Resources 

Overview 

Oral health has been shown to impact physical, social, emotional, and economic well-being. New evidence is emerging that links diseases of the mouth to other chronic conditions, like diabetes, and the U.S. Surgeon General has stated clearly “you can’t be healthy without good oral health." Yet in health care systems in the U.S., OECD and developing countries, oral health care financing and delivery is largely siloed off from medical care. This has important consequences for affordability of oral health care services, access to oral health care providers, and, ultimately, oral health. However, there is a growing movement to reconsider the dental-medical divide in health policy. Critical to this movement is the generation, synthesis, and dissemination of health services research that relates to oral health.

To help facilitate knowledge exchange between health services researchers and policy makers, Academy Health is considering the launch of an Oral Health Interest Group. This Interest Group is meant to bridge the dental-medical divide within the health services research and policy community, bringing together those with deep expertise in oral health and those with much broader health policy expertise. This webinar is a kick-off webinar for the potential Oral Health Interest Group.       

Learning Objectives

  • Describe why researchers, practitioners, policymakers and advocates interested in evidence-based policy dialogue should integrate oral health into their work.
  • Describe how oral health issues are addressed in federal and state policies.
  • Understand challenges, research methods and best practices in improving access to oral health care, oral health-related quality of care, and oral health outcomes.

Watch Online


 

Co-Moderators

Marko Vujicic Headshot
Committee Member, Member

Marko Vujicic, Ph.D.

Chief Economist & Vice President - American Dental Association

Marko Vujicic currently serves as Chief Economist and Vice President of the Health Policy Institute at the Ame... Read Bio

Speakers

Ben_Sommers_headshot
Committee Member, Member, Presenter

Benjamin Sommers, M.D., Ph.D.

Huntley Quech Professor of Health Care Economics - Harvard School of Public Health

Benjamin Sommers, M.D., Ph.D., is the Huntley Quech Professor of Health Care Economics at the Harvard School o... Read Bio

Burton Edelstein
Presenter

Burton Edelstein, D.D.S., M.P.H.

Professor - Columbia University Medical Center Speaker

Dr. Burton L. Edelstein is a board-certified pediatric dentist and professor of dentistry and public health at... Read Bio

Thomas Buchmeuller
Presenter

Thomas Buchmueller, Ph.D.

Professor - Stephen M. Ross School of Business Speaker

Tom Buchmueller is a health economist whose research focuses on the economics of health insurance and related ... Read Bio

John E. McDonough
Presenter

John E. McDonough, Dr.Ph., M.P.A.

Professor, Director - Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

John E. McDonough is Professor of Public Health Practice in the Department of Health Policy & Management at th... Read Bio

 

Presentation Slides

Audience Q&A