Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition No. 3, 2016

Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition | 3/201608 WORLD NEWS Henry Schein has been supporting the Senior Dental Leadership Pro- gramme (SDL) since its launch in 2007. Last month, the company’s long-term Chairman and CEO Stanley M. Bergman delivered the keynote address for SDL’s tenth anniversary meeting in London in the UK. Dental Tribune had the opportunity to sit down with him during the event to discuss the motivation behind the initiative,as wellaspublic-privatepartnerships in dentistry in general and their importance for the improvement of oral health worldwide. Dental Tribune: Mr Bergman, in your keynote at this year’s SDL Meeting,youtalkedaboutsomeof the key aspects that have made your company one of the leaders in oral health care worldwide. Couldyousummarise theseforour readers? Stanley M.Bergman: Henry Schein has been a very successful com- panybyfocusingondoingwellby doing good. This requires balanc- ing the five constituents that compriseourMosaicofSuccess— customers, suppliers, investors, Team Schein, and society. One part of the mosaic is our commit- ment to society, which makes us different from others in the in- dustry. With our public-private partnerships, we work with gov- ernment as well as non-govern- mental organisations, customers and suppliers to make a differ- enceinsociety.Thisenablestrust, and with trust you can move things forward—like advancing oral health, for example, by bringing together academia, pro- fessionals, public health officials and businesspeople from around the globe. The SDL Programme tries to do ex- actly that. Is this why your com- pany has supported this initiative for such a long time? The SDL is clearly the epitome of a public–private partnership. So far, it has been pretty success- ful in bringing together all mem- bers of the dental community, including representatives of den- tal schools, like Harvard and King’s College here in London, as well as public health officials from around the world and the private sector. There has been very good re- search in the last decade with regard to oral health. What we learnt from that is that we have to focus not just on the teeth but on the whole body. Good oral care results in good general health, which then results in a good qual- ity of life. We use SDL to get that message out to all constituents of the dental community around the world. With dental diseases still occurring in epidemic proportions around the world, according to reports, is there a general lack of leadership in the profession? I would not exactly call it a lack of leadership. As you mentioned, however—and the latest statis- tics show this—it is a sad fact that there are over three million peo- ple in the world suffering from dental caries alone. Unfortu- nately, oral diseases—in addition to psychological diseases—are still not recognised as non- communicable diseases (NCD) bytheWorldHealthOrganization (WHO) and, as a consequence, their improvement is not consid- ered to be beneficial for better qualityoflifeandbringinghealth care costs down. Thechallengewefaceisthatthe dental profession is not doing enoughtomakesurethatoraldis- easeisviewedasakeycomponent of the NCD category. There is still too much focus on the profession or on restorative procedures or aestethics. While I think we are all a bit to blame for not getting the message out, I still see dentists who are focused too much on to- day versus the long-term, macro picture. It is our job, through public–private partnerships, for example, to make sure that this changes. This way, we would end up with not only significantly lower health care spending but also a healthier world in general. With all the work that the SDL Pro- gramme and other oral health ini- tiatives have done and are doing, howfardoyouthinkwehavecome in achieving this goal? The science is very new. There have been a number of studies published only in the last seven to eight years that show a direct correlation between oral health and other health areas, like cardiology. Dental schools like Harvard are advancing this re- search and many others will hopefully follow. However, there are other areas, such as cancer, where we have made good pro- gress, but have not told people that around the globe about 150,000 people die of oral cancer each year. I do not think we are doing a good enough job to con- vincetheworldoftheimportance of oral health. Where do you think the main im- petus has to come from? It has to come from the profes- sion itself. I think the FDI World Dental Federation is doing a good job in this regard and I am quite optimistic that it will lead us in this area. We need to make the WHOunderstandtheimportance of this. Sadly, there is only one dentist in the WHO right now. There should be more. Also, dental schools are not taking a strong enough position on health care. It is part of their history that they would not nec- essarily be part of the medical school system. I remember the big fight over the New York Uni- versity dental school a decade ago. There are also other dental schools that are connected to medical departments or institu- tions. We need more and more of that. Dentistry has to be part of total care. In your home country, the upcom- ing presidential election has put health care and its delivery in the forefront of the debate.Which sys- tem do you generally consider to be better for achieving improved health? Generally, I do not think that one system is better than the other. I am a free-enterprise per- son and therefore I think you have to allow those who wish to have a private system to have it. For those who cannot afford private insurance, the gov- ernment has to provide some amount of care. I believe that the only way to achieve better health is through more preven- tive care. It is not about building more hospitals, but preventing people from getting sick. That is what health care reform is all about. Thank you very much for the inter- view. “I do not think we are doing a good enough job” An interview with Henry Schein Chairman and CEO Stanley M. Bergman Stanley M.Bergman “There is still too much focus on the profession or on restorative procedures or aestethics.” “I believe that the only way to achieve better health is through more preventive care.” DTUK0316_08_Bergman 12.04.16 12:05 Seite 1 DTUK0316_08_Bergman 12.04.1612:05 Seite 1

Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition No. 3, 2016

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