Health Policy research team receives CDC funding to study the integration of oral health and primary care

A team of University of Iowa Public Policy Center researchers in the Health Policy Research Program have been awarded funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The project, led by Principal Investigator Dr. Susan McKernan, Public Policy researcher and assistant professor of preventive and community dentistry in the College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics, will explore the integration of oral health and primary care. The team includes co-PI Dr. Ray Kuthy, PPC researcher and professor of preventive and community dentistry, and co-investigator Dr. Julie Reynolds, PPC researcher and visiting assistant professor in the College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics.

The grant, called a Special Interests Project (SIP), is awarded by the Prevention Research Centers program office at the CDC. The CDC provides SIP funding to its 26 Prevention Research Centers nationwide to design, test and disseminate effective applied public health prevention research strategies that address major causes of disease and disability.

The team will conduct a one-year project to identify best practices for integrating medical and dental care in public health activities and to identify opportunities to include oral health in the ongoing climate of health care reform.

“Oral health is recognized as a critical requirement for overall health, sharing common risk factors with other chronic diseases,” McKernan said. “Dental visits present a valuable opportunity for providing additional health screenings.”

Healthy People 2020, a national health promotion and disease prevention initiative, calls for increasing the proportion of adults who receive chronic disease preventive services in dental settings, including tobacco screenings and cessation counseling, testing and referrals for blood sugar management, screenings for mouth and throat cancer, and dental visits for persons with diabetes.

The researchers will gather information about programs, services and policies that link oral health and primary care; analyze the collected data to identify programmatic gaps and opportunities; and develop recommendations of best practices to integrate oral health and primary systems of care.

The results will provide policy makers and public health officials with comprehensive information to effectively and efficiently coordinate activities with primary care providers.

"Our health policy research program, and Drs. McKernan, Kuthy and Reynolds in particular, are perfectly positioned for this grant as we have one of the strongest oral health services research teams in the country, combined with a program that has been conducting research in primary medical care for 25 years," said Dr. Peter Damiano, Director of the PPC and professor of preventive and community dentistry. 

The UI Prevention Research Center, based in the College of Public Health, will distribute the grant for the research project that begins Friday, Sept. 30, 2016.