Category: News

Congratulations to the DeRouen Center interns who graduated in Spring 2020. Jessica Latimer, Susan Lee and Belle Chen recently graduated from UW School of Dentistry. Jessica is currently attending a 4-year residency at Harvard School of Dental Medicine as a Doctor of Medical Sciences candidate and Periodontology resident. Susan has accepted a position as an associate dentist at a private practice in Monroe, WA beginning in August, and Belle is exploring dental opportunities within WA., Pooja Rajanbabu and Jennifer Liu are graduates of UW School of Public Health. Pooja has earned a BS and is currently exploring opportunities in Public Health in the Seattle area, and Jennifer obtained an MPH and is currently in a 1-year internship program with the California Department of Health in Sacramento. We thank them for their hard work and dedication to our mission and wish them much success in their future endeavors.

UW MPH graduate, Jennifer Liu, was recently selected for the California Epidemiologic Investigation Service (Cal-EIS) Fellowship Program for the 2020-2021 year. Cal-EIS is a unique program that provides one year of training in applied epidemiology for epidemiologists who have recently graduated from a Master’s degree program. Fellows have the opportunity to work on a variety of projects under the mentorship of a preceptor, either within the California Department of Public Health or within a local health department in the state. Prior fellows have performed studies on descriptive and/or analytic epidemiology of diseases, investigated disease clusters, and evaluated programs.

Jennifer is planning to work at the California Department of Public Health in Sacramento in the Office of Oral Health for her fellowship year. As a Cal-EIS Fellow, Jennifer’s projects will primarily focus on the oral health of children and seniors and implementing local programs. She is excited for this unique opportunity to engage in applied epidemiology and public health practice at the state level and start her career as an epidemiologist.

Jennifer has interned with the DeRouen Center since January 2019, first as a practicum student working on the Refugees’ Endeavors For Utilizing Governmental Existing Efforts in the State (REFUGEES) Project and later as a data analyst for the global oral health projects ongoing at the Center. Outside of her work at the DeRouen Center, she has also been working as a Research Assistant at Public Health – Seattle & King County on opioid surveillance activities. In addition, she was involved in the Student Epidemic Action Leaders (SEAL) Team, which aims to provide students with experience in applied epidemiology through field assignments. Jennifer will be graduating with an MPH in Epidemiology this upcoming June and will start her fellowship later this summer.

Life as we knew it has changed during the past few months, and it will never again be the same.  The novel coronavirus seemed like a hypothetical risk when it arose in distant countries.  Then the pandemic arrived in our back yard and began spreading here at great risk to public health.  It is an invisible foe, highly contagious and significantly mortal.  In the process of realizing the profound implications that a tiny virus has on our lives and freedom to move about in our communities, we are also confronted with the reality that dental education and dental practice will change forever.  Our ability to gather large numbers of students in an enclosed space, and the wisdom of doing so, will be modified.  The logistics of providing clinical experiences in dental schools and the facilities for that education will evolve.  Patients, whether they access oral health care via private practices or dental schools, will arrive with new expectations and new questions.  The technology that supports both educational methods and patient care must – and will — advance at a rapid pace.   New vaccines and effective treatments will emerge with a high priority; however, these things will be effective against the enemy we know, not the ones that have yet to show up, and our patients and students will understand that limitation.

I have been in this situation before.  In 1983, a Portland, Oregon physician referred a very sick young man to me who had the disease that was called “GRID,” or “Gay-Related Immune Dysfunction.”  That was the start of a rapidly increasing number of HIV-positive patients referred to our public health practice over the next two decades.  The practice of dentistry changed because of HIV.  The implementation of universal body substance precautions happened but not without some level of disagreement and contention.  There were those who worried about the message that gloves, masks, face shields, and gowns sent to patients.  Would patients see this and think that dental practices were potential sources for HIV infection?  Couldn’t there be an accurate way to identify HIV-positive patients and just treat them in other facilities?  With the arrival of COVID-19, those concerns seem quite distant.

Of course, the significant difference between adapting dental practice to HIV versus COVID-19 is that HIV is an infectious agent, whereas the novel coronavirus is highly contagious.  There are further differences.  In the ’80s and ’90s, HIV was almost uniformly fatal.  That changed as new treatments were developed.  COVID-19 has a high mortality rate for a contagious virus, but it is not uniformly fatal.  That will also change as vaccines and treatments are developed.  However, COVID-19 has made it clear that microbiology is unpredictable and can be extraordinarily unforgiving.  Dental practice and dental education will rise to that challenge.  Safer practices will be implemented and, going forward, our focus on how we keep our patients, students, and educators safe will increase and become much more anticipatory rather than reactionary.  Those are all good things for patients, dental practices, dental education, and the public health.

The Northwest Center for Public Health Practice (NWCPHP) Student Collaborative Project Stipends are intended to help students defray living expenses during their hands-on public health training experience for public and nonprofit health organizations in Washington, Alaska, Idaho, and Oregon. These collaborative projects involve a faculty member and a student working in close collaboration to enhance public health services to medically underserved communities. Pooja Rajanbabu, one of our research assistants, has been awarded this stipend for her cross-sectional study entitled, “Evaluating Refugee Children’s Oral Health in Washington State.”

Her project will establish a baseline of oral health data for refugee children in our state and will compare their dental health to their non-refugee peers. Through partnerships with the UW Timothy A. DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health, UW School of Dentistry, WA Department of Health (DOH), WA Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), and WA Health Care Authority (HCA), this cross-sectional study will utilize Medicaid claims of refugee children who arrived in Washington in 2015. This research will inform interventional studies that can evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions aimed at improving refugee children’s oral health.

Dr. Seminario has been appointed to the University of Washington’s Population Health Initiative Executive Council for 2019-2020. The Population Health Initiative was found in 2016 by University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce with the vision of creating “a world where all people can live healthier and more fulfilling lives.” The Population Health Initiative collaborates with diverse fields and practices to address all the factors that influence health, including health sciences, social sciences, public policy, law, business, and more.

Dr. Seminario is one of the seven UW faculty members in the council, which includes senior leaders, faculty, students, and staff from UW colleges, schools, programs, and stakeholder unites. As the director of The DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health and Population Heath Initiative Council member, Dr. Seminario will continue to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and pursue efforts to address national and international population health challenges.  Learn more about Dr. Seminario and her work at the Center.

On September 23rd, the first United Nations High-Level Meeting (UN HLM) on UHC took place in New York City to secure political commitment from countries on UHC. In the political declaration of the UN HLM, the representatives of States and Governments committed to, “strengthen[ing] efforts to address eye health conditions and oral health, as well as rare diseases and neglected tropical diseases, as part of universal health coverage.” In the past, the importance of oral health has rarely been acknowledged, so this signifies a step in the right direction.

Oral diseases go unnoticed but affect billions of people around the world. The Global Burden of Disease Study 2016 estimates that more than half of the world’s population is burdened with untreated oral diseases, which can lead to pain, infection, tooth loss, and loss of productivity. According to an International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) report, the total global costs associated with oral diseases is approximately $442 billion per year. Oral diseases are the most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and periodontal (gum) disease is a risk factor for other prevalent NCDs, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

During the UN HLM, Mr. António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, highlighted that UHC is a significant achievement that will drive progress over the next decade on communicable diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, while addressing NCDs through robust and resilient primary health care systems. As we progress towards UHC, oral health needs will finally be recognized and addressed by the global health community, so people will get the treatment they need.

The UW Timothy A. DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health hosted its first ever Global Oral Health Awareness Fundraiser Breakfast on Aug 29^th, 2019 at the UW Botanic Gardens. The Fundraiser Breakfast was an opportunity for the DeRouen Center to advocate for global oral health and to share the Center’s work with a diverse audience of students and professionals. This event was the kick-off of our yearlong #GlobalOralHealthAwareness campaign.

The breakfast started with a welcome from School of Dentistry Dean Gary Chiodo. Derouen Center Director Dr. Ana Lucia Seminario then introduced the four global sites and shared the Center’s mission and values. These introductions were followed by speeches from our amazing guest speakers, Representative Marcus Riccelli of the Washington State House of Representatives and Dr. Jean Kagubare of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Representative Riccelli spoke about initiatives in Washington State related to oral health, and Dr. Kagubare described the economic impact of health policy with case of Rwanda. The speeches were followed by a brief panel session where attendees could ask questions in person or via livestream.

Over 100 guests from various health organizations and UW departments attended our event. Organizations represented included the University of Washington School of Dentistry, the Washington State Department of Health, Seamar Community Clinics, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the International Community Health Services, the Oral Cancer Walk Foundation, Hospital la Familia, and more. Our livestream videos reached out over 1,600 people around the world!

We received generous contributions that will be used to support our mission: to improve quality of life by promoting collaboration and inclusivity in oral and craniofacial research that impacts global health. The donations will be put towards research and education across our sites in Kenya, Peru, Seattle, and Thailand.

The Timothy A. DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health is excited for more events in the future to advocate for global oral health and to continue our #GlobalOralHealthAwareness campaign!

 
 
To keep up with our projects and upcoming events, follow us on Facebook. Photos and an archived video of the event can also be viewed on our Facebook page.

It is easy to be an advocate for global oral health. Contributions to the #GlobalOralHealthAwareness campaign can be made online.

Dr. Douglass L. Morell Research Fund is provided by the University of Washington School of Dentistry to support those biomedical and behavioral research activities for small-scale, short-term research projects, using mechanisms that allow rapid response to unanticipated needs and new opportunities. Specific areas of priority include pilot research, research by new investigators, studies to take advantage of emerging opportunities in ongoing research projects.

In July 2019, the Timothy A. DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health was awarded Morell Research Fund for project “Refugees’ Endeavors For Utilizing Governmental Existing Efforts in the State (REFUGEES); Dental Health Care Utilization Among Newly Resettled Refugees 2015-2018,” led by our intern Jennifer Liu, UW MPH Epidemiology graduate student.

The REFUGEES Project establishes baseline dental utilization data for refugees in the state to evaluate the effectiveness of customized, culturally sensitive interventions aimed at increasing dental utilization and improving refugee oral health. The aim of this longitudinal study is to determine oral health needs, dental services utilization rate, and factors associated with requesting services for refugee compared to non-refugee Medicaid patients, determine the most common dental services accessed between the two groups, and assess costs of dental treatment for refugees and non-refugees.

Through this pilot research project, the DeRouen Center aims to provide key information that can be used to develop culturally relevant interventions in order to improve oral health for thousands of refugees in Washington. In addition, REFUGEES Project will make us a stronger, more equitable community by strengthening collaborations and partnerships between the UW and State agencies, including Department of Health, Health Care Authority, and Department of Social and Health Services.

The world is facing one of the worst migration crises in recent history. At the end of 2018, 70.8 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide due to persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations. Within the United States of America, Washington State resettles the second largest number of refugees. During the resettlement process, refugees are insured through Medicaid and must receive a comprehensive health assessment. However, oral health assessments are not completed or adequately addressed during this process.

In June 2019, we began our conversations with SeaMar Community Health Center Clinics to conduct formative research to develop a project, which aims to integrate comprehensive and culturally appropriate oral health services within existing community health clinics serving refugees. Results from this initial development will be used to pilot an interventional study that seeks to demonstrate the feasibility and sustainability of integrating oral health within the standard of medical care assessment within the refugee resettlement process.

In the Fall of 2019, the DeRouen Center for Global Health and SeaMar Community Health Center Clinics will apply for the Robert Wood Johnson grant for pioneering ideas for this project. Our overarching goal is to create policy change by integrating oral health screening into the mandatory medical assessment that refugees receive after their arrival to the United States. The DeRouen Center is very excited for the community collaboration with SeaMar Community Health Center Clinics and establishing our Seattle site, which is dedicated to health advocacy, outreach and policy for the refugee populations in Washington State.