PDS Health Joins Levi-Richman Integration Initiative

The dental and medical support organization focused on integrated healthcare will provide major financial support and partner with AAP Foundation grantees on research that advances understanding of periodontal health as the oral-systemic link.

PDS Health has joined the AAP Foundation’s Levi-Richman Integration Initiative as a research partner and major charitable donor. The integrated healthcare support organization will collaborate with the Initiative’s grantees to develop and execute research projects examining the relationship between periodontal disease, its prevention, and systemic health outcomes, consistent with the AAP Foundation's support of science-based research and its integration into clinical practice. PDS Health will also continue its longstanding philanthropic support of the Foundation with $250,000 in funding over five years, including major support of the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative and sponsorship of the Foundation’s annual donor appreciation events.

PDS Health has been a longtime advocate for dental-medical integration, including the implementation of integrated electronic health records that support greater collaboration between oral health and medical providers.

“We’re proud to support the AAP Foundation and the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative as they advance research and collaboration around the connection between periodontal health and overall health,” said PDS Health Founder and CEO Stephen E. Thorne IV. “Periodontists have long played an important role in advancing understanding of the oral-systemic link, and this initiative brings greater attention and investment to work that has the potential to improve patient care and long-term health outcomes. We’re excited to contribute insights from integrated care models and real-world clinical data that may help strengthen future research.”

“We’re delighted to grow our relationship with PDS Health,” said AAP Foundation President Dr. Christopher Richardson. “Not only is their financial support a real boost to the Initiative, but their data and partnership in accessing and interpreting it may present an opportunity to conduct novel research on the relationship between oral and systemic health of a kind that has never previously been possible at scale.”

“Enhanced medical-dental integration, including the more universal adoption of electronic health records, may allow for better assessments of the bidirectional impacts of periodontal disease and systemic disease,” said Dr. Mia Geisinger, Immediate Past President of the American Academy of Periodontology and chair of the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative’s Advisory Committee. “The longitudinal studies and epidemiological research that our grantees will conduct, whether independently or in collaboration with PDS Health, may allow us to further elucidate best practices to enhance diagnostic and treatment outcomes.”

Named for its founding donors, Patty and Dr. Paul Levi and Dr. Colin Richman, the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative will leverage $2.5 million in existing and new investments to champion periodontal health as the oral-systemic link through research, education, and advocacy.  The Initiative will sponsor new research, disseminate knowledge with education programs for dentists, physicians, and allied health professionals, and enable advocacy to raise awareness of periodontal and peri-implant diseases, the importance of treating them, and the specialists who can help. The AAP Foundation has committed to the Initiative for five years and is actively seeking additional funds to further extend its impact.

In addition to preexisting programs that are now part of the Initiative, its first investment was partial funding of the AAP’s Best Evidence Consensus on the Prevention of Peri-Implant Diseases. The workshop had a goal of developing clinically relevant strategies to prevent the onset, progression, and recurrence of peri-implant diseases.

Next up is the first program in the Working Together webinar series produced by SEPA, the Spanish Society of Periodontology, made possible by a gift to the AAP Foundation by Dr. Paul Levi. Working Together to Stop Tobacco and Nicotine will take place on Thursday, June 4, 2026 with a global session featuring worldwide experts on the effects of tobacco on periodontal health and the role that dental clinics can play in curbing tobacco and nicotine use. It will be followed by local sessions in 10 countries and regions around the world, including a U.S. session featuring Dr. Benjamin W. Chaffee from the University of California, San Francisco and Dr. Alexandra Tsigarida from the University of Rochester, moderated by AAP Foundation board member Dr. Purnima Kumar of the University of Michigan.