10 minute read
DR. MICHAEL GLICK LEADING NEW GLOBAL CENTER
A CONVERSATION WITH THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NEW CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE GLOBAL ORAL HEALTH
EARLIER THIS YEAR, Penn Dental Medicine launched the Center for Integrative Global Oral Health (CIGOH), positioning itself to take the lead in transforming the way educators, practitioners, and policymakers address the challenges of achieving equitable oral health — and thus overall health — locally, nationally, and around the globe. A $5 million gift from alumnus and Penn Dental Medicine Board of Advisors member Dr. Garry Rayant (GD’77) and his wife, Dr. Kathy Fields, provided the foundational support to establish the Center, the School’s first with a policy focus.
One of the first steps was the recruitment of an Executive Director to help move the vision for the Center forward, and in July, Dr. Michael Glick (GD’88) joined the School in this leadership role. Dr. Glick, who is also now Professor of Clinical Restorative Dentistry in the Department of Preventive & Restorative Sciences, brings a depth of experience in academics and global oral health initiatives to this new post.
From 2009–2015, Dr. Glick served as Dean of the University at Buffalo, SUNY, School of Dental Medicine where he remained as Professor of Oral Diagnostic Sciences before coming to Penn Dental Medicine. Prior to his time at Buffalo, he was Professor of Oral Medicine at Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health, A.T. Still University, also holding the post of Associate Dean of Oral-Medical Sciences at the University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine. While at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey from 2001 to 2007, Dr. Glick served as Chairman of the Department of Diagnostic Sciences and as Director of both the Division of Oral Medicine and the Postgraduate Training Program in Oral Medicine.
This new position with Penn Dental Medicine is Dr. Glick’s second faculty appointment at the School, previously serving from 1994 to 2001 on the Oral Medicine faculty. During that time, he also directed the School’s programs for medically complex patients and infectious diseases.
A widely published and highly respected lecturer, Dr. Glick served as Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of the American Dental Association from 2005 to 2020. In the global arena, Dr. Glick has been active with the FDI World Dental Federation since 2007, serving on multiple committees, including co-chairing the Task Team Vision 2030. He also had a leading role in establishing FDI’s Vision 2020 and most recently was the primary author of its Vision 2030, giving guidance for a global interdisciplinary and integrative role for oral health.
Dr. Glick completed specialty training in oral medicine at Penn Dental Medicine in 1988 and he holds a DMD from Hebrew University Hadassah School of Dental Medicine and Temple University School of Dentistry.
A few months into his tenure as CIGOH Executive Director, we sat down with Dr. Glick to get his perspective on this new endeavor and priorities for CIGOH in the coming year.
OPPOSITE: Dr. Michael Glick joined Penn Dental Medicine in July, coming from the University at Buffalo.
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THIS OPPORTUNITY TO LEAD CIGOH? We all want to make a di erence — make an impact — and I believe this Center will provide us that opportunity. I’m honored that I was asked to take on this role, and while it will be a great challenge, I’m looking forward to that challenge and the potential CIGOH has to make a profound impact on oral health care.
WHY IS THE TIMING RIGHT FOR THIS CENTER? There are several global oral health initiatives going on right now — the Lancet Commission on Oral Health; the World Health Organization (WHO) resolution on oral health; Oral Health in America (2021); and the FDI Vision 2030. They all point to the enormous global burden of oral disease; it is the #1 non-communicable disease in the world. In addition, we know that oral health is inextricably linked to general health and health equity is a social justice issue.
Where we as a center expect to contribute is with more and improved evidence-informed guidelines and evidence- informed policies based on better and more informative data. Part of what we want to do at CIGOH is determine how to standardize and utilize data more productively to generate such guidelines and policies; we really don't have that today.
CIGOH LECTURE SERIES
The Integrative Global Oral Health Lecture Series, held virtually, is free and attendees can earn continuing education credit. See the upcoming schedule of speakers and available archived lectures at www.dental.upenn.edu/cigoh_series.
CIGOH VISION
Achieving health and well-being by optimizing oral health for all.
CIGOH MISSION
Operating through a lens of equity, diversity, and inclusion to: • develop and mentor leaders and researchers in oral and population health, health policy, and advocacy; • create and disseminate transdisciplinary globally generated evidence-informed guidelines and policies; • foster and coordinate a community of implementation research; • advocate to increase a ordability, availability, and accessibility for oral health globally, nationally, and regionally.
WHAT ARE SOME CIGOH INITIATIVES THAT ARE ALREADY UNDERWAY? Our lecture series, which launched before I started, is having a tremendous response. We are attracting highly respected speakers. We’ve had the Chief Dental O cer of WHO, the Chief Executive Director of IADR, the Chief Executive Director of the FDI World Dental Federation, and the Chief Executive Director of the Non-Communicable Disease Alliance, just to name a few. We are bringing together global thought leaders in both oral and general health.
There are two purposes with the series. Naturally, one is for us to hear what these invited speakers have to share, but the other is to have them recognize the importance of oral health in what they do.
Also underway is planning for a 2023 global conference in Africa in collaboration with FDI World Dental Federation and African dental schools. And, we are already laying the groundwork for partnerships — through our response to the WHO Global Health Strategy, WHO expressed interest in collaboration, and we have been invited to be part of the working group for the National Academy of Medicine Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education. WHAT ARE YOUR TOP PRIORITIES FOR THE CENTER IN THIS COMING YEAR? Two top priorities are visibility and sustainability. In terms of visibility, the lecture series is playing a key role, engaging prominent speakers and highlighting issues that are important to the health care community as a whole. I’ve also been focusing on raising CIGOH’s visibility through publications — in the first three months, we had three articles — and that will continue to be important. And, while the generous donation from Dr. Garry Rayant and his wife is enabling us to launch the Center, building funding resources for sustainability will be a critical focus for me.
Another top priority is the recruitment of key faculty and sta . Hala Baradi, who is also pursuing her Master’s in Bioethics here at Penn, joined us this summer as an administrative coordinator. And at the end of October, we welcomed Dr. Alonso Carrasco-Labra — a truly significant recruit. Alonso is among the top leaders in the world in the area of evidence-based dentistry and evidence-informed guidelines and policies; he comes to us from the American Dental Association, where he was Senior Director of the Department of Evidence Synthesis and Translation Research. He will play
— DR. MICHAEL GLICK (GD’88)
an invaluable role in the work of CIGOH, and is just the first of other faculty we will be looking to recruit, including filling the Center’s first endowed professorship — the Fields-Rayant Professorship, established by Dr. Rayant and Dr. Fields.
As we build faculty and staff, it’s important to me to give everyone involved in our center ownership in what we do. I see my role as a facilitator — it’s the synergy and expertise others bring that will enable us to develop and grow together.
WHY DO YOU SEE A POLICY CENTER LIKE THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF DENTAL EDUCATION? Policy is going to affect the future of dental practice in very important and impactful ways. So for students to not only understand what the policy is and how it will affect them, but also know how and why it was created and even participate in that process will make a big difference.
When I went to dental school, we treated the disease that happened to be in a person, now, we are treating the person that happens to have a disease — such person-centered care needs to be reflected in these future policies.
WHAT ACADEMIC PROGRAMS WILL BE DEVELOPED IN CONJUNCTION WITH CIGOH? Our plan is to establish a Master of Science in Oral and Population Health. I see CIGOH and this master’s program as the hub in this big wheel, and the spokes are going to be the people that we train, who will go out not only across the United States, but globally. If you look at this initiative five to 10 years from now, we hopefully will have graduates from all over the world. Based on the training they received from us, we will be able to better standardize oral health research methodology and subsequent data collection. Having this cadre of individuals that we will continue to support after their time in the program is going to be extremely beneficial to assess and impact global oral health issues in the future.
ARE THERE PARTNERSHIPS WITHIN PENN THAT CIGOH WILL BE DEVELOPING? We are just beginning to explore partnerships with other schools and centers, but Penn’s strength as an interdisciplinary University makes it a natural fit for this kind of center. It will enable us to collaborate with people who can help us do what we want to do, because we cannot do it on our own. Penn is the perfect place to be for this.
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS SOME OF THE GREATEST CHALLENGES IN REGARD TO ORAL HEALTH POLICY? The greatest challenge is to get a seat at the table. There shouldn't be any health policy without oral health. We need to have a seat at the table when health policies are generated and disseminated. We need to have a seat at the table when it comes to health care of the future. One of the challenges is to change the conversation to have people think about health not as death and dying, but as living with diseases. We need to get the health care community as a whole to start talking about how living with oral disease tremendously affects a person's life — from pain and overall health to losing days in school or work. WHEN IT COMES TO PRACTICING DENTISTS, INCLUDING ALUMNI, HOW CAN THEY BECOME INVOLVED IN THE WORK OF THE CENTER? Right now, I think one fantastic way alumni can get involved is by generating interest in the importance of the Center among colleagues and connections throughout the dental field. For example, at a recent Board of Advisors meeting, several members were eager to see if I’d be willing to talk about CIGOH to organized dental associations in which they were involved. As alumni see where we're going with CIGOH and how important it is — if we can get alumni to have ownership of what we do — that will have a huge impact on our success. I also see alumni as a future source for data collection.
ON A MORE PERSONAL NOTE, WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE BACK AT PENN DENTAL MEDICINE? It’s been great to see how Penn Dental has evolved in the past 20 years. I'm enthusiastic about seeing the trajectory that Penn is on right now — with all the new centers and new initiatives — that I believe will once again renew Penn’s history of distinction among dental schools. That's part of the excitement of being back here — being part of that journey. n
