Alexandria, VA, USA – The 2026 IADR Presidential Symposium, which examined current issues in global health security, was presented at the 104th General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 50th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research on March 25-28, 2026 in San Diego, CA, USA.
This symposium focused on important issues currently threatening Global Health Security. This subject was chosen in direct response to the 2025 IADR Distinguished Lecture presented by Ahmed Ogwell in Barcelona, Spain, that challenged the field to address the current landscape with respect to threats to global health and the necessity to create resilience and sustainability of human health on a global scale.
Five topics were discussed: oral health and infectious disease threats, oral health and the growing burden of chronic diseases, infection prevention and control research, bioethical issues while engaged in global health research, and building networks for global collaborative research.
Organized by Pamela Yelick, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA and Lois Cohen, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Bethesda, MD, USA, the Presidential Symposium, “New Age Global Health Security: Implications for DOC Research” took place on Friday, March 27 at 2 p.m. PDT (UTC-7).
About IADR/AADOCR
The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research for health and well-being worldwide. IADR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit, and private-sector institutions who share our mission. The American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) is the largest division of IADR. Learn more at www.iadr.org.
