Oral Cancer: Health Disparities Findings and Future Issues in the U.S. and Globally

Ralph V. Katz is an experienced epidemiologist who has focused on oral diseases and health disparities throughout his 37 year academic career. He has conducted research projects across the full spectrum of types of epidemiologic studies, ranging from descriptive epidemiologic studies to analytical studies to experimental epidemiology, including randomized clinical trial (RCT) studies. Dr. Katz has served as the Director of two NIDCR/NIH-funded oral health research centers focused on health disparities and minority health from 1992-2009. He has also served as a Director of NIH-funded NRSA T32 training grants since 1979. His current research interests focus on defining oral neglect in institutionalized elders, establishing the level of risk for oral cancer due to paan and gutka use in South Asian immigrants, identifying risk factors for newly emerging patterns of oral cancer, and defining the components for practitioners to use in clinical oral cancer examinations. He currently has a grant under review at NIH, in partnership with the Hispanic Health Disparities Center at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), to conduct an intra-Hispanic comparison (Mexican-origin versus Puerto-Rican Hispanics) of willingness to participate in biomedical research.