**Preface to "Big Data in Dental Research and Oral Healthcare "**

Digital transformation is a game changer in the present era, and digitalization in oral healthcare is recognized as the key promoter for evidence-based dentistry, improving diagnostics, prevention and therapy protocols. The future direction of dental medicine aims to close the gap between oral and general health by considering patient-centered outcomes and personalized medicine to secure patients' quality of life. Nevertheless, different data sources and formats without uniform standards and uncertainty related to patient security and privacy inhibit the ubiquitous use of health data to generate medical- and social-added value.

In general, the core requirements for clinical research to be efficient, successful, and competitive comprise the establishment of adequate infrastructure, as well as the coordination and harmonization of data flows, including well-trained experts in the interest of society. With the explosion of generated health data, dental medicine is edging into its next stage of digitization using big data and AI technology. Today, the dental profession is facing new challenges for clinical routine work. The most valuable area of interest for AI/ML is diagnostic imaging in dento-maxillofacial radiology for the identification of landmarks, oral pathologies, and automatically generated dental records. In this context, electronic health records are the mandatory door opener to personalized medicine. Moreover, the linkage of patient-level information to population-based citizen cohorts and biobanks provides the required reference of diagnostic and screening cutoffs that could identify new biomarkers and develop predictive models through personalized health research.

In addition to technically oriented applications in diagnostics and patient therapy, digitalization will revolutionarily influence the entire field of under- and postgraduate dental education, e.g., e-learning platforms facilitating 24/7 access and simulated motorskill training using AR/VR technology. Recently, COVID-19 has shown that virtual classrooms are a serious alternative to traditional in-person teaching. Digitalization will also have a major impact in helping deal with the complex challenges in oral medicine for the growing elderly population.

Digitally optimized operations ensure the efficient utilization of value-based healthcare services with seamless patient experience promoting health economics with balanced costs. However, digital technologies are not available everywhere. There is a growing realization that integrating dental and primary care may provide comprehensive care.

Finally, digitalization is raising novel and unpredictable challenges in the biomedical context. Ethical issues related to big data in terms of the systematic collection, sharing, and analysis of patient-specific health data must be discussed and solved considering all stakeholders, such as patients, healthcare providers, university and research institutions, medtech industry, insurance, public media, and state policy.

> **Tim Joda** *Editor*

International Journal of *Environmental Research and Public Health*
