title: Preparing practicing dentists to engage in practice-based research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The authors describe an educational program designed to prepare practicing dentists to engage in practice-based research in their practices--a trend receiving more emphasis and funding from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR).
  
  
  METHODS
  The Northwest Practice-based REsearch Collaborative in Evidence-based DENTistry (PRECEDENT), an NIDCR-funded network of which the authors are members, developed a one-day educational program to educate practitioners in principles of good clinical research. The program has four components built around the following questions: "What is the question?"; "What are the options?"; "How do you evaluate the evidence?"; and "How do you conduct a study?"
  
  
  RESULTS
  The intensive one-day program initially offered in early 2006, which concluded with applications of research principles to research topics of interest to practitioners, was well-received. Despite their admission that the research methodology by itself was not of great interest, the dentists recognized the importance of the background material in equipping them to conduct quality studies in their practices.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dentists interested in participating in practice-based research view training in research methodology as helpful to becoming better practitioner-investigators. The PRECEDENT training program seemed to reinforce their interest.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As dentistry evolves to become more evidence-based, more and more of the evidence will come from practice-based research. This training program prepares practicing dentists to become engaged in this trend.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Public Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle 98195-7480, USA. derouen@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Timothy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: DeRouen
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hujoel
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Leroux
authors.forename: Lloyd
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mancl
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sherman
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hilton
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ferracane
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D018865:Dental Research / Q000193:education* / Q000379:methods*; D003815:Dentists; D032984:Ethics, Research / Q000193:education; D005260:Female; D020408:Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054584:National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (U.S.); D015205:Northwestern United States; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012107:Research Design; D014481:United States; D014742:Videodisc Recording