Russell Phillips, MD, has long supported efforts to integrate oral health and primary care. As the director of the Center for Primary Care at Harvard Medical School, Phillips played an important role in helping to establish the Center for Integration of Primary Care and Oral Health (CIPCOH). 

Phillips offers his take on the opportunities for integration during a pandemic, how he sees patient care changing as we shift to a more collaborative approach, and what the practice of the future may look like.

Christine Riedy, PhD, MPH, principal investigator for the Center for Integration of Primary Care and Oral Health, and Delta Dental of Massachusetts Associate Professor in Oral Public Health and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and Shenam Ticku, BDS, MPH, instructor in Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, were featured on a podcast called “Protecting our Public Health with Sharity Ludwig.” Drs. Riedy and Ticku discussed interprofessional education and practice. Listen to the podcast here.

CIPCOH has launched a quarterly webinar series aimed at bringing together global leaders across different professions and backgrounds to discuss why integration of primary care and oral health addresses gaps and inequities in our health care system. The first webinar was moderated by Tien Jiang, DMD, MEd, co-investigator for CIPCOH. View the first webinar in the series.

Hesham Alhazmi, DMSc21, a Doctor of Medical Science in Oral Biology candidate at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, recently won the American Public Health Association’s Caswell A. Evans Population Oral Health Post-Professional Student Award for his work with CIPCOH alongside Drs. Tien Jiang, Christine Riedy, and Shenam Ticku. His project was titled "Beyond the mouth: Integration of social determinants of health within AEGD and GPR curricula." The award recognizes students and residents who show a strong commitment to community-based dental public health and the importance of state, local and community-based public health action.

The Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine is excited to announce that we will be welcoming a new research analyst. Emily Mo will join us in September. Emily will be responsible for managing and analyzing large electronic health record datasets, and conducting health outcomes research to guide the development, evaluation, and utilization of claims datasets and simulation models that improve quality and effectiveness of public health interventions.