EFP Research Prize goes to team led by Christoph Ramseier

The EFP Research Prize in Periodontology for 2018 has been awarded to a paper about supportive periodontal therapy written by a team led by Christoph A. Ramseier (University of Bern, Switzerland).

The CHF10,000 (€8,700) prize was presented during the closing ceremony of EuroPerio9 at the RAI Amsterdam centre on Saturday 23 June.

This followed oral presentations to the jury by the three finalists during an open session at EuroPerio9 the previous day.

The EFP Research Prize in Periodontology (formerly the Jaccard Prize) is awarded every three years at the triennial EuroPerio congress.

This year’s winning paper was Time between recall visits and residual probing depths predict long-term stability in patients enrolled in supportive periodontal therapy, by Christoph A. Ramseier, Martina Nydegger, Clemens Walter, Gabriel Fischer, Anton Sculean, Niklaus P. Lang, and Giovanni E. Salvi.

This clinical research study identified an algorithm that will help oral-health professionals periodontists to better determine recall intervals in all patients enrolled in supportive periodontal therapy (SPT).

The study found that to reach and maintain periodontal stability during SPT – irrespective of the patient’s smoking status – individual quantitative data from residual periodontal probing depths (PPDs) can be utilised to determine the time between consecutive SPT visits.

It also found that patients may benefit from being assessed for residual PPDs at every SPT visit and for their next visits being scheduled according to individual residual PPD profiles.

In addition, using this algorithm patients could be offered a more personalised form of SPT, inspired by the Precision Medicine Initiative of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

High standard of entries

The two other finalists, whose lead authors (in bold type) gave oral presentations at EuroPerio9, were:

• The guardians of the periodontium – sequential and differential expression
  of antimicrobial peptides during gingival inflammation. Results from in
  vivo and in vitro studies, by Henrik Dommisch, Philipp Skora, Josefine Hirschfeld, Gabriela Olg, Laura Hildebrandt, and Søren Jepsen.
   
• Predicting chronic periodontitis using cardiometabolic risk measures, by Eduardo Montero, David Herrera, Mariano Sanz, Sangeeta Dhir, Thomas Van Dyke, and Corneliu Sima.

In reaching its decision, the jury applied five sets of criteria: significance for periodontology, innovative character, scientific quality, quality of the paper, and the quality of oral presentation.

Earlier, a record number of 19 manuscripts had been submitted for consideration by the jury – on previous occasions the highest number of submissions for the prize was 10. The jury commented that it had been impressed by the overall quality of the submissions.

The five-member jury was chaired by Phoebus Madianos (chair of the EFP scientific affairs committee), and its other members were EFP secretary general Iain Chapple, Journal of Clinical Periodontology editor Maurizio Tonetti, Bruno Loos, and Tord Berglundh.

Christoph Ramsier said: “I am very honoured to have won the EFP Research Prize and I am most grateful to the EFP for giving me this wonderful recognition. I will highly treasure it for the rest of my life!”

“The EFP Research Prize, one of the most prestigious international research awards, gained further strength in EuroPerio9, as the number and quality of the manuscripts submitted were extraordinary," said Phoebus Madianos.

"The three finalists (Henrik Dommisch, Eduardo Montero, and Christoph Ramseier) were selected out of 19 entries and gave outstanding presentations in the widely attended EFP Research Prize session, during EuroPerio9.  The winner, Christoph Ramseier, presented clinical research with significant relevance in everyday clinical practice as it helps clinicians to customise the appropriate maintenance treatment plan for their periodontal patients.”