USC BETTER-TMD Leaders Highlight the Importance of Patient-Centered Research at the TMD IMPACT Symposium

Members of USC’s BETTER-TMD team joined researchers, clinicians and patient partners from across the country at the TMD IMPACT Symposium, held September 18–19 at Texas A&M University College of Dentistry in Dallas, TX. The two-day symposium brought members of the TMD IMPACT Collaborative together to share research approaches, center the perspectives of people with lived experience and identify opportunities for future collaboration. The TMD IMPACT Collaborative also includes teams at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Michigan. Discussions covered topics including patient engagement, clinical and phenotyping strategies, precision care, research training and the development of common data elements for TMD research.

Jianfu Chen, PhD, participated in “Introducing the TMD-IMPACT Collaborative and Its Core Projects” and “Shared Goals, Distinct Approaches: Clinical and Phenotyping Strategies Across Groups.”

Glenn Clark, DDS, MS, participated in “Understanding Barriers and Advancing Precision Care for TMD.”

Chen and Clark are co-principal investigators of USC’s Biology and Evidence for Translational Therapeutics in Real-world TMD (BETTER-TMD) project. As part of the nationwide TMD IMPACT Collaborative, BETTER-TMD aims to collect real-world clinical and patient-reported data from up to 2,000 patients to better understand which existing treatments are most effective for different people and develop precision medicine approaches.

USC’s participation in the symposium highlighted the BETTER-TMD team’s commitment to collaborative, patient-centered research and its broader goal of improving treatment decisions and outcomes for people living with temporomandibular disorders.