Accelerating best practice in medical–dental integration

Anita Duhl Glicken MSW, Professor and Associate Dean Emerita at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, has over 35 years of administrative, research and education experience. A founding member of the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health (NIIOH), she now serves as the organization’s Executive Director. Since 2009, the NIIOH has been a backbone organization and national voice for the interprofessional integration of oral health into primary care. Ms. Glicken is immediate past chair of HRSA’s Federal Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (ACTPCMD) and was Consultant and Chair of the Primary Care Collaborative Advisory Committee that produced the award-winning Integration of Oral Health in Primary Care Compendium. Ms. Glicken has personally received several national awards; under her leadership the NIIOH has received the ADEA Foundation’s Gies Award and the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education’s George T. Thibault Award. She has been a consultant and Chair of oral health workshops for the National Academies of Medicine Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education and currently serves on the Advisory Group for the CDC funded National Association of Chronic Disease Directors’ Medical – Dental Integration Project, the Meharry University Oral Health Equity Project, the CIPCOH 100 Million Mouths Campaign Advisory Board, and is an active member of the Santa Fe Group Board.

Ms. Glicken has served on several national expert panels to develop tools and resources supporting workforce research, practice, and policy, including HRSA’s National Center for Health Workforce Analysis (NCHWA) on Data and Methods for Tracking, Supply, Demand, Distribution and Adequacy of the Primary Care Workforce, HRSA’s 2014 report Integration of Oral Health and Primary Care Practice, and the Qualis Health White Paper, Oral Health: An Essential Component of Primary Care. Past leadership roles include President of the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) and President/CEO of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants Health Foundation, where she worked with National Center for Health Workforce Analysis to create a database on certified PA practice to inform health policy and workforce planning. A clinical social worker, Ms. Glicken’s career has focused on healthcare transformation, partnering to create innovative education and care delivery models grounded in interprofessional collaboration and health equity. She was the Project Director of an American International Health Alliance multi-year PEPFAR contract to create new educational programs to build midlevel health workforce capacity in South Africa. Ms. Glicken is the author of over 100 publications in health care education, workforce and research and lead investigator on >$20 million in grant funding.

Rear Admiral (Ret.) Timothy L. Ricks, DMD, MPH, FICD, FACD, FPFA, retired USPHS chief dental officer served as the 20th Chief Dental Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service as well as Assistant Surgeon General from 2018 to 2022. Dr. Ricks served in the U.S. Public Health Service for over 23 years as a clinician and an administrator, and over 35 years of total federal service including military service.

Solomon G. Brotman, DDS, MAGD is Vice President, National Clinical Operations for USAble Life/Life and Specialty Ventures (LSV). LSV’s insurance business provides benefits in multiple states under the Blue Cross Blue Shield brand. Dr. Brotman works closely with Medical Directors to oversee medical-dental integration in addition to other head and neck related issues.

Prior to beginning his current role in 2018, Dr. Brotman was a full-time general dentist. He maintains a part-time practice in Jacksonville, Florida. Sol is a Clinical Instructor, Department of Neural and Pain Sciences at the University of Maryland. He was Clinical Assistant Professor in Operative Dentistry and Facial Pain at the University of Florida, lecturer at LSU and Nova Southeastern on professional ethics and facial pain. Sol is a Practitioner-Investigator and co-author for the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network.  Among his other publications was a March 2022 paper as co-author with a research team from the Mayo Clinic, “Association Between Preventive Dental Care and Healthcare Cost for Enrollees with Diabetes or Coronary Artery Disease:5-Year Experience”.

Sol served as Chair of the Florida Board of Dentistry. He has provided consultant services to over 30 medical insurance companies and was Chief Financial Officer of Image Dynamics, Inc., a marketing and crisis management firm. Sol is currently Trustee and Audit Chair of The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, the largest in the state.

Dr. Brotman received his dental degree from the University of Maryland, Certificate in Comprehensive General Dentistry from the University of Florida and Mastership in the Academy of General Dentistry.  Sol is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists, International College of Dentists, Academy of Dentistry International and Pierre Fauchard Academy.  He is a Senior Scholar of the Santa Fe Group chairing a Task Force on Promoting Primary Care Activities in Dentistry.