Faculty News of Note

Dr. Carole McArthur, a professor in the Department Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, is performing a large HIV clinical study in Congo, Africa, funded again by Abbott Labs. This is the largest HIV clinical study carried out by a UMKC faculty member in Africa with the exception of a previous study her team carried out between 1998-2004 to develop and evaluate HIV diagnostic tools. At the recent Conference for Retroviral and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, Mass., the CEO of Abbott Laboratories, Dr. John Hackett, described Dr. McArthur’s and her colleagues’ 2017 findings on HIV diversity as, “incredible.” “Thus we are funded for another year for this high impact research,” says McArthur. “We have 34 clinical sites set up in the greater Kinshasa area in one of the most difficult environments in the world to carry out research successfully! In March I traveled to Africa to review these sites. I have been invited to Panzi Hospital on the eastern border of Rwanda to initiate a further HIV collaboration and evaluate their dental clinic infectious disease program. Panzi Hospital is notable for the program associated with the survivors of the shocking Tutsi genocide in early 2000s and with the International Criminal trials which followed for many years.”

Professor Julie Sutton recently submitted her research to the Journal of Dental Hygiene on blood pressure and presented a poster session in Columbus, Ohio, at the American Dental Hygiene Association Annual session in June 2018. Professor Sutton will also present a continuing education program on environmental tobacco smoke and periodontitis in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in October 2018 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Periodontology.

Professor Marsha Voelker published in February Journal of Dental Hygiene: Effectiveness of an Antigen-Specific Streptococcus mutans Chairside Test as Compared to a Culture-Based S. mutans Test.

 

Connie White (DDS ’81), assistant dean of community relations and communication, director of patient relations, was elected in November of 2017 as the new vice president of the Academy of General Dentistry. “I will move to the role of president-elect in November of 2018 and president of AGD in November of 2019.”