Western academic to guide the development of Australia’s oral health policies

Amit Arora

Dr Amit Arora, a Senior Lecturer in Public Health within the School of Health Sciences at Western Sydney University, has been appointed as Co-Convenor of the Oral Health Special Interest Group (SIG) within the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA).

The PHAA has eighteen special interest groups which aim to facilitate access between members and those who have similar interests, and assist in the development of public health policy position papers.

Dr Arora is a multi-award winning public health academic and demonstrates excellence in translational community engagement by partnering with communities to identify their health needs and implementing solutions to address the gaps in practice.

The key elements to his professional research, teaching, and practice focus on experiences of marginalised populations to inform service delivery to address oral health inequalities and linking oral health with general health. His inter-disciplinary work has had direct translational outcomes on the design and delivery of child oral health services.

Dr Arora leads the NHMRC-funded longitudinal birth-cohort study, Healthy Smiles Healthy Kids (HSHK), which recruited 1,035 parents who had babies within Sydney public hospitals in 2010 and continues to track the oral health and general health of the children. He also works internationally with researchers from USA, UK, Europe, China, Africa, Bangladesh and India.

Within the Oral Health SIG, Dr Arora will assist Co-Convenor Mr Tan Nguyen from Deakin Health Economics with providing periodic updates to the PHAA’s Oral Health Policy, and will play a key role in promoting greater public awareness of oral health issues.

ENDS

1 September 2020

Danielle Roddick, Senior Media Officer