During this significant regional gathering, Professor Lee had the opportunity to connect with numerous dental professionals and researchers from across Asia-Pacific, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and beyond.

During this visit, Dr. Buddhi Man Shrestha, a distinguished representative of Kantipur Dental College and Hospital, shared the remarkable evolution of their institution from a dental institute to a comprehensive general hospital with public health at its core. Dr. Shrestha presented how their interdisciplinary model effectively serves the community, encompassing services from dental hygiene to OB-GYN care.

In a notable gesture of recognition, Professor Lee was honored to be the first recipient of the institution's 10-year community service report, highlighting the college's decade-long commitment to public health initiatives. This moment symbolizes the growing international collaboration in advancing integrated healthcare models that combine oral health with broader medical services.

The Inaugural Global Oral Health Symposium gathers experts from medicine, public health, dentistry, economics and political science representing academic centers from Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, University of Maryland, New York University, Seoul National University as well as the World Health Organization and NGOs Solidarity Dental Foundation and Zero Noma Initiative to increase awareness about oral health, the importance of integrating the mouth to whole body health and systemic disease, global inequities regarding access to care, current WHO recommendations, as well as recognition of noma, the "face of poverty", as a neglected tropical disease.