Report

International Symposium on Human Resource Development towards Global Initiative

Period

February 16-17^th , 2013

Place

Hotel Springfield, Cha-am, Petchaburi, Thailand

We reported the international symposium as shown, which be held at Cha-am, Petchaburi, Thailand between February 16 - 17^th, 2013.

This International symposium, which supported by MEXT, was held by co-organized between Faculty of Dentistry, Niigata University and Faculty of Dentistry, Khon Kaen University (Kingdom of Thailand) as part of “Human Resource Development Program for International Initiative”. Main symposium programs were consisted of “Education on Regenerative Dental Medicine and Global Oral Health Science”. International and Domestic speakers and also presenters from both Universities were invited to join in interactive discussion.

At the Opening ceremony, it was composed of welcome address by Dr. Takashi IKUTA (vice president and executive director for academic affairs of Niigata University), Prof. Dr. Takeyasu MAEDA (Dean of Faculty of Dentistry, Niigata University) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nawarat WARA-ASAWAPATI CHAROEN (Dean of Faculty of Dentistry, Khon Kaen University) regarding with expectation for activation of collaboration in dental education and research by this symposium, pessimistic grateful to staffs from Faculty of Dentistry, Khon Kaen University were also addressed.

This symposium had 5 sessions

Session 1: Regenerative Dental Medicine

Chair person: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kenji IZUMI (Department of Oral Anatomy, Faculty of Dentistry, Niigata University)

There were several Domestic and International leaders in Regenerative Dental Medicine, who presented with fascinating topics and had an lively questions and answers from the floor.

1. Application of Gingiva-Derived iPS cell Technologies in Regenerative Dental Medicine.
   Assistant Professor Dr. Hiroshi EGUSA
   (Department of Fixed Prosthodontics, School of Dentistry, Osaka University, JAPAN)
2. Bone and Oral Mucosa Regeneration using Marine Sources
   Assistant Professor Dr. Haruaki KASHIWAZAKI
   (Department of Gerodontology, Division of Oral Health Science, Graduate School of Dental Medicine, Hokkaido University, JAPAN)
3. Stem cells and Regeneration of Osteoporotic bone
   Associate Professor Dr. Premjit ARPORNMAEKLONG
   (Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Prince of Songkla University, THAILAND)
4. Mechanical Stress Mediated Tissue Homeostasis in Periodontal Ligament
   Associate Professor Dr. Masaru KAKU
   (Division of Bio-prosthodontics, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata University, JAPAN)
5. Periodontal Regeneration with Autologous Periodontal Ligament Cell Sheets
   Lecturer Dr. Takanori IWATA
   (Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, JAPAN)

Session 2: Global Oral Health Science Education

Global oral health (GORH) especially in education and research has not been extensively undertaken as global health. Niigata University has its purpose in producing Global Oral Health Science Specialists to promote oral health of global citizen leading to a better quality of life. The curriculum has been drafted as an international PhD level in global oral health science for oral health workforces. Expectedly, the graduates will be able to organize and provide the appropriate, acceptable, accessible, affordable and available of oral health care services to communities in the world. At the symposium, the drafted curriculum was opened for reviews and comments in order to meet with international and Japanese standard educational system. After Visiting Professor Yupin Songpaisan, a member of the curriculum working group, overviewed the scopes of global oral health concerns, the expecting graduate competencies and the curriculum structure including didactic courses and extramural externship in a developing country where global oral health care is needed. The followings were some key comments and recommendations from the invited three leading international dental educators and researchers; Professor Charles Shuler (Dean, School of Dentistry, University of British Columbia, Canada), Professor Prathip Phantumvanit (President of the Center for Assessment & Accreditation for Dental Practitioners, Thailand) and Assoc/Professor Hiroshi Ogawa (Faculty of Dentistry, Niigata University, Japan). The scopes of global oral health and competencies of the curriculum were well defined. However, the GORH specialist will focus on the defined population’s optimal oral health by divergent thinking. Therefore, the teaching and learning method should be at a high level of Bloom Taxonomy (creating, evaluating and analyzing) so that the students would be able to think critically and translate basic knowledge into population application. The extramural externship period, an environment and opportunity for the students to apply knowledge and develop critical thinking skills and attitudes of GORH, should be a part of the dissertation and extended to a longer period to meet the required competencies. The assessment process should be able to evaluate the students’ analytical, problem-solving and communication skills by students’ portfolio, feedback from supervisor and the working community as well as publication of the dissertation. The curriculum would have to be adjusted to meet the Japanese higher education system of 30 credits. The discussion was finally concluded that not a single dental school has all the required expertise to accommodate the student learning. Thus, a collaborative network of dental schools with various expertise would be desirable to supplement each other in providing the appropriate education and training circumstances.

Session 3: Education and Research Collaboration between Niigata University and Dental Schools in South-east Asia

A breakfast meeting among twenty Deans and Executives from the Faculty of Dentistry the Niigata University and University in South-east Asia was held to discuss and exchange views on the undergraduate, postgraduate student and staff exchange program supported by the Japanese Government. Dean Maeda of the Niigata University welcomed the participants. Vice-Dean Miyazaki, Vice Dean Uoshima, Dr Ogawa and Dr Ishida gave overviewed of the student exchange program. So far the undergraduate exchange program has fulfilled the objectives and been satisfied with both Niigata and the international students. Some countries like Myanmar and Cambodia are still needed to develop their faculty staff to the higher education level. Each country requires different approach to the government but would be happy to accommodate the postgraduate student exchange from Niigata University as well.

Discussions during the breakfast meeting of Deans and Executives During the breakfast, the meeting of the Niigata University and /ASEAN Dental Schools in South-east Asia. Faculty Dean was held. A lot of questions were asked especially about approach for acceptance of international students at Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata University.

Session 4:Advanced Research Seminar for young researchers

The session chaired by Assoc/Prof Hiroshi Ogawa included two lectures of advanced research methodology. The first one was titled on Transfer of Scientific Knowledge into the Dental Curriculum given by Prof Charles Shuler from University of British Columbia in Canada. The second lecture was titled on Oral Health Practice-based Research given by Asst/Prof Waranuch Pitiphat from Khon Kaen University in Thailand. The objective of these two lectures was to encourage that basic oral health research needed to be translated and applied to updating the dental curriculum and reinforcing clinical practice in maintaining good oral health of individual patient as well as a group of population. It was also meant to give the audiences especially the Niigata University senior (3rd year) PhD students to be aware of additional research methodology besides laboratory research.

Session 5: Research Presentation (Oral and Poster Presentation)

A lot of young researchers included graduate students were encouraged to participate in this meeting to take an opportunity to present their research in the international symposium.

During 2 days, 21 topics were orally presented and 12 topics were presented by poster presentation. Thirteen Niigata University presenters were from Department of Oral Anatomy, Oral Physiology, Preventive Dentistry, Cariology and Endodontics, Maxillofacial Surgery, Dysphagia and Oral Rehabilitation, Comprehensive Prosthodontics, Bio-prosthodontics, Oral health and welfare. Besides Niigata University and Khon Kaen University, there were presenters from Thammasat University, Ministry of Public Health of Thailand. From Inside Japan, there were another 2 presenters (graduate students) from Kyushu University. This is a very good occasion for the participants to exchange their knowledge.