education I research I community service and patient care I faculty I home
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Judith Jones Professor and Chair DDS, MPH, University of North Carolina; DScD, Boston University 100 East Newton Street room 612 Boston, MA 02118 judjones@bu.edu 617.414.1065 |
Dr. Jones is Professor and Chair of the Department of General Dentistry, the department responsible for the majority of the academic, preclinical and clinical courses leading to the doctor of dental medicine degree. As department chair, she is responsible for strategic planning, faculty recruitment and development, course evaluations and the financial health of the department. In addition to her administrative duties, Dr. Jones’ first love is working with students and colleagues to conduct patient-oriented research. Over the past two decades she has made significant contributions to the state of the knowledge about long-term oral health care, oral health outcomes, and the relationship between oral and systemic diseases. Much of her current research focuses on the development of dental outcome measures.
Dr. Jones is Co-PI on the Oral health-related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents Project in the Northeast Center for Research to Reduce Oral Health Disparities. The Center is funded by the NIDCR (U54 DE14264) through July, 2008. In her role as Co-PI of this project, Dr. Jones oversees all aspects of this project and mentors junior investigators. The specific aims of the project are to develop, and examine the reliability and validity of a patient-based assessment of the impact of oral conditions on the day to day lives of children and their families. In addition, this project is translating and culturally adapting the Spanish- and later Portuguese- versions of the questionnaires.
Previous work as principal investigator on VA IIR98.161: Variations in Dental Procedures, Dr. Jones and her colleagues developed oral health outcomes measures to examine variations in outcomes of dental care across large systems of care. She developed a novel risk-adjustment methodology and showed, in several publications in Medical Care (Jones, et al., 2003b; Kressin et al., 2003) and the American Journal of Public Health (Boehmer, et al., 2002), that after controlling for dental and comorbid medical and psychiatric conditions, there were substantial variations in dental care in VA. NIH and VA grants to conduct follow-up research for these projects have been submitted.
Dr. Jones is also principal investigator on VA QUERI 99.206: Periodontal Care and Glycemic Control in Diabetes. In this study she will test the efficacy of aggressive periodontal therapy in improving the level of glycemic control in poorly controlled diabetics. She will also examine whether continued maintenance over a 12-month period provides sustained or further improvement in glycemic control. Currently two manuscripts describing her findings are in Press in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology.
Dr. Jones served three years in the U.S. Public Health services then joined the VA-Bedford in 1983. She completed a Dentist-Geriatric Fellowship Program with the VA (Bedford and Boston OPC), directed the Geriatric Fellowship Program (1985-1992), the Geriatric Dental Program (1985-1994), and served as chief of the Dental Service from 1994-1998. She was awarded the VA Career Development Award in Health Services Research (1998-2001) and served as Head of the Outcomes Section at the VA Center for Health Quality, Outcomes, and Economic Research from 2001-2003, when she retired from Federal Service. At Boston University she was an Adjunct Assitant Professor of Periodontology and Oral Biology from 1990-1998, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Health Services Research and later General Dentistry from 1999-2005, and became Professor of General Dentistry in November of 2005. She holds a joint appointment as an Associate Professor of Health Services in the School of Public Health.
Recent Publications:
1. Boehmer U, Kressin NR, Berlowitz DR, Christiansen CL,Kazis LE, Jones JA. Self-reported vs administrative race/ethnicity data and study results. AJPH 2002; 92(9):3-5.
2. Janket SJ, Baird AE, Chuang SK, Jones JA. Meta-analysis of periodontal disease and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. Oral Surg, Oral Med, Oral Path Oral Rad End 2003; 95 (5): 559-569.
3. Jones, JA, Boehmer U, Berlowitz DR, Christiansen CL, Pitman A, Kressin NR. Tooth retention as an indicator of quality dental care: Development of a risk adjustment model. Medical Care, 2003; 41(8): 937-949.
4. Jones JA, Orner MB, Spiro A,III, Kressin NR. Tooth loss and dentures: patients’ perspectives. International Dental Journal 2003; Supplement 5/03:327-334.
5. Kressin NR, Boehmer U, Berlowitz DR, Christiansen CL, Pitman A, Jones JA. Racial variations in Dental Procedures: The case of root canal vs tooth extraction. Medical Care, 2003 Nov; 41(11):1256-61.
6. Janket SJ, Qvannstrom M, Jeurman JH, Baird AE, Nuutinen P, Jones JA. Asymptotic dental score and prevalent coronary heart disease. Circulation 2004; 109(9): 1095-1100.
7. Jones JA, Kressin NR, Spiro A III, Miller DR, Kazis L, Garcia R. Validity of oral health outcome instruments: A Comparative analysis. Quality of Life Research 2004; 13(5):975-985.
8. Jones JA. The Elders’ Oral Health Summit: Introduction and Recommendations. Journal of Dental Education 2005, 69:957-960.
9. Jones JA. Financing and reimbursement of elders’ oral health care: Lessons from the present, opportunities for the future. Journal of Dental Education 2005, 69:1022-1031.
10. Janket SJ, Wightman A, Baird AE, Van Dyke TE, Jones JA. A meta-analysis of periodontal treatment on glycemic control. JDent Res 2005; 85:1154-1159.
11. Janket SJ, Meurman, JH, Nuutinen P, Qvarnström, M, Furuholm, J, Nunn ME, Baird, AE, Van Dyke TE, Jones JA. Salivary Lysozyme and Prevalent Coronary Heart Disease: Possible effects of oral health on endothelial dysfunction. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology 2006; 26:433-4 .
12. Jones JA, Kressin NR, Kazis L, Miller DR, Spiro III A, Lee A, Garcia RI. Oral problems and quality of life. J Amb Care Mgmt 2006; 29:167-181.