A New Digital Bridge: National Initiative Aims to End the Divide Between Dental and Medical Care

BOSTON, MA – March 26, 2026 – A landmark partnership announced today aims to dismantle one of the most persistent and costly data silos in American healthcare: the wall between the dentist's office and the doctor's clinic. CareQuest Innovation Partners and Kno2 are launching a national initiative to integrate dental care into the country's core health information exchange infrastructure, a move promising to enhance patient safety, reduce systemic waste, and redefine whole-person care.

For decades, the mouth has been treated as separate from the body in the digital realm of health records, creating a dangerous blind spot in patient care. This new collaboration intends to build a permanent, scalable pathway for dental organizations to participate in secure, bidirectional data exchange with medical providers, payers, and health systems.

The High Cost of a Disconnected System

The routine dental visit can be fraught with hidden risks when providers lack a complete clinical picture. A patient on blood thinners faces an elevated bleeding risk during a simple procedure. An individual recovering from cancer treatment has immune complications that directly impact oral health. For the millions of Americans with uncontrolled diabetes, managing periodontal disease is a constant struggle. When this critical medical history doesn't follow the patient into the dental chair, clinicians are forced to make decisions with incomplete information.

Research from the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, a nonprofit affiliate of CareQuest Innovation Partners, underscores this disparity, finding that medical providers are nearly twice as likely as their dental counterparts to successfully identify medications prescribed by other organizations using their electronic health record (EHR) systems. Studies have also shown that a significant percentage of patients with chronic conditions like diabetes or hypertension misreport their status to dental clinicians, highlighting the unreliability of patient memory and the critical need for direct data exchange.

This information gap translates into a cascade of negative consequences: medical complications, avoidable emergency department visits, and missed warning signs of systemic disease that often first manifest in the mouth. The financial toll is staggering, with Medicaid alone spending an estimated $520 million annually on dental-related emergency visits, many of which are preventable through integrated and proactive care. The problem is particularly acute for seniors, medically complex patients, and underserved populations who are most likely to experience the consequences of fragmented care.

Building the Digital Bridge: A New National Infrastructure

The new partnership seeks to build a permanent, scalable digital bridge over this chasm. The strategy leverages the unique strengths of both organizations. CareQuest Innovation Partners will serve as a national catalyst, providing the essential capital, industry connections, and advisory expertise needed to scale the solution.

The technological backbone will be provided by Kno2, a leading healthcare communication firm and one of the first federally designated Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs). Under the national framework known as TEFCA (Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement), QHINs act as a “network of networks,” creating a single, secure on-ramp for nationwide health data exchange. Instead of building thousands of fragile, point-to-point connections, this initiative will plug dental providers directly into the same robust ecosystem used by hospitals, medical clinics, and payers.

This will enable secure, bidirectional data flow, allowing medical-to-dental referrals, instant access to clinical history at the point of care, and the availability of dental records for consumers and their entire care team. “For years, the industry has talked about connecting oral and overall health, but the infrastructure hasn’t existed,” said Katie D’Amico, Vice President of Growth & Innovation at CareQuest Innovation Partners. “Together with Kno2 and partners across EDRs and care delivery, we are embedding medical–dental communication into clinical workflows and connecting providers to national health information exchange infrastructure, setting the foundation for scalable, integrated care and innovation.”

The Regulatory Tailwinds Forcing Change

The timing of this initiative is no accident. It arrives on the crest of a wave of federal policy changes designed to tear down data silos across the entire healthcare landscape. The 21st Century Cures Act, a landmark piece of legislation, explicitly prohibits “information blocking”—any practice likely to interfere with the access, exchange, or use of electronic health information. Crucially, these rules apply to dentists just as they do to medical doctors, creating a powerful regulatory incentive to open up previously locked data systems. Non-compliance carries the risk of significant financial penalties.

This regulatory push is complemented by the operational framework of TEFCA, which provides the common rules and technical standards for QHINs like Kno2 to operate, ensuring a trusted and consistent method for data exchange nationwide. As federal interoperability requirements intensify and policymakers increase scrutiny on system-wide waste, the pressure to integrate historically overlooked sectors like dentistry has reached a critical point.

“By aligning with CareQuest Innovation Partners, we are creating an affordable, direct and scalable pathway for dental to participate fully in the same connected ecosystem as the rest of healthcare,” stated Therasa Bell, Founder and President of Kno2. This alignment addresses the urgent need to modernize workflows that still too often rely on fax machines and phone calls, which are inefficient, insecure, and prone to error.

From Theory to Practice: An Ambitious Rollout

The initiative is launching with significant momentum. Two leading electronic dental record (EDR) platforms, which collectively serve approximately 20 percent of the dental market, have already signed on as flagship partners. This gives the project an immediate and substantial footprint within the dental community.

The timeline is ambitious: the organizations aim to achieve a production go-live within six months and target adoption among 25 percent of the provider users on those partner EDR platforms within the first year. The long-term vision extends far beyond these initial steps. The ultimate goal is to fully integrate dentistry into the national health information exchange, enabling seamless connectivity for every dentist in the country and expanding secure, comprehensive information sharing to the millions of patients they serve.

This effort is not just about connecting two disparate software systems; it is about fundamentally re-architecting care delivery to reflect the well-established link between oral health and overall well-being. By laying this foundational infrastructure, the partnership aims to unlock a new era of medical-dental innovation, improve patient safety and quality, and make a significant stride toward a more equitable and efficient healthcare system for all. With this foundation in place, the long-held vision of a truly integrated, whole-person healthcare system is finally moving from blueprint to reality.