application to optimize measurement of faculty guidance and dental student or resident autonomy, and articulate a common language with which faculty and residents can discuss criteria for success.
“Congratulations to these four and all applicants, it is inspiring to see what great work our faculty is doing at HSDM, and I look forward to these continued efforts,” said Dean Donoff.
