Complete - College of Medicine - University of Illinois at Urbana ...

T H E P O W E R O F
C o l l a b o ra t i o n
Collaboration is the Key
Russ Jamison, Ph.D., and Michael Goldwasser, D.D.S., M.D.
Michael Goldwasser, D.D.S., M.D., calls his recent collaborative research
on bone substitutes a modified example of “syzygy” – that infrequent alignment
of the moon, sun, and earth that results in an eclipse. In this case, the bodies
weren’t celestial, but the collaboration did represent a rare alignment of forces
that created something special – that is, an opportunity to establish a system
that could create viable bone substitutes.
It’s an opportunity that began with a chance conversation between doctor and
patient. Russ Jamison, Ph.D., a University of Illinois professor of materials
science and engineering, was talking with Dr. Goldwasser during an office
visit and discovered their common interest in bone regeneration research.
Dr. Goldwasser, a COM-UC clinical professor of surgery and the director
of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program at Carle Foundation
Hospital, was intrigued by the connection, and the two professors began
discussing how they could share their clinical and scientific knowledge.
Involving the students
As teachers, both Dr. Goldwasser and Dr. Jamison saw an opportunity for their
students to learn something valuable by engaging them in the collaborative
process from the beginning. “We began in an informal way by bringing the
residents and the graduate students together to discuss scientific articles in
each other’s specialties,” says Dr. Goldwasser. “One of the goals of these
Journal Clubs was to teach one another the language of the other discipline.”
This formative discussion helped both groups of students understand the
importance of bridging the gap between the clinical and pure sciences.
According to Dr. Jamison, “when we understand each other’s language,
we’re more likely to ask the right questions, which puts us on the same path
to finding solutions.”
That shared curiosity and solution-oriented focus proved to be a winning
combination, not just for the students and professors, but for a potentially
large group of patients as well.
“ This collab o ration was an opportunity to cre ate a solution
for a pro blem we see reg u l a rly among our pat i e n t s .”
Addressing the needs of the patient
“Each week in our specialty, we have one to three patients who come in
with a need for bone replacement or augmentation,” says Dr. Goldwasser.
“This collaboration was an opportunity to create a solution for a problem we
see regularly among our patients.”
And one of Dr. Goldwasser’s patients was eager to help. The 73-year-old woman
had lost much of the bone in her lower jaw to aging-related deterioration. She
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