Lisa Simon is an assistant professor of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, an assistant professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, and an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. (Photo courtesy of Harvard University)

Harvard dental school initiative names new director to bridge oral health and primary care

by Oral Health
Lisa Simon is an assistant professor of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, an assistant professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, and an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. (Photo courtesy of Harvard University)
Lisa Simon is an assistant professor of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, an assistant professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, and an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. (Photo courtesy of Harvard University)

Integrating oral health into primary care has long been a professional goal for Harvard alumna and physician-dentist Lisa Simon.

That goal is now taking on a broader scope following Simon’s recent appointment as director of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine, a program focused on bridging the longstanding divide between dentistry and medicine.

In her new role, Simon — DMD’14, MD’20, PD’15 — will advance the Initiative’s strategic priorities while leading research and policy efforts aimed at integrating oral health into primary care delivery.

“My vision is for the Initiative to concentrate on generating rigorous evidence about how oral health policy and health system design can better support whole-person care, and on translating that evidence into actionable guidance,” Simon said.

She added that the work comes at a particularly critical moment.

“We are facing a time of uncertainty that requires decisive, evidence-based policy recommendations — including for Medicare dental policy, preserving Medicaid dental benefits, and modeling novel reimbursement models that focus on keeping people healthy, not drilling and filling,” she said. “The Initiative is uniquely poised to be that advisor.”

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The separation is ‘harmful’

Simon’s interest in medical-dental integration dates back to her training. During her general practice residency, she said she repeatedly witnessed how the separation between medicine and dentistry negatively affected patient care.

One case, she recalled, involved a patient with leukemia admitted to hospital with a “fever of unknown origin,” a serious condition in immunocompromised patients undergoing cancer treatment.

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“The patient received IV antibiotics for days and underwent multiple tests to find the source of their fever,” Simon said. A subsequent CT scan of the patient’s head revealed multiple decayed teeth.

“The entire costly admission could have been prevented if the patient had been able to see a dentist, or if the medical team had thought to look in their mouth,” she said, adding that such cases are not uncommon.

“Cases like this aren’t rare and regularly remind me how harmful the separation between medicine and dentistry can be when it comes to our patients’ health.”

Simon currently serves as an assistant professor of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at HSDM, an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her NIH-funded research focuses on oral health policy and its impact on health outcomes.

“I began to think that to truly enact change, I needed to understand both the medical and dental systems — becoming a ‘dual citizen,’” Simon said.