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OUR NEIGHBORS TO THE SOUTH
The School of Dentistry is establishing an international collaboration with the Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México’s (UNAM) school of dentistry. Although the details have not been formally established, in principle the two schools have agreed to exchange students and faculty, work jointly on major international oral health initiatives and collaborate on a variety of research projects.
“We are very excited,” says Gene Sekiguchi, associate dean of international, professional and legislative affairs. “For several decades we have enjoyed aninformal relationship with faculty and students from UNAM. This is a wonderful opportunity to expand upon that experience and build real and lasting bridges between the two schools.”
Officials from UNAM, led by their dental dean, Javier De La Fuente, visited USC in March. Their proposal, dubbed Research Endeavor for Advancing Community Health or R.E.A.C.H., calls for a variety of activities aimed at improving the welfare of underserved patients.
The two schools would share information and expertise in a number of research areas including epidemiology, craniofacial anomalies, orofacial pain, cementogenesis and oral cancer. Faculty would also perform joint research through visiting faculty programs at each school.
Students may also have an opportunity for an extended or semester-long externship. Modeled after an existing program between UNAM and the Keck School of Medicine at USC, the proposed student exchange would provide doctoral dental students the opportunity to develop linguistic and cultural competency skills while attending classes and honing their clinical abilities.
Other possible joint endeavors include students and faculty from both schools working together to provide low-cost or free dental service to those in need both in Mexico and the U.S., and an international health forum—to include oral health professionals from Canada, Latin America and the U.S.— to examine health policy, social services and educational programs.
“These collaborations can only benefit both schools and their respective faculty, students and, most importantly, their patients. Hopefully, we will be developing a model that can be used to involve schools in other Latin American and Pacific Rim countries,” says Sekiguchi.
The Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México is located in Mexico City and is the country’s largest university with over 250,000 students. It’s school of dentistry confers over 1,000 doctoral dental degrees annually and is a major provider of low-cost dental care to the nearly 17 million inhabitants of the capital city.
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