J Dent Educ. 68(9): 965-969 2004
© 2004 American Dental Education Association
Milieu in Dental Schools and Practice |
Developing Competency in Research Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology Transfer: A Workshop Course
Edward F. Rossomando, D.D.S., Ph.D., M.S.;
Hubert Benitez, D.D.S., M.H.A.;
Bernard W. Janicki, Ph.D.
Dr. Rossomando is Professor and Director, and Dr. Benitez is Assistant Director—both at the Center for Research and Education in Technology Evaluation (CRETE), School of Dental Medicine, University of Connecticut; Dr. Janicki is Principal Advisor and Consultant, Center for Research and Education in Technology Evaluation (CRETE). Direct correspondence and requests for reprints to Dr. Edward F. Rossomando, University of Connecticut, School of Dental Medicine, MC3705, Farmington, CT 06030; 860-679-2622 phone; 860-679-2910 fax; erossoma{at}nso2.uchc.edu.
Key words: entrepreneurship, technology transfer processes, research management, dental education, translational research
Submitted for publication 04/28/04;
accepted 06/18/04
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Abstract
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In July 1999, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) convened a Blue Ribbon Panel that recommended management skills, entrepreneurship, and technology transfer should be included in dental education. The panel’s recommendations were implemented in an NIDCR-funded pilot project, "Workshop Course to Promote and Develop Dental Products and Technologies." The workshop consisted of lectures presented by seven faculty members recruited from academia, government, and business, along with an analysis of a professor’s invention and the barriers encountered in transforming the invention into a product. Evaluation consisted of a pre- and post-workshop survey. The workshop was presented to twenty-two participants on November 8 and 9, 2003 at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine and, to refine the presentation further, will be tested at five additional dental schools (University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, New York University, Nova Southeastern University, and University of Southern California). The results indicated that the workshop’s courses would be helpful to the commercialization of inventions. In addition, dental students with experience in basic research expressed an interest in research of projects of use in dental practice. These findings suggest that pursuing research and an academic career might be more appealing if their research was product-oriented.
In its Strategic Plan released in 1997, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) identified three major initiatives: research opportunities, research capacity, and health promotion.1 The NIDCR listed the enhancement of its training and career development programs to attract and retain exceptional individuals in craniofacial, oral, and dental research as the goal of its research capacity strategic initiative with the objective of developing and expanding the dental profession’s capacity in contemporary basic and clinical research. In 1999, the NIDCR convened the "Blue Ribbon Panel on Research Training and Career Development to Meet the Scientific Opportunities of the 21st Century" to identify the opportunities in oral health-related research and the skills required to take advantage of these opportunities.2 The panel identified major areas of scientific opportunity and recommended development of a group of core and emerging competencies, including management skills, entrepreneurship, and knowledge of technology transfer approaches.
In 2003, the NIDCR funded a pilot study to determine if courses in management, entrepreneurship, and technology transfer would be of interest to those in the dental school community including students, residents, and dental faculty. This pilot project titled "Workshop Course to Promote and Develop Dental Products and Technologies" was developed by the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine (SDM) with partial support by the NIDCR.
The goal of the study was to develop a curriculum module, identify and assemble a faculty to teach the new curriculum module, and present and finally evaluate the new curriculum module. A one and one-half day workshop was developed and offered on a voluntary basis to dental students, residents, dental faculty, and students from the School of Business. The workshop offered lectures in entrepreneurship as well as a case study that included the issues faced by a dental school professor who had an invention and the barriers he faced in transforming the invention into a product.
The workshop was presented on November 8–9, 2003 at SDM and will be tested at five additional dental schools (University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, New York University, Nova Southeastern University, and University of Southern California). Upon completion of the pilot study, a tested and refined curriculum module will be available for dental schools to serve as an important component of a comprehensive research curriculum or a module that can be part of a research track within a dental curriculum. Indeed, a new dedicated research/scholarly track has recently been reported in the Journal of Dental Education.3
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Workshop Course Content and Format
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To identify competencies and teaching formats, current M.B.A. programs at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School, the Harvard Business School, and the University of California, Berkeley, Hass School of Business were analyzed. Based on the analysis of these business school curricula, it was concluded that to provide educational experiences in the entrepreneurial sciences, a course specifically designed for dental students was needed. Accordingly, the course was designed to provide: 1) an understanding of the dental business world, 2) the procedures to comply with regulatory requirements, 3) the public and private financial mechanisms of research support, 4) the processes of disclosure and protection of intellectual property, 5) the approaches for marketing and licensing, and 6) the methods to develop business plans and forecasts. The workshop lectures are listed in Table 1
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Following the selection of a teaching faculty with particular expertise in these areas, a program format was chosen that involved a series of twenty-five-minute lectures. Following these lectures, the group was divided into teams (five to eight persons/ team) for the case study. Specific questions were addressed by each team. A period of three hours was provided to develop a response and prepare a PowerPoint presentation. Later all teams reassembled, and each team leader made a twenty-minute presentation to the entire group.
The teaching faculty met in June 2003 to review the recruitment plan and the contents of the workshop materials, including the course syllabus, lecture presentations, and study case and to prepare the pre- and post-workshop survey evaluation materials. For a complete description of the learning objectives for each lecture presentation, please visit www.biodontics.org/workshop.htm
The case study format is a well-recognized teaching method in most business schools. The faculty agreed to discuss one case for all teams. In addition, a series of questions were developed for each team discussion, and the questions were custom tailored to illustrate a specific aspect of the case. A detailed description of the case can be found at www.biodontics.org/workshop.htm. The faculty also decided that each team should be comprised of participants with similar academic status.
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Recruitment Plan
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To meet NIH guidelines for diversity, SDM students in the 2004–07 classes were identified and categorized by ethnicity and gender. The diversity of this population is reflected in the following statistics: a) Male 58 percent; Female 42 percent; and b) White 77.2 percent, African American 6.2 percent, Asian/Pacific Islander 12.4 percent, American Indian/ Alaska Native 0 percent, Hispanic/Latino 1.8 percent, and Other 2.5 percent. The results of this analysis indicated that SDM student population met the NIH diversity guidelines for this project.
Because participation in the workshop was voluntary, the recruiting plan proposed in the grant application involved an intense marketing and recruiting campaign. Electronic and hard-copy informational brochures, flyers, and posters were delivered to students, dental residents, dental school faculty, other college students, and advocacy groups. Mass emailings were delivered weekly to all groups, and posters and flyers were continuously placed on SDM bulletin boards. Additional activities included informational lectures to dental students and dental residents, contacting student leaders and their faculty advisors, and working with minority and women faculty members and the SDM Affirmative Acton Officer to encourage participation in the workshop. Attendance was limited to twenty to twenty-five, in order to have no more that five participants in each of the four teams. Although the workshop was scheduled for a weekend to avoid any conflict with SDM classes, the recruitment efforts were considered to be successful, as reflected in the following statistics for the twenty-two attendees (including three M.B.A. students): a) Male 63.6 percent, Female 36.4 percent; and b) White 31.8 percent, African American 4.6 percent, Asian/Pacific Islander 36.4 percent, American Indian/Alaska Native 0 percent, Hispanic/ Latino 22.7 percent, and Other 4.6 percent.
Further analysis of the workshop participants indicated that registrants came from all segments of the dental school population and other schools of the university. Table 2 shows the academic status of the attendees. These results indicate that participation in the workshop was not limited to dental students, but almost one-half of the attendees were faculty and dental practitioners. Surprisingly, 13 percent of the enrollees came from the university’s School of Business.
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Success Stories Seminar Series
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To complement the recruitment plan, a series of eight seminars, "From Bench to Business: Success Stories by Dental Entrepreneurs," were scheduled during the months preceding the workshop. Speakers included four women from diversified ethnic, academic, and professional backgrounds and three male speakers from non-academic institutions who served as role models for alternate professional career paths. Their lectures included dental entrepreneurship and business aspects of dentistry and problems associated with new product development. A core group of ten to thirty usually attended these seminars, but the number varied considerably depending on the speaker. Based on a comparison of the attendees at the seminar series and those who registered for the workshop, the success stories appeared to be effective as a recruiting mechanism for the workshop course.
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Program Evaluation
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Evaluation of the program consisted of analysis of the pre- and post-workshop survey data to determine if the workshop conveyed the essential information.
Lecture Evaluation.
The pre-workshop data indicated that the attendees’ knowledge of the information and topics to be presented by the lecturers was quite limited. The majority of the participants noted that they had no (80 percent) or a fair (15 percent) knowledge of the material, and only 5 percent indicated that they were very knowledgeable. The post-workshop survey results demonstrated that essentially all (96 percent) of the attendees agreed that the information presented during the lectures was clearly explained and relevant.
Workshop Evaluation.
The pre- and post-workshop surveys were also used to evaluate overall aspects of the workshop. As shown in Table 3, prior to the course, 82 percent of the registrants thought that the workshop program could increase their understanding of the design, development, and evaluation of new products and technologies to be used in their professional career. Following the program, between 80 and 100 percent of the registrants agreed or strongly agreed that the program fulfilled this expectation and objective. Surprisingly, of those that expected to learn about product design, 18 percent disagreed that the workshop fulfilled this objective. Similarly, in regards to product evaluation, 6 percent did not agree that the workshop fulfilled this objective. One explanation for this result could be that these topics were not specifically covered in the lectures.
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Table 3. Effect of the workshop on attendee understanding of the design, development, and evaluation of new products throughout their professional career
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Also evaluated was the understanding of how entrepreneurship, technology transfer, and dental research applied to the attendee’s dental education. Table 4 shows that, prior to the workshop, 76 percent agreed that the program could affect how entrepreneurship, technology transfer, and dental research could apply to their dental education. Following the program, 69 percent strongly agreed that the program accomplished its objective.
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Table 4. Effect of the workshop on attendee understanding on how entrepreneurship, technology transfer, and dental research applies to dental education
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Discussion
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The goal of this workshop was to develop and test an experimental curriculum module that would introduce dental students, residents, and faculty to the fundamentals of how inventions developed in the dental academic laboratory and/or in the dental office flow into the product pipeline and emerge as new products for clinical dentistry.
The idea for this workshop, a first step towards introducing such material into the existing dental school curriculum, emerged in part from a report published in 1999. The NIDCR, concerned about the flow of new products and technologies, published a report recommending that the education and training of future dental academic scientists include courses in technology transfer, management, and entrepreneurship.2 Introducing changes into the established dental curriculum takes time and requires convincing a number of committees and administrators that the change will add value to the existing program. Pilot studies are needed to develop appropriate curriculum modules, identify and assemble a faculty to teach the new modules, and present and finally evaluate the new curriculum module. If the results from these pilot studies suggest that the new experimental curriculum module is of interest, is well received, and is useful, then the academic committees and administrators are more likely to consider the incorporation of the workshop topics into the established curriculum. In 2003, the NIDCR funded a pilot study to determine if courses in management, entrepreneurship, and technology transfer would be of interest to those in the dental school community including students, residents, and dental faculty. As part of this study, a one and one-half day workshop was developed and offered on a voluntary basis to dental students, residents, dental faculty, and students form the School of Business. The workshop offered lectures in entrepreneurship and a case study that included the issues confronted by a dental school professor who had an invention and the barriers he faced in transforming this invention into a product. The workshop was presented at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, and those who attended were either developing an invention or had an interest in learning about how inventions became products.
The results of post-workshop discussions and feedback indicated that faculty participants thought the workshop’s courses would be helpful to the commercialization of their inventions. In addition, in the post-workshop survey, student and resident participants expressed the view that the program could be applicable to the commercialization of ideas that might emerge during their practice. During the workshop discussions, question and answer sessions, and in their case study reports, many of the dental students who had previous experience working in basic research laboratories but had abandoned research work expressed an interest in returning to research if the area or topic of the research project would lead to the development of a product for immediate use in dental practice. This information is of importance because a large majority of dental school graduates express no interest in basic or clinical research or in entering academic careers after graduation. This lack of interest in academic careers over the past several decades has resulted in an alarming number of unfilled full-time faculty positions in our nation’s dental schools.4 In contrast, the dental students who participated in the workshop pilot study expressed the view that pursuing research and an academic career might be more appealing if their research was product oriented.
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Acknowledgments
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This research was supported in part by a grant from the NIDCR (R25 DE 014686).
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REFERENCES
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- Strategic plan, shaping the future. NIH Publication No. 97-4174. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Dental Research, 1997.
- National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Competencies in the 21st century: report of the NIDCR Blue Ribbon Panel on Research Training and Career Development to Meet Scientific Opportunities of the 21st Century, 2000. At: www.nidcr.nih.gov/research/blueribbon/summary.pdf. Accessed: August 11, 2004.
- Iacopino A, et.al. Preserving the pipeline: a model dental curriculum for research non-intensive institutions. J Dent Educ 2004;68(1):44–9.[Abstract]
- Report of the AADS president’s task force on future dental school faculty. Washington, DC: American Association of Dental Schools (now American Dental Education Association), 1999.
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Abstract
Workshop course content and...
