1510-11578

Continued support to the National Oral Health Innovation and Integration Network (NOHIIN), whose mission is to unify and empower a network of Primary Care Associations (PCAs) and safety net providers to be champions of oral health as a part of overall health. NOHIIN evolved as a vehicle to scale and continue the success of the Strengthening the Oral Health Safety Net (SOHSN) initiative, which yielded resources and information developed through innovative partnerships with the community health centers and PCAs. NOHIIN continues to spread a unified message— to PCAs, community health centers, policy makers, stakeholders and the community in general— about the importance of oral health to overall through within the safety net delivery system. The learning collaborative model implemented by NOHIIN will continue to support and resource the participating 24 PCAs, and will ultimately integrate all 50 states. NOHIIN enables PCAs to access relationships, resources and training tools needed to support their community health centers (CHCs) for the creation of an innovative, equitable safety net healthcare system where oral health is an integrated, critical component of person-centered, comprehensive healthcare. The ten Primary Care Associations that have three years of participation in the Strengthening the Oral Health Safety Net (SOHSN) initiative, thus far, will provide network leadership for NOHIIN going into 2016. This core group of PCAs includes the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers, Bi-State Primary Care Association, Georgia Association for Primary Health Care, Illinois Primary Health Care Association, Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved, Michigan Primary Care Association, Mississippi Primary Health Care Association, Ohio Association of Community Health Centers, Oregon Primary Care Association, and Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers. In addition to the core group, 13 new Primary Care Associations from across the country joined the growing network in 2015. They are the Primary Care and Community Health Center Associations from Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, North/South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island. Highlighted accomplishments from 2015 included: • Built and developed relationships/connections that have assisted the PCAs with increasing their knowledge of oral health and the importance oral health plays in overall health. These relationships were used to help deliver a strong, unified message that CHCs can and should be the innovative hubs for successful models of integrated, person-centered care. • The 24 PCAs gathered at regional and national meetings, including several OH2020 convenings, National Network for Oral Health Access conferences, the National Oral Health Conference (NOHC), and others. By attending these meetings and conferences, they collectively lifted up the voice of the oral health safety net into the larger conversation about the importance of oral health and opportunities for improvement. • Provided regular opportunities for PCAs and partners to share their work with each other through conference calls, webinars, interactive Basecamp threads, resource sharing, and in-person gatherings. During these sessions challenges were identified and discussed, valuable information was exchanged and new strategies emerged. As a national network of PCAs, NOHIIN will make marked steps in 2016 towards the ultimate goals of: • Empowering PCA members to become champions of oral health as a part of overall health within the community health center setting, thereby weaving an equitable safety net healthcare system where oral health is an integrated, critical component of person-centered, comprehensive healthcare. • Developing leadership within the state PCAs through this network, to improve the PCAs’ ability/capacity to advocate for safety net oral health needs among policy makers at the state and national levels. • Improving the PCA’s ability to support their CHCs in creating integrated models for person-centered care, as well as encouraging interprofessional collaboration between primary care and oral health providers. • Integration and spread of the redesigned Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Implementation Guide (a project of DQF and Quallis Health) that elevates the delivery of preventive oral health care as a component of routine medical care and enhances partnerships between primary care and dentistry.