Keynote Speakers
Dimitris Bertsimas
Boeing Professor of Operations Research
Associate Dean of Business Analytics
MIT
Dimitris’s bio
Dimitris Bertsimas is the Boeing Professor of Operations Research and the Associate Dean of Business Analytics at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, an INFORMS fellow, recipient of the John von Neumann Theory Prize, the Frederick W. Lanchester Prize, the Erlang Prize, finalist of the Franz Edelman Prize four times, and the INFORMS President’s Award, among many other research and teaching awards, supervisor of 91 completed and 26 current doctoral theses, co-author of seven graduate level textbooks, 300+ publications, editor of the INFORMS Journal on Optimization and co-founder of ten analytics companies and two non-profit foundations.
Fernanda Viégas
Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science
Harvard University
Fernanda’s bio
Fernanda Viégas is Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard, and Sally Starling Seaver Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Fernanda is also a Principal Scientist at Google, where she co-founded the PAIR (People+AI Research) team. Her work in machine learning with long-time collaborator Martin Wattenberg focuses on transparency and interpretability, as part of a broad agenda to improve human/AI interaction. She is well known for her contributions to social and collaborative data visualization, and the systems her teams have created are used daily by millions of people. Viégas and Wattenberg are also known for their visualization-based artwork, which has been exhibited worldwide, and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Viégas holds a PhD from the MIT Media Lab.
Speakers Include:
Lucia H. Soares Cevidanes
Thomas M. and Doris Graber
Endowed Professor of Dentistry
University of Michigan
Lucia’s bio
Lucia Cevidanes is the Thomas and Doris Graber Professor of Dentistry and associate professor at the Department of Orthodontics at the University of Michigan, and a diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics. She is a practicing clinician who has published over 200 manuscripts on 3D imaging and artitificial intelligence (AI) for which she has received research grants from the American Association of Orthodontics Foundation and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Her work has been recognized by the American Association of Orthodontists Thomas M. Graber Award, the B F Dewel Award, Milo Hellman Award, and the Wuehrmann award from the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology. Her interests include 3D imaging and AI to solve difficult clinical problems in orthodontics, studying current and new treatment approaches and technical procedures, and understanding treatment outcomes for craniofacial anomalies and dentofacial deformities.
Teresa A. Dolan
Chief Dental Officer
Overjet
Teresa’s bio
Teresa (Terri) Dolan is the chief dental officer at Overjet, a global leader in dental AI. She previously served as Dentsply Sirona’s chief clinical officer, leading the global clinical affairs function, supporting new product development and overseeing the largest global clinical education program sponsored by the dental industry.
Dr. Dolan is also professor and dean emeritus of the University of Florida College of Dentistry, where she served as dean and chief academic officer from 2003 until 2013. She is recognized for her contributions to dental public health, geriatric dentistry and as a champion for diversity and women in dentistry.
Dr. Dolan is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers University; she earned a DDS degree from the University of Texas and a MPH degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Dental Health Services Research Scholar, completed a Veterans Administration Fellowship in Geriatric Dentistry, and is board certified in Dental Public Health. As a recognized leader in the dental profession, she currently serves as president of the Santa Fe Group, vice president of the American College of Dentists, and serves on the board of directors of the American Dental Association Science and Research Institute.
Francesca Dominici
Co-Director
Data Science Initiative
Harvard University
Francesca’s bio
Francesca Dominici, PhD, is the director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, at Harvard University and the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-editor in chief of the Harvard Data Science Review. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and of the International Society of Mathematical Statistics. She leads an interdisciplinary group of scientists to address important questions in environmental health science, climate change, and health policy. Her contributions to the field have been remarkable including more than 250 peer-reviewed published articles,and has provided her knowledge on the topics on joint panels with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, and European Commission).
Dr. Dominici has provided the scientific community and policy makers with comprehensive and compelling evidence on the adverse health effects of air pollution, noise pollution, and climate change. Her studies have directly and routinely impacted air quality policy. Dr. Dominici was recognized in Thomson Reuter’s 2019 list of the most highly cited researchers–ranking in the top 1% of cited scientists in her field.
Her work has been covered by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, BBC, the Guardian, CNN, and NPR. In April 2020 she has been awarded the Karl E. Peace Award for Outstanding Statistical Contributions for the Betterment of Society by the American Statistical Association. She is an advocate for the career advancement of women faculty, and her work on the Johns Hopkins University Committee on the Status of Women earned her the campus Diversity Recognition Award in 2009. At the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she has led the Committee for the Advancement of Women Faculty.
Rena D’Souza
Director
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
Rena’s bio
Rena D’Souza is the director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health. She is deeply committed to the organization’s mission — advance fundamental knowledge about dental, oral, and craniofacial health and disease and translate these findings into prevention, early detection, and treatment strategies that improve overall health for all individuals and communities across the lifespan.
Prior to becoming NIDCR’s director, Dr. D’Souza served at the University of Utah as assistant vice president for Academic Affairs and Education for the Health Sciences. She held the Ole and Marty Jensen endowed chair in the School of Dentistry that she led as inaugural dean. She is past president of the American Association for Dental and Oral Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) and the International Association for Dental Research (IADR).
Dr. D’Souza is an internationally recognized researcher and has authored over 150 publications and book chapters in the areas of craniofacial development, matrix biology and tissue regeneration for over 30 years. She is a Fellow of AAAS and also of AADOCR. She was inducted into the German National Academy of Sciences in 2012 and the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine’s awarded Dr. D’Souza the Birnberg Research Medal in 2016. She received the Irwin D. Mandel Distinguished National Mentoring Award in 2017, the Shils Fund Innovation Award in 2022 and was the inaugural recipient of the Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award from UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry in 2022.
Hawazin Elani
Assistant Professor of Oral Health Policy
& Epidemiology
Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Hawazin’s bio
Hawazin Elani, BDS, MSc, PhD, MMSc is an Assistant Professor at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a prosthodontist and epidemiologist, and her research focuses on investigating the impact of health policies on the oral health of vulnerable populations. Dr. Elani is particularly interested in exploring social determinants of population health, health disparities, and improving access to oral health services. She uses big data analytics, including causal inference, econometrics, and machine learning approaches to inform data-driven policymaking aimed at reducing health disparities. Dr. Elani is leading multiple projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Commonwealth Fund. She earned an MSc and a Ph.D. from McGill University and completed a residency in Prosthodontics at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, where she received an MMSc.
Maxine Feinberg
Chief Strategy Officer, VELMENI
Maxine’s’s bio
Maxine Feinberg, a Cranford, New Jersey-based periodontist, was elected In November 2013 to serve as president–elect of the American Dental Association. She served for four years as the Fourth District Trustee of the American Dental Association, and was the third women to hold the Office of ADA President in 2014–15.
Dr. Feinberg graduated from New York University College of Arts and Sciences in 1977 and NYU’s College of Dentistry in 1980. She returned to NYU after her residency in anesthesiology and working as a general dentist and treating patients confined in nursing homes to complete her certificate in periodontics in 1984.
Dr. Feinberg is a past president of the New Jersey Dental Association and the New Jersey State Board of Dentistry., where she served for 9 years. She has been a delegate in both the ADA and New Jersey Dental Associations House of Delegates. She initiated the New Jersey Give Kids A Smile campaign for 2002 and 2003. She remains active in both her component dental society and the NJDA. She currently serves as a Member at Large to the CDCA Board. She is still serves as an ADA’s Delegate to the FDI World Dental Congress. Dr Feinberg serves as a Commissioner for CODA and sits on the Boards of the NJDDS/Donated Dental Services and the Gillette Hayden Foundations. She is a fellow in the American College of Dentists, the International College of Dentists and the Pierre Fauchard Academy.
Mariya Filipova
Chief Innovation Officer
CareQuest Institute
Mariya’s bio
Mariya Filipova, MBA, is a member of the CareQuest Institute leadership team and serves as chief innovation officer of CareQuest Innovation Partners, the for-profit affiliate of CareQuest Institute. In her role, she oversees innovation, incubation, and investment activities aimed at developing solutions that advance oral health access, equity and integration for underserved populations.
Formerly, vice president of innovation at Anthem Inc, Mariya led efforts in scaling emerging technologies and new business models to accelerate Anthem’s transformation to a digital-first enterprise. Mariya’s vision and leadership in these areas resulted in the development of several breakthrough solutions and programs, including the $5 million XPRIZE Rapid COVID-19 Testing competition, in partnership with seven Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans, to identify and validate fast, frequent, cheap, and easy-to-use testing solutions for SARS-CoV-2 and Anthem’s Digital Data Sandbox — the largest, certified de-identified commercial data set.
Mariya served as one of the founding members of the Health Utility Network, a coalition of insurance companies, hospital networks, financial services, and technology companies developing blockchain solutions for health care. Prior to Anthem, Mariya drove the development of Deloitte’s Future of Work Center of Excellence, a portfolio of investments across the Americas, APAC, and EMEA that used exponential technologies (e.g. blockchain, artificial intelligence) to redefine the future of work. Mariya has also been recognized by Business Insider (BI’s 30 under 40) and The Harvard Business School Association of Boston. Mariya holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s in economics, summa cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College.
Adam Foresman
Director of Quality and Regulatory Affairs VideaHealth
Adam’s bio
Adam Foresman is the director of Quality and Regulatory Affairs at VideaHealth. In his role, he leads the management and implementation of global regulatory requirements. His primary goals include ensuring the highest quality of AI technology, minimizing AI bias, and maximizing cybersecurity confidence by adhering to global regulatory requirements.
Mr. Foresman has 15 years of experience in design, manufacturing, and regulatory compliance across diagnostics, imaging, and AI and imaging software, along with various other medical devices. Over the course of 8 years, he has specifically focused on the dental industry, earning him the reputation of being one of the foremost AI regulatory experts in dentistry, having obtained multiple FDA clearances.
He has actively contributed to various committees, including the AAMI’s ISO 14971 medical device risk management standard committee. Presently, he is a member of the cutting-edge ADA’s ISO 18374 dental AI design and validation standard committee, further showcasing his commitment to shaping industry standards.
Mr. Foresman holds master’s degrees in biomedical engineering and business administration. Additionally, he possesses a six sigma black belt and a RAPS certificate in regulatory affairs.
Robert Gentleman
Founding Executive Director
Center for Computational Biomedicine Harvard Medical School (Chair)
Robert’s bio
Robert Gentleman is the founding executive director of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Computational Biomedicine. An accomplished statistician and bioinformatician, Dr. Gentleman is one of the creators of the R programming language and a founder of the Bioconductor project, an open-source collaborative software tool to promote statistical analysis of biological data. He has served as vice president of 23andMe, where he helped launch their therapeutic division, and as senior director for bioinformatics and computational biology at Genentech. He was head of computational biology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and held academic positions at Harvard University, University of Auckland, and the University of Waterloo. Dr. Gentleman’s research interests are related to genomics, machine learning, data visualization, and the application of statistical and computational methods to study human disease.
Kimberly Harding
Founder and President
Monarch Innovation Partners
Kimberly’s bio
Kimberly Harding is founder and president of Monarch Innovation Partners, Inc., a technology consulting firm. Ms. Harding has over 25 years of experience with some of the leading health IT and life science organizations in the U.S. federal sector and commercial organizations in the world. She was designated as IBM’s Interoperability Lead for their Global Business Solutions, the Lead Federal Health Principal Consultant for SAS Institute, across all U.S. federal health, Veteran, and military agencies. In addition, Ms. Harding held the positions of Director of Technology Management at the American College of Cardiology and Senior Director of Provider Connectivity Solutions at Florida Blue. Through her independent consulting firm, Ms. Harding provided health IT program advisory and architecture services to some of the leading payers and federal health agencies in the U.S., including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Veteran Health Administration, National Institutes of Health, Blue Shield of California, and Federal Employee Operations Center.
Ms. Harding’s work within AI at the national and international level consists of being a co-author the American Dental Association’s first white paper, an overview of artificial and augmented intelligence uses in dentistry and as a member of the ADA working group in AI, a representative of the U.S. position for Dental AI-based ISO standards. Ms. Harding has published articles based on her original research in AI and IT frameworks, for multi-national collaboration initiatives, addressing healthcare delivery disparities in low resource settings in East Africa, health disparities associated with chronic kidney disease, behavioral health, and high risk pregnancy medical interventions for African Americans. She has created several multi-national, multidisciplinary research consortiums as part of her research and development.
Adam Heroux
VP of Quality and Regulatory Affairs
Kheiron Medical
Adam’s bio
Adam Heroux is an accomplished regulatory and quality executive with more than 20 years of experience in the Medical Device industry bringing products to market globally. Mr. Heroux currently serves as the Vice President of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs for Kheiron Medical Technologies, and was previously the Head of Regulatory Affairs for Overjet.
Prior to his current role, Mr. Heroux helped bring to market Software as a Medical Device(SAMD) solutions including the Overjet Dental Assist system, and the Ambra Health PACS with ProViewer. Mr. Heroux has held progressive roles in Quality and Regulatory for leading medical device companies such as Genzyme Biosurgery, Boston Scientific, and Nova Biomedical. Mr. Heroux is the founder of PNE Consulting LLC, a regulatory consulting firm specializing in AI Software as a Medical Device.
Mr. Heroux earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Masters of Business Administration from Rivier University.
Daniel Pihlstrom
Chief Dental Officer
Permanente Dental Associates, P.C.
Daniel’s bio
Daniel Pihlstrom, DDS, is chief dental officer of Permanente Dental Associates (PDA). In this role, Dr. Pihlstrom oversees the quality agenda of the Kaiser Permanente Dental program, helping to ensure the organization’s 290,000 members receive patient-centered, integrated, value-based care.
Dr. Pihlstrom has practiced general dentistry for over 20 years and has served in various leadership roles for PDA. During his career at PDA, he developed the Kaiser Permanente Medical-Dental Integration (MDI) program, incorporating licensed practical nurses, dentist-administered flu vaccinations, and medical care coordination into daily clinical practice. Dr. Pihlstrom is affiliate investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and has contributed to numerous scientific publications on evidence-based dentistry and medical-dental integration, including the 2021 Surgeon Generals’ Report on Oral Health in America.
Dr. Pihlstrom graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Sciences in Biochemistry and received his dental degree from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry in 2000. He completed a general practice residency at the Oregon Health & Sciences University and joined PDA in 2001. In 2019 he completed the Harvard Business School Executive Leadership Program.
Kaz Rafia
Chief Health Equity Officer
CareQuest Institute for Oral Health
Kaz’s bio
Kaz Rafia is the inaugural chief health equity officer at CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, a leading national nonprofit creating a more accessible, equitable, and integrated oral health system.
In his role, Dr. Rafia leads the organization’s philanthropy strategy and is responsible for the largest private oral health grantmaking portfolio in the United States. He also leads the organization’s health transformation activities and the programmatic initiatives advancing value-based care, medical-dental integration, and health information technology interoperability.
Previously, Dr. Rafia served as the state dental director for Oregon, where he successfully led the effort to expand Medicaid adult dental benefits for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and collaborated with partner state agencies on dental therapy scope of practice, expansion of Oregon Health Plan dental benefits for veterans, as well as the inclusion of oral health education in school curriculum.
Dr. Rafia leverages his background as a dentist in private and group practice settings, a non-profit leader, and an academic to build collaborative and diverse alliances working towards a healthcare system that represents and works for all.
He is an alumnus of The Ohio State College of Dentistry, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and The University of Illinois College of Business.
Bernardo Sabatini
Co-Director
Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence
Bernardo’s bio
Bernardo Sabatini’s research examines the mechanisms by which animals choose what to do next. This process of “action selection” uses information from past experiences, current goals, internal needs, and the current state of the environment to choose an action that achieves near- and long-term objectives, such as access to food, water, mates, and safety from predators. An evolutionarily ancient part of the brain, the basal ganglia, is conserved from fish to humans and mediates action selection. Sabatini and his collaborators study the basal ganglia to uncover the circuits that underlie action selection, and that allow an animal to update its action plan dependent on past experiences. To facilitate their studies, the Sabatini group develops novel optical, behavioral, and mathematical methods. Sabatini is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator as well as an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He earned his MD and PhD from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.
Cindy Roark
Senior Vice President and
Chief Clinical Officer
Sage Dental
Cindy’s bio
Cindy Roark is responsible for overall clinical leadership, including enterprise-wide clinical strategic planning, developing and improving clinical protocols, researching new technologies and services, overseeing quality assurance, and providing professional development opportunities to 700 clinical team members and over 100 supported dental practices.
As a special area of interest, Dr. Roark is one of the preeminent global leaders in the adoption of artificial intelligence to improve the patient experience and overall outcomes of dental treatment. Dr. Roark brings 20 years of private practice, non-profit, and DSO experience to Sage Dental Management.
In addition to owning a successful private practice in Massachusetts, she served as Clinical Officer two national DSO’s and was formerly the Director of General Dentistry and Associate Professor at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Additionally, she sits on the Executive Board of Sage Dental Management. Dr. Roark received a Master of Science in Health Care Management degree from Harvard University and earned her dental degree, magna cum laude, from the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine at Boston University.
Philippe Salah
CEO
Dental Monitoring
Philippe’s bio
Philippe Salah graduated from the prestigious École Polytechnique in Paris, France, with a PhD in biophysics. He fell in love with orthodontics after partnering with an orthodontist to build Harmony, a company that made custom lingual treatments with a fully digital workflow. By 2014, Dr. Salah had already realized that artificial intelligence (AI) was the next frontier in medical care, and so he brought together a team of engineers and orthodontists and created Dental Monitoring, the world’s first AI-based system for treatment monitoring, practice management, and patient communication.
Mini Suri
CEO and Co-Founder
VELMENI
Mini’s bio
Mini Suri previously served as chief customer success officer with Kore.ai, a conversational AI company; as head of automation at Uber; and as senior vice president at Citi where she managed Citi’s Services Strategy 2020 implementing and adopting niche technology products such as chatbots, machine learning, and AI. Mini managed enterprise content management (ECM), electronic signature engineering, and delivery Management for Cloud technology and DevOps enablement.
Mini completed her MBA from MIT at the Sloan School of Management, has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Anna University in Chennai, India, and a Master of Science in Information Technology from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Ophir Tanz
CEO
Pearl
Ophir’s bio
Ophir Tanz is an award-winning entrepreneur and technologist. He is the founder and CEO of Pearl, an AI company focused on delivering transformative solutions for the dental industry. Previously, Ophir founded and led GumGum to well over $1B in value by applying computer vision machine learning to drive and measure performance for the digital media and sports sponsorship industries. Ophir received his Bachelor’s and Master’s from Carnegie Mellon University. An established member of the Los Angeles startup community, Ophir actively advises and invests in startups, has been featured on the cover of Entrepreneur magazine, and is the recipient of multiple business leadership awards.
Marko Vujicic
Chief Economist and Vice President
American Dental Association (Chair)
Marko’s bio
Marko Vujicic currently serves as chief economist and vice president of the Health Policy Institute at the American Dental Association. He is a recognized thought leader in health care policy as it relates to dental care. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals such as Health Affairs, The New England Journal of Medicine, and his team’s work is regularly cited by CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News and other media outlets. Previously, he was senior economist with The World Bank in Washington D.C. where he focused on health systems reform in developing countries.
Roya Zandparsa
Clinical Professor and
Biomaterials Course Director
Tufts University
Roya’s bio
Dr. Roya Zandparsa is a Clinical Professor and Biomaterials Course Director at the Department of Prosthodontics at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, a Lecturer at the Department of Restorative Dentistry and Biomaterials Sciences at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Vice President of Innovation, Training, and Development at Qualitas Dental Partners Organization, the Founder & CEO of Expert Dental Advisory, the President Elect of The American Association of Women Dentists, the Past President of American Academy of Dental Science, and a Fellow of the International College of Dentistry.
Dr. Roya Zandparsa received her DMD from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Master of Science in Biomaterials & Biomimetics and Certificate in Prosthodontics from New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science and New York University College of Dentistry, respectively. She completed a fellowship in Implant Dentistry from Harvard University School of Dental Medicine, a fellowship in Academic Leadership from American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Leadership Institute, and obtained few certificates in advanced surgical implant Dentistry, Entrepreneurship from Harvard Business School (HBSx), and a certificate in Innovation Process from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MITx).
Beyond her teaching commitments, Dr. Zandparsa took on the role of Chair for the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, a position that played a pivotal role in reshaping the trajectory of Tufts Dental School. She also actively participates as a committee member in various dental organizations and contributes her expertise as an Educational Consultant for multiple dental companies.
Dr. Zandparsa has received numerous awards during her academic career for being an outstanding scholar & clinician, excellence in clinical teaching, and exemplary leadership.
She has been making major contribution in research in various areas, which resulted in numerous published articles and book chapters. She is a dental speaker and has been lecturing and presenting both nationally and internationally while reviewing manuscripts for several scientific Journals.
Marinka Zitnik
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Harvard Medical School
Marinka’s bio
Marinka Zitnik investigates machine learning for science and medicine. Her methods leverage biomedical data at the scale of billions of interactions among millions of entities, blend machine learning with statistics and data science, and infuse biomedical knowledge into deep learning. Problems she investigates are motivated by network biology and medicine, genomics, drug discovery, and health.
Dr. Zitnik’s research vision is that in the future data science and artificial intelligence will be routinely used to give clinicians diagnostic recommendations; give scientists testable hypotheses they can confirm experimentally and offer them insights into safe and precise treatments; and give patients guidance on self-care, e.g., how to lead a healthy lifestyle and recognize disease early. To realize this vision, Dr. Zitnik develops methods to reason over rich interconnected data and translates the methods into solutions for biomedical problems.
Before joining Harvard, Dr. Zitnik was a postdoctoral fellow in Computer Science at Stanford University and was involved in projects at Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Ljubljana while also researching at Imperial College London, University of Toronto, Baylor College of Medicine, and Stanford University.
Other Speakers Include:
Yusuke Amano, Chief Technology Officer, ASUA, Inc.
Yusuke Amano is Chief Technology Officer at ASUA Inc. Before joining to ASUA Inc., he was engaged in system development, leading projects and releasing services using many advanced technologies such as AI and blockchain. After that, he became the company’s internal director and head of operations in 2019. In the same year, he started developing Digital Hygienist, a business for dental clinics using a diagnostic message delivery service, as business director. And a clinical study on the effectiveness of this system as a digital medicine was conducted using a practice-based research network, The McGuire Institute (iMc) in 2021. Currently, based on this diagnostic message delivery service, the company is expanding the AI-based communication technology into the healthcare industry.
Guru Banavar, Chief Technology Officer, Viome
Guru Banavar, PhD is Chief Technology Officer at Viome, Inc.,a company that uses advanced microbiology & biochemistry to understand your molecular functions, applies AI & ML technologies to create a high-resolution model of your individual biology, and uses concepts from modern medical science to recommend food and supplements personalized for you. Until April 2017, he was a global Vice President at IBM leading Watson AI research, and a member of CEO Ginni Rometty’s top executive team. Guru has built a range of advanced technologies and delivered solutions in multiple industries throughout his career. He has published extensively, and holds more than 25 US patents. Guru is a recognized thought leader who has spoken on the Nobel, Aspen, and Milken stages, and most recently, delivered the 2017 Turing Lecture. His awards include the Leadership in Technology Management Award from PICMET in 2017, and a National Innovation Award from the President of India in 2009. He has served on NY Governor Cuomo’s commission for NY state resiliency, and was an elected member of the IBM Academy of Technology. Guru has published extensively, and holds more than 25 US patents. His work has been featured in major international media including the New York Times, Economist, Wall Street Journal, BBC, and NPR.
Shayan Barootchi, Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
Shayan Barootchi, DMD is a Member of the Faculty in the Department of Oral Medicine, Infection, and Immunity at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Prior to this he was Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine after completing a post-doctoral research fellowship and Periodontal residency program, leading to a Certificate and Master’s Degree in Periodontology. Barootchi has conducted numerous research projects in the field of periodontal and peri-implant plastic surgery, root coverage procedures and hard and soft tissue regeneration, ranging from human randomized clinical trials, cross-sectional studies, small and large animal models, in-vitro, and other translational research, many of which have been published in well-known peer-reviewed international journals. His work in this field has led to more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles and his research and publications have been the recipients of numerous national and international prestigious awards. He also serves as the associate editor for the Journal of Clinical implant Dentistry and related Research, as well as on the editorial board and as an ad-hoc reviewer for many other internally renowned journals in Dentistry and Periodontology, such as the Journal of Periodontology, Journal of Clinical Periodontology, and the International Journal of Periodontics and Restorative Dentistry. His current research focuses on periodontal and peri-implant hard and soft tissue regeneration as well as contemporary methods for the treatment of peri-implantitis.
Chia-Yu (Jennifer) Chen, Instructor in the Department of Oral Medicine, Infection, and Immunity, HSDM
Chia-Yu (Jennifer) Chen, DDS, DMSc is an Instructor in the Department of Oral Medicine, Infection, and Immunity at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Chen received her dental degree (DDS) from Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan and completed her periodontology training and Doctor of Medical Science (DMSc) in oral biology from Harvard School of Dental Medicine. At HSDM, Chen was selected as a Presidential Scholar and, at graduation, was the recipient of both the James H. Shaw Award for excellence in biomedical research and the Joseph L. Henry Award, which recognizes excellence in research and clinical training from Harvard. Chen is a diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology. She maintains a clinical practice limited to periodontology and implantology in the Faculty Group Practice at the Harvard Dental Center. Chen’s clinical and research interests include the use of innovative concepts, technologies and biomaterials to enhance treatment outcomes and patients’ experiences. She is involved in both preclinical and clinical research related to soft/hard tissue regeneration, implant dentistry and digital dentistry.
Sung Choi, SM, PhD, Assistant Professor, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Sung Choi, SM, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. She holds a Master’s degree in Biostatistics from Harvard University and a PhD in Management Science and Engineering (Health Policy) from Stanford University. Dr. Choi’s research focuses on applying data analytics and mathematical modeling methods to evaluate health and economic outcomes of various health policy and healthcare decisions. Her methodological interests include integrating data science and operations research methods to inform health decision-making.
Balazs Feher, Osteology Research Scholar, HSDM
Balazs Feher, DMD is the Osteology Research Scholar at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. As a member of the Giannobile Lab, Feher conducts preclinical and clinical research with a focus on oral medicine. His clinical research concentrates on the application of data science and artificial intelligence in dentistry and oral surgery. Feher is also a Principal Investigator in the WHO-ITU-WIPO Global Initiative on Artificial Intelligence for Health (Topic Group Dentistry, Subtopic Oral Surgery). Feher received his DMD from the Medical University of Vienna, where he worked as a Clinical Instructor and Lecturer in oral surgery prior to joining Harvard.
Rick Heard, Executive Director of Clinical Research and Operations, The McGuire Institute
Rick Heard, DDS obtained his DDS degree in 1997, and his certificate along with his Master of Science in Periodontics in 2000 from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology. He has maintained a private practice in Victoria, TX since 2001. He has also served as the Executive Director of Clinical Research and Operations for The McGuire Institute since 2018.
Florian Hillen, Founder and CEO, VideaHealth
Florian Hillen is Founder & CEO of VideaHealth, a venture-backed company developing Artificial Intelligence to detect diseases in dental imaging, helping dentists to avoid missing diseases and offering better health services to their patients. Previously, he conducted research projects at the intersection of engineering and social science at MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems and Society and Harvard Business School, worked for McKinsey & Company and founded ninu, a digital healthtech start-up. He holds two masters degrees from MIT in Computer Science and Technology & Policy, a bachelors in Management & Technology and the first State exam in Medicine.
David Lustbader, DMD, Director of Clinical Affairs, 42 North Dental; Past Massachusetts Dental Society (MDS) President
David Lustbader, DMD is Director of Clinical Affairs at 42 North Dental. Lustbader received his Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude, and his Doctor of Dental Medicine Degree from Boston University receiving many other awards during his dental education. He completed his Residency in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York with an emphasis on Reconstructive, Implant and Pre-Prosthetic Surgery. He served as Clinical Instructor for SUNY at Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine for two years and at Boston University School of Dental Medicine from 1991 to the present. Lustbader came to South Shore Oral Surgery Associates immediately following his hospital training. From the start his commitment to excellence and providing his patients with the highest quality of care is evidenced both by his fine reputation with his patient and professional community and his dedication to this community. Lustbader is actively involved in numerous local and national societies. Subsequently he spends several hundred hours each year as a presenter at national and regional continuing education events and conventions. Lustbader’s main area of clinical interest is dental implant surgery, of which he has performed over 15,000 procedures. Lustbader is also Chief of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Milton Hospital, and is a clinical instructor at Boston Medical Center.
Hiroshi Maji, Chief Executive Officer, ASUA, Inc.
Hiroshi Maji, CEO of ASUA Inc., founded the company in 1994. In 1998, the company began selling products aimed at improving the fuel efficiency of automobiles and later converted its business to specialized consulting for logistics companies. He presented a paper at the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan in 2006 and proposed “Improving Fuel Efficiency and Reducing Accidents through Eco-Driving Activities”. In 2014, he hosted an Eco-Driving Conference at the United Nations Headquarters, and established the Eco-Driving Declaration in 2016, which was extended to about 50 countries. This activity led to initiatives with Toyota Motor Corporation, and ASUA Inc. have been delivering driver diagnostic messages using Toyota Motor Corporation’s connected data, leveraging the know-how we have cultivated in logistics consulting. In 2019, the company started to develop “Digital Hygienist”, a business for dental clinics that utilizes the diagnostic message delivery service. And a clinical study on the effectiveness of this system as a digital medicine was conducted using a practice-based research network, The McGuire Institute (iMc) in 2021. Currently, based on this diagnostic message delivery service, the company is expanding the AI-based communication technology into the healthcare industry.
Takanari Miyamoto, Special Professor of Periodontics, Creighton University and Executive Founder of Perio Health Institute Japan
Takanari Miyamoto, DDS, PhD, CAGS, MSD, MBA, serves as the Special Professor at Creighton University and is the Executive Founder of Perio Health Institute Japan (PHIJ). PHIJ is a graduate-level private dental institution that provides guidance to dental leaders worldwide on knowledge, technologies, and the rapidly evolving field of science. As a periodontal surgeon, Dr. Miyamoto received extensive education and training. He is also the founder of Metro West Orthodontics + Periodontics, where he practices full-time. With over a decade of educational experience, he has lectured at Boston University and Creighton University. He has held positions as Department Chair of Periodontics and Director of the Predoctoral Program at Creighton University. Additionally, he has served as President of the Omaha District Dental Society, President of the Southwest Society of Periodontists, member of the editorial advisory board for the Journal of Periodontology, and member of the editorial board of the Journal of Oral Science. He is currently a member of the Honor Dental Society-Omicron Kappa Upsilon.
Anthony Morlandt, Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Chief of Oral Oncology Section, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Anthony Morlandt, M.D., D.D.S., F.A.C.S. is fellowship-trained in head and neck cancer surgery and microvascular reconstruction and is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon. His oncology practice focuses on surgical treatment of tumors involving the oral cavity and oropharynx, salivary glands, skin of the head and neck, and skull base. He is director of the section of Oral Oncology at UAB, the largest oral cancer regional referral program in the U.S. Southeast. Morlandt is the Endowed Peter D. Waite Professor with tenure, and Vice Chairman of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In addition, he directs the head and neck oncology and microvascular surgery fellowship program at UAB. Morlandt holds the position of Medical Quality Officer in UAB Medicine and directs several key quality and safety-related initiatives across the institution. Morlandt serves on the Board of Trustees of the American Association of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons. Locally, he is a board member of United Ability, an Alabama non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities. Morlandt’s current research focuses on the use of prognostic biomarkers in progression of oral dysplasia to cancer. He is U.S. Chief Medical Officer of Proteocyte AI, a Toronto-based company dedicated to ending late-stage oral cancer detection and improving survival through AI-powered predictive analytics. His work has been published in more than 50 scientific articles and book chapters and he has given over 100 invited oral and video presentations. Morlandt is a Scientist in the Cancer Chemoprevention Program in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama. In 2015, Morlandt received the Faculty Educator Development Award of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the first in Alabama to do so. He has been inducted into the American Head and Neck Society and is a Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the American Association of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons.
Nathan Palmer, Director of Data and Analytics Platforms, Center for Computational Biomedicine, Harvard Medical School
Nathan Palmer, PhD, is Senior Research Scientist in Biomedical Informatics and Director of Data and Analytics Platforms at the Center for Computational Biomedicine at Harvard Medical School. Palmer received a PhD in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying machine learning, protein folding, and functional genomics. He then held a postdoctoral research position in the lab of Isaac Kohane at Harvard Medical School, during which his research interests expanded to include large-scale genomics, epidemiology, and medical informatics. He then went on to direct the Healthcare Data Science Program in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. In his current role as Director of Data and Analytics Platforms for the Center for Computational Biomedicine (CCB), Palmer is part of a team of leading-edge technologists who evaluate and deploy modern data analytic processing and storage platforms to meet the needs of emergent research programs supported by CCB, with the goal of improving research reproducibility, scale, and efficiency. This team provides access to data resources comprising tens of billions of medical facts from tens of millions of patients to the research community at HMS, and develops both the technical and methodological solutions to perform novel analytics at scale. Palmer continues to work in the area of functional genomics and epidemiology through collaborations with the various Harvard teaching hospitals.
Barrie Renick, DDS, Chief Clinical Advisor, Proteocyte Diagnostics
Barrie Renick BSc, DDS, dip.OralPath, dip.Oral Surg., MRCD(C) is a private practitioner and the only Canadian trained in both Oral Pathology and Oral Surgery specialties. Renick practices oral surgery and surgical management of oral pathology cases in the city of Newmarket 25 miles north of Toronto, serving 400,000 people. Renick was the first clinician to use the Straticyte test in practice, which is the first commercially available AI-driven test that provides a cancer risk score to patients with OPMD (oral potentially malignant disorder). Renick is the Canadian Medical Officer for ProteocyteAI and a member of its Board of Directors.
Falk Schwendicke, Professor and Chair, Department of Oral Diagnostics, Digital Health and Health Services Research, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Advisor, Align Technology
Falk Schwendicke, PhD, MDPH, is Head of the Department of Oral Diagnostics, Digital Health and Health Services Research at Europe’s largest university hospital, the Charité in Berlin, Germany. He also is the founding director of the Berlin Institute of AI and Health Policy and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Schwendicke currently serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Dental Research, as President of the German Association for AI in Dentistry, as Topic Driver Dental at the ITU/WHO group AI in Health and as Vice President of the German Society for Oral Epidemiology and Health Services Research. He is also an Advisor to Align Technology. Schwendicke holds a PhD from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and a Master of Dental Public Health (MDPH) from the University of Manchester. He received numerous awards, among them the IADR Leader Award, IADR Basil Bibby and IADR Lion Award as well as the David Sackett Award for Evidence-Based Medicine.
Michael Scialabba, DDS, Chief Clinical Officer, 42 North Dental; Chairman of BORID Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Michael Scialabba is the Chief Clinical Officer at 42 North Dental, a leading dental support organization (DSO) with more than 100 supported locations from Maine to Michigan. Scialabba oversees the clinical excellence of more than 330 dentists and specialists. Scialabba also serves as a Gubernatorial appointee to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Dentistry. Since January 2021, he has been Chairman of the Board. He is a member of the Commission of Dental Competency Assessment and is an examiner for the American Board of Dental Examiners. Scialabba also sits on the Curriculum Committee and Government Affairs committee for the Association of Dental Support Organizations (ADSO) Summit. Scialabba practices at Great Hill Dental Partners in Peabody, Massachusetts, where he has cared for his patients for the past 16 years. He also guest lectures for SUNY Stony Brook in the practice management class for third- and fourth-year dental students. Prior to his current roles, Scialabba worked as Chief of Dentistry for Harvard Vanguard in Peabody, Massachusetts, where he spearheaded its endeavors to become the privately-held, dentist-owned Great Hill Dental Partners in 2010. He also worked as a clinical associate at Dental Care Associates in Brighton, Massachusetts, from 2005-2007. Scialabba is an active member of numerous professional organizations, including the ADSO, Crown Council, American Association of Oral Systemic Health, Academy of General Dentistry, American Dental Association, and the Massachusetts Dental Society. He was featured as a Top Dentist by Boston Magazine from 2016 to 2021. He is a recently appointed fellow of the American College of Dentists. Scialabba attended SUNY Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine and completed his training with a two-year residency program at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. He completed the American Dental Association’s Dental Practice Management Certificate Program through the Mendoza School of Business at the University of Notre Dame. Scialabba received an undergraduate degree in finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. He is an active member of the Boston College CEO Club and also volunteers his time to the Boston College Eagle Docs program, mentoring undergraduate students who seek dentistry as a profession.
Andreas Werdich, Software Engineer, Center for Computational Biomedicine, Harvard Medical School
Andreas Werdich, PhD is a Software Engineer at the Center for Computational Biomedicine at Harvard Medical School. Werdich is a physicist who received a Diploma in atomic physics from Freiburg University, Germany, and a PhD in physics from Vanderbilt University. His dissertation was focused on studying the molecular mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias using high-speed fluorescence imaging of single cells in microfluidic devices. Werdich completed postdoctoral fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital and Case Western Reserve University and in 2015, joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School at Brigham Women’s Hospital. Since then, he has been specializing in data science and computer vision, using deep learning techniques to uncover new attributes of human health and disease in experimental and clinical data. As a member of the Data and Analytics Platforms Team, Werdich enjoys helping his colleagues at Harvard Medical School to bridge the gaps between biology, medicine, engineering and computer science. He continues to work in the areas of cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmias through collaborations with Harvard teaching hospitals.
Kirill Zaydenman, Vice President of Product Strategy and Transformation, Delta Dental of Massachusetts
Kirill Zaydenman is vice president of product strategy and transformation at Delta Dental of Massachusetts. Kirill leads DDMA’s efforts to enable a transition to more accessible, equitable, and value-based oral health care system by collaborating with and driving value to our dentists, members, and clients. Zaydenman has held several dental and medical industry leadership roles. Most recently, as vice president of innovation at CareQuest Innovation Partners, the for-profit affiliate of CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, Zaydenman developed the company’s strategy and operating model to validate and scale transformative solutions to improve overall health through oral health. Previously, Zaydenman also led product development, strategy, and research at DentaQuest, DDMA, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. He is deeply passionate about making the health care system better, collaborating with diverse stakeholders, and partnering to find new ways to improve health equity, experience, and outcomes. He also enjoys coaching individuals and teams to achieve business results through change management, data-driven insights, and powerful storytelling. Zaydenman received a master’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in history from Boston University.
Edward Zuckerberg, Chief Dental Officer, Keystone Bio and Viome
Edward J. Zuckerberg, D.D.S., F.A.G.D. is a 1978 Graduate of NYU College of Dentistry. He owned his own practices in Brooklyn and Dobbs Ferry, NY from 1979-2013 and has always been an early adopter of technology, introducing his first PC in the office in 1986 and completely fully networking his home-based office with broadband access in 1996. Zuckerberg’s early adoption of technologies including digital radiography, CAD/CAM & creation of a paperless office caught the attention of industry leaders who enlisted him to lecture, write articles, and beta test new technologies. The advanced technology in the home helped launch his son Mark’s, the founder of Facebook, interest in computers. With his wife of 43 years, Karen, a retired psychiatrist, the couple has three daughters: Randi, former marketing director at Facebook and now CEO of Zuckerberg Media; Donna, who received her classics PhD at Princeton and is now an author and editor of the online publication, Eidolon, featuring a modern way to write about the ancient world; and Arielle, who is a partner in a financial firm in San Francisco; as well as 8 grandchildren. Zuckerberg lectures nationally and internationally on the Oral Systemic Connection; serves as a venture partner at Revere Partners, the first independent venture fund for oral health; acts as the chief dental advisor for both Viome and Keystone Bio in addition to treating patients part time in Cupertino, CA. Zuckerberg authored the chapter on social media on the ADA’s recently released “Practical Guide to Internet Marketing.”