Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine are excited to welcome Dr. Sung Eun Choi. Dr. Choi is originally from South Korea, and received her Bachelor of Science from Carnegie Mellon. She went on to receive a Master of Science in Biostatistics from Harvard University. Upon completing her master’s degree, she worked on simulation modeling and evaluating the impact of cancer control policy interventions at Massachusetts General Hospital. During this time, she became very interested in research and decided to pursue a Ph.D. degree in Management Science and Engineering (Health Policy) at Stanford University. Dr. Choi will be teaching the Biostatistics class at HSDM and will be working with the Office of Global and Community Health on the Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine helping with mathematical modeling. Dr. Choi’s research interests lie in using mathematical models to assess the health and economic outcomes of various health policy and healthcare decisions under uncertainty. Her methodological interests include integrating data science and operations research methods to inform health decision-making. Dr. Choi graciously answered a few questions about what excites her most about her new position at HSDM and why her work will provide value to the Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine.
What brought you to HSDM?
Dentistry has traditionally remained a separate discipline from other areas of healthcare, however, I believe that in this data-infused era of medicine, shared observational data and computational tool will provide a more complete picture of human health and eventually improve the overall population health. And I wanted to contribute to this effort in bridging the gap between dentistry and medicine.
What role will you play at HSDM and with the Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine?
I will be working on mathematical modeling and data analytics to evaluate the impact of integrating oral health into medicine. My goal is to increase awareness of the importance of oral health to overall health, to foster acceptance and adoption of effective preventive intervention, and to reduce disparities in access to dental care in the US.
What are you most excited about in regards to HSDM and the Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine?
I am excited about positive changes that we are going to bring to the society through research and training.
What are some activities or hobbies that you like to do for fun?
Like all kinds of exercises, except dancing!
Where do you see oral health and medicine in ten years?
I see oral health and medicine revolving around interdisciplinary connectedness.