Question: What do you get when over 200 like-minded dentists fill up a room stocked with food, music, excitement, and good friends with a vision to change the world of healthcare?

Answer: You get the Chicago Mid-Winter AAOSH Reception!

That was the scene recently at the downtown Chicago Hyatt on a chilly February Mid-Winter evening. While some dentists were relaxing after a busy seminar day, or resting their tired exhibit-hall feet, or unwinding by putting down some Chicago deep dish pizza, others were busy pumping up the energy and excitement of healthcare’s newest professional organization – AAOSH!

With over a dozen corporate partners present and pledged to help put this event on the map, the AAOSH Board of Directors and Meeting Committee pulled off a stunning showing. Notable visitors, dental dignitaries and a steady stream of real-life dental health professionals intent on closing the gap between the mouth and the body, all made their way through the room and food lines and helped put context and vision in play.

Dr. Charles Blair (dental educator and coding expert), Dr David Kobalba (HealthQuest Radio on WIND AM in Chicago), Dr Allen Finkelstein (Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health), Ms. Katie Powell- (director of member services for the ADHA), Dr. Foti Panagakos(director clinical research, relations and strategy for Colgate-Palmolive), Dr Jeffrey Hoos (noted clinician and educator), Dr. Joe Blaes and Genna Luetzinger (editor - Dental Economics), and Dr. David Rudo (Ribbond), Dr. Mike Milligan (DentalMasterMind.org),  to name a few – were all present and in high spirits in helping to kick this organization out of the gate and onto the healthcare map.

AASOH President Dr. Chris Kammer, the ever likeable American Idol wannabe emceed the event, making Brian Seacrest look like an understudy. With no shortage of self-confidence, charisma and determination, Dr. Chris bounded around the room with microphone in hand talking to guests and visitors and making sure that due credit was given to the movers and shakers in the room along with the ever supportive corporate sponsors present.

The new AAOSH.org website, a vital glue and platform to hold and build this new organization, was debuted at the Chicago Reception. And Dr. Mike Milligan had his video camera rolling, chronicling and interviewing and proving to the world that this was a new force to be reckoned with. Still well shy of blowing out its first birthday candle, AAOSH has attracted some of the finest in dentistry, as well as from the capable a corporate leadership in the dental industry - who like the AAOSH members and visionaries see where this is going and the market forces and science behind it.

Four months after its organizing meeting with a handful of volunteers and expectant leadership in Madison, the successful and energy-charged Chicago AAOSH Reception stands as an able witness that the time is right to change the standards and the face of oral-systemic healthcare.  

If those present in Chicago have anything to say about it, AAOSH will become a true force to be reckoned with. Tens of millions of lives around the world will be bettered if not saved as a natural outgrowth of this auspicious beginning which after four months has now made its mark in modern dental and medical healthcare.

Who could have imagined that such a serious subject as oral-systemic healthcare could be so exciting and fun? Passionate people always raise the bar – and that is the vision and duty of the new AAOSH.

A deep thanks to AAOSH leaders and reception organizers and the supportive corporate sponsors who are helping to define not just the latitude and longitude of a pivotal moment in the history of modern healthcare, but also the exciting journey ahead.

See you all back in Chicago in June 2011 for the first AAOSH Inaugural Scientific Meeting! Make sure to get your reservations made now so that this train doesn’t leave without you on it!