Susan Fisher-Owens, MD, MPH
Professor
Pediatrics
School of Medicine

I love being a primary care pediatrician, helping children (and families) grow and develop, at the county hospital, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Concurrently, I get the challenge and pleasure of teaching medical, nursing, and dental students.

My research focuses on preventing the most common chronic condition of childhood, dental cavities, by employing preventive strategies in primary care medical and other non-dental settings, as one example of changing the approach. My conceptual model of children's oral health has been cited widely, and my research now focuses on eliminating oral health disparities. I have been extending this work to help those pregnant and elderly.

I serve locally with CavityFreeSF and in the greater San Francisco region, plus nationally, and internationally. I serve on the California State Oral Health Plan and the California Perinatal and Infant Oral Health Quality Advisory Board. I worked as an executive committee member on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Oral Health, and still write policies and give workshops for them. I am honored to be asked to write and speak nationally and internationally on my work.

Drawing from my clinic practice, I also have a deep desire to understand immunizations so I can help parents and providers make educated decisions about their preventive care. One skiIlset I have developed is in informatics, to use systems to improve the quality of care provided; I am boarded by the American College of Preventive Medicine, as well as the American Board of Pediatrics.

• Constructing Matched Groups in Dental Observational Health Disparity Studies for Causal Effects.
  JDR clinical and translational research 2019 Cheng J, Gregorich SE, Gansky SA, Fisher-Owens SA, Kottek AM, White JM, Mertz EA
• Oral Health in Children.
  Pediatric Clinics of North America 2018 Max J. Coppes, Susan A. Fisher-Owens
• Oral Health: A Critical Piece to Develop into a Healthy Adult.
  Pediatric clinics of North America 2018 Coppes MJ, Fisher-Owens SA
• Preventing Oral Disease: Alternative Providers and Places to Address This Commonplace Condition.
  Pediatric clinics of North America 2018 Fisher-Owens SA, Mertz E
• Gathering the Fish and Casting a Net: San Francisco's Children's Oral Health Strategic Plan.
  Pediatrics 2017 Susan Fisher-Owens, Carolyn L Brown, Lisa Chung, Margaret Fisher, Stuart Gansky, Amor Santiago, Kevin Grumbach
• Case Study: School-Based Oral Health Screening in San Francisco as an Essential Public Health Service.
  Journal of the California Dental Association 2017 Jodi D. Stookey, Margaret Fisher, Lisa H. Chung, Stuart A. Gansky, Mary Jue, Susan A. Fisher-Owens, Deborah Elam, Christine E. Miller, Claire Sit, Prasanthi Patel, Irene V. Hilton
• Oral and Dental Aspects of Child Abuse and Neglect.
  Pediatrics 2017 Fisher-Owens SA, Lukefahr JL, Tate AR, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS, SECTION ON ORAL HEALTH, COMMITTEE ON CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY, COUNCIL ON CLINICAL …
• Oral and Dental Aspects of Child Abuse and Neglect.
  Pediatric dentistry 2017 Fisher-Owens SA, Lukefahr JL, Tate AR
• Increased public reimbursement for prophylactic visits with dentists associated with increased receipt of preventive dental services in children.
  Journal of public health dentistry 2017 Fisher-Owens SA, Amendola L, Featherstone JDB, Inge RE, Flaherman VJ
• Geography matters: state-level variation in children's oral health care access and oral health status.
  Public health 2016 Fisher-Owens SA, Soobader MJ, Gansky SA, Isong IA, Weintraub JA, Platt LJ, Newacheck PW
• Does Payment Structure for Preventive Dentistry IMPACT ORAL Health Outcomes?: Table:.
  Pediatrics 2016 Susan Fisher-Owens, Louis Amendola, Valerie Flaherman
• Gathering the Fish and Casting a Net: San Francisco's Children's Oral Health Strategic Plan.
  Pediatrics 2016 Susan Fisher-Owens, Brown Carolyn L, Lisa Chung, Margaret Fisher, Stuart Gansky, Amor Santiago, Kevin Grumbach
• Congenital hypothyroidism presenting with seizures in a newborn.
  Journal of Pediatric Neurology 2015 Hany Aly, David Kanter, Susan Fisher-Owens
• Broadening perspectives on pediatric oral health care provision: social determinants of health and behavioral management.
  Pediatric dentistry 2014 Fisher-Owens S
• Maternal differences and birth outcome disparities: Diversity within a high risk prenatal clinic.
  Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities 2014 Thomas M, Spielvogel A, Cohen F, Fisher-Owens S, Stotland N, Wolfe B, Shumway M
• An examination of racial/ethnic disparities in children's oral health in the United States.
  Journal of public health dentistry 2012 Fisher-Owens SA, Isong IA, Soobader MJ, Gansky SA, Weintraub JA, Platt LJ, Newacheck PW
• Racial disparity trends in children's dental visits: US National Health Interview Survey, 1964-2010.
  Pediatrics 2012 Isong IA, Soobader MJ, Fisher-Owens SA, Weintraub JA, Gansky SA, Platt LJ, Newacheck PW
• Decreasing Cycle Time in a Multi-Disciplinary Clinic.
  Academic Pediatrics 2012 Jessica Schumer, Julie S. OBrien, Rhea Boyd, Emily Levy, Jessie Duvall, Shannon Thyne, Susan Fisher-Owens
• Evidence suggests there was not a "resurgence" of kernicterus in the 1990s.
  Pediatrics 2011 Brooks JC, Fisher-Owens SA, Wu YW, Strauss DJ, Newman TB
• Telephone case management for asthma: an acceptable and effective intervention within a diverse pediatric population.
  The Journal of asthma : official journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma 2011 Fisher-Owens SA, Boddupalli G, Thyne SM
• The complexities of home visitation for children with asthma in underserved communities.
  The Journal of asthma : official journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma 2011 Thyne SM, Fisher-Owens SA
• Most pregnant women in California do not receive dental care: findings from a population-based study.
  Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974) 2010 Marchi KS, Fisher-Owens SA, Weintraub JA, Yu Z, Braveman PA
• Assessing a multilevel model of young children's oral health with national survey data.
  Community dentistry and oral epidemiology 2010 Bramlett MD, Soobader MJ, Fisher-Owens SA, Weintraub JA, Gansky SA, Platt LJ, Newacheck PW
• Giving policy some teeth: routes to reducing disparities in oral health.
  Health affairs (Project Hope) 2008 Fisher-Owens SA, Barker JC, Adams S, Chung LH, Gansky SA, Hyde S, Weintraub JA
• Influences on children's oral health: a conceptual model.
  Pediatrics 2007 Fisher-Owens SA, Gansky SA, Platt LJ, Weintraub JA, Soobader MJ, Bramlett MD, Newacheck PW
• Racial Disparities in Children Hospitalized with Asthma at Academic Childrens' Hospitals.
  Pediatric Allergy Immunology and Pulmonology 2006 Susan A. Fisher-Owens, Wendy M. Turenne, Kathleen Chavanu, Anthony D. Slonim