Dr. Chukwuebuka Ogwo, a faculty member in Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology and director of the Dental Public Health Program at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM), has received a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program award in the amount of $420,000 for his research on developing artificial-intelligence models for equitable delivery of oral healthcare.
The award, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, offers four years of postdoctoral research support to faculty from historically marginalized backgrounds with the goal of fostering the development of medical, dental, and nursing faculty who are committed to improving the health of underserved populations, or working toward understanding and eliminating health disparities. The name of the program honors Dr. Harold Amos who was the first African American chair of a department at Harvard Medical School.
“This recognition is incredibly special as it supports our ongoing efforts to innovate in dental public health through the use of artificial intelligence,” said Ogwo. “I am proud to be one of the few dentists to receive this award in its history. I want to thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for supporting this vision and providing me with the opportunity to advance this meaningful research.”
Ogwo’s research aims to develop an AI-powered tool to predict dental caries outcomes, identify social determinants of dental caries, and detect caries from clinical photographs. It will leverage a uniquely comprehensive dataset that combines electronic health records (EHR) with census data, with the hope of creating a socially inclusive caries risk assessment tool that will help clinicians and policymakers take more targeted action in oral health prevention and management.
The work will also support the creation of an AI-driven teledentistry platform aimed at increasing access to dental care, reducing oral health disparities, and ultimately lowering the cost of care for vulnerable populations.
“The long-term vision is to build a web-based application for real-time caries prediction and management at both individual and population levels—helping us move closer to equitable oral health for all,” said Ogwo.
Ogwo joined HSDM in September to lead the School’s Dental Public Health Program. He previously served as an assistant professor of dentistry and the director of the Masters in Oral Health Sciences Program in the department of Oral Health Sciences at Kornberg School of Dentistry at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also acted as the director of the Biostatistics Core at the school. He received his dental degree from the University of Nigeria, and his master’s degree in international health (Epidemiology) from Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands. Ogwo also received a master’s degree in public health from Western Illinois University in Illinois and completed his Dental Public Health residency at the University of Iowa in 2020 along with his PhD in Oral Sciences from the University of Iowa in 2021.
“I am delighted that Dr. Ogwo has joined our department at HSDM. His innovative research will bring valuable insights into improving our understanding of barriers and facilitators to improving oral health equity,” said Dr. Catherine Hayes, chair of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology. “Our students will benefit greatly from his expertise and excellence in teaching, mentoring and research. We sincerely congratulate Dr. Ogwo on becoming a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program Scholar.”
