Alphabet’s life science subsidiary Verily is teaming up with dental care company Colgate-Palmolive to conduct new research focused on oral health that will be included in the former’s ongoing Baseline Health Study. 

Specifically, researchers will be looking at the link between oral health and overall health. Researchers will be zeroing in on how intensive non-surgical periodontal therapy and home dental hygiene impact health. The research will include metrics from Colgate's connected hum smart toothbrush. 

To participate, subjects are required to be at least 18 years old and living with prediabetes, Type 2 diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease for up to 18 months. 

The Verily Baseline Health Study launched in 2017, with the goal of mapping human health by collecting data from a variety of sources, including self-reported data, smartphone or wearable recorded data, or through EHRs. The research will use Verily’s Baseline Health platform, which was created to improve clinical trial execution, aggregate data and execute decentralized and hybrid trials. 

“Oral health is a window to overall health. It can provide signals of new or worsening disease as exemplified by the connection between periodontal disease and elevated C-reactive protein, a marker of systemic inflammation, complicating diabetes control and increasing risk of cardiovascular disease," said Maria Ryan, DDS, vice president and chief clinical officer at Colgate-Palmolive. "We look forward to conducting this study with Verily and incorporating the learnings to advance oral and overall healthcare.” 

WHY IT MATTERS 

According to the Mayo Clinic, several conditions can be linked to oral health, including endocarditis, cardiovascular disease, pregnancy complications and pneumonia. 

The health system says that diabetes, HIV/AIDS, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s disease may also affect oral health. 

This new effort is looking to further explore the link between dental health and overall health.

“We’ve known for some time that oral health, cardiovascular disease and diabetes were interrelated. The depth of biological measurement in the Baseline Health Study combined with the dental expertise of the UNC Adams School of Dentistry and Colgate will enable us to expand our knowledge base dramatically,” Dr. Rob Califf, head of clinical policy at Verily and Google Health, said in a statement. 

THE LARGER TREND 

Verily kicked off the Baseline Health Study four years ago as part of a collaboration with Stanford Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Google and the American Heart Association to amass a large collection of broad phenotypic health data in hopes of developing a well-defined reference of human health.

Its decentralized and hybrid centralized clinical trial platform has since caught the attention of several big names in pharma. 

Early in 2021, Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Click Therapeutics announced the launch of a new fully remote clinical trial that would be conducted on Verily’s Baseline platform. In 2019, Novartis, Otsuka, Pfizer and Sanofi said they would employ the Baseline platform to help boost diversity in clinical trials.