ProHEALTH Dental is expanding its oral health integration model through a clinical affiliation agreement with Riverside Medical Group, which comprises more than 200 providers serving 250,000 patients at more than 85 locations in New Jersey.
“The clinical literature is clear that poor oral health is a leading contributor to many chronic diseases including diabetes, pulmonary and heart disease, and certain cancers including oral cancer, which is the cause of over 10,000 deaths/year in the United States,” said Azzam Baker, MD, founder and co-president of Riverside Medical Group. “Through our affiliation with ProHEALTH Dental, we will collectively address this issue through patient education and coordinated medical/dental care.”
“Riverside has an ingrained culture of delivering the highest quality, accessible, and most affordable care. We achieve this through adherence to evidence-based best practices, integration, and continual innovation that has enabled us to transform care delivery in the region while delivering a superior patient experience,” said Omar Baker, MD, Riverside’s co-president and chief quality and safety officer.
“A dental care clinical affiliation with our complete medical home model is a natural evolution for our pediatric and adult patient population that will inevitably allow us to optimize managing the population while improving overall public health,” Baker said. ProHEALTH Dental has demonstrated they are leading the industry in the integration of medicine and dentistry, and we are confident that we will accomplish this important goal together in the region.”
“We are extremely proud that Riverside has selected us as their oral health affiliate. Their commitment to providing high-quality medical care goes back over three decades and, through our affiliation, we can work together to ensure that patients understand the importance of good oral health and provide state-of-the-art dental services to the patients and communities they serve,” said Norton Travis, CEO of ProHEALTH Dental.
ProHEALTH Dental’s initial clinical affiliation was with ProHEALTH Care Associates, a practice with more than 900 physicians serving more than 1.2 million patients at more than 300 locations in Long Island and the metropolitan New York area. Last year, it expanded to include an academic and clinical affiliation agreement with the Mount Sinai Health System/Icahn School of Medicine with affiliated practices in Queens and Brooklyn.
Through its affiliations with ProHEALTH Care and Mount Sinai, ProHEALTH Dental has in development and operation nine dental offices serving patients of all ages throughout Long Island, Queens, and Brooklyn. The affiliation with Riverside will add four state-of-the-art dental offices in Hoboken, Edison, Secaucus, and Clifton in New Jersey this year, with additional offices planned for next year.
“We believe that this is the model of the future,” said Travis. “It’s time to break down the historical barrier between medicine and dentistry and have these important healthcare professionals work together to improve the oral and overall health of their patients.”
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