Summer 2024
Research and Scholarship
Welcome to the latest issue of Insight, a newsletter celebrating the accomplishments of our community of scholars. We aim to spotlight insights from people at the Dugoni School working in all areas of scholarship, including clinical or biomedical research, the scholarship of teaching and learning, improvement of the health care system, and professional partnerships that advance the field.
Dugoni School Students Take First-Ever “Dentist-Scientist Oath” to Ethics and Professionalism in Research Students at University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry expressed their commitment to the highest ideals of ethics and professionalism in research when they took the “Dentist-Scientist Oath” during a recent ceremony held at the school. The August 20 event was the first of its kind at the Dugoni School and possibly the first research-specific oath ceremony ever held at a dental school in the world, according to faculty organizers. Students in the Doctor of Dental Surgery Class of 2026 and the International Dental Studies Class of 2025 participated in the ceremony. “The Dentist-Scientist Oath was inspired by my mentor Dr. Karen Davis, world-renowned neuroscientist at the University of Toronto, who developed an oath for scientists that emphasized the importance of community, professionalism and ethical conduct in research,” said Dr. David Lam, oath creator. “We embraced Dr. Davis’ and colleagues’ original declarations of pride, integrity and knowledge pursuit, and further declared the importance of inclusion in research to produce knowledge that is applicable to all people.” The students recently completed the Pacific-Stanford PRIMED Fundamentals of Clinical Research program held over the past year by the Dugoni School in partnership with faculty from Stanford University. The mandatory, formalized training included 20 hours of instruction in the best practices in conducting high-quality clinical research. Faculty members from both the Dugoni School and Stanford were part of the development of the program. The students will be awarded a certificate of completion from Stanford to recognize their participation in the training.