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How the American Dental Association Advocates for Dentists Through the Pandemic and Beyond
As we celebrate our 100th episode of The Art of Dental Finance and Management podcast, Art welcomes Dr. Kathleen O’Loughlin, Executive Director of the American Dental Association (ADA).
As we celebrate our 100th episode of The Art of Dental Finance and Management podcast, Art welcomes Dr. Kathleen O’Loughlin, Executive Director of the American Dental Association (ADA). For 160 years, the ADA has been focused on empowering dentists in their practice and advancing the oral health of their patients, as well as supporting overall public health. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. O’Loughlin and her team advocated on behalf of dentists across the nation who fought to receive PPE, and to be deemed essential. They also looked to the ADA to make sense of and help them apply for various relief funding, as well as receive more guidance on the safe reopening of their practices.
In addition to sharing her career progression to becoming the ADA’s executive director, Dr. O’Loughlin speaks about how the organization helps support dentists and dental school students, and how they fervently advocated for dentists by lobbying Congress during the difficult first few months of the forced shutdown. Through their efforts, the ADA was able to get 2.6 million masks and over 500,000 gowns to dentists when supplies were limited and earmarked for the medical frontlines. Dr. O’Loughlin outlines the four key initiatives the ADA is focused on moving forward to further support dentists:
- Membership attraction and retention
- Digital transformation
- Diversity and inclusion
- Utilizing big data and A.I.
