Partners Seek to Integrate Dental Care Into Nationwide HIE Infrastructure

CareQuest Innovation Partners, a company that funds, scales, and convenes solutions to improve overall health through oral health, and Kno2, a federally designated Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN), are partnering to integrate dental care into the nation’s core health information exchange infrastructure.

Despite growing recognition of the connection between oral and systemic health, dental care remains largely disconnected from national interoperability frameworks. According to research conducted by CareQuest Institute for Oral Health—the nonprofit affiliate of CareQuest Innovation Partners—medical providers are nearly twice as likely as dental providers to identify medications prescribed by other organizations using their EHR systems. This gap limits care coordination, slows medical-dental integration, and disproportionately impacts the patients most likely to experience fragmented care.

Through this partnership, CareQuest Innovation Partners said it is serving as a national catalyst for integrating dental into the broader healthcare system by providing critical capital, connections, and advisory expertise scaling health innovations. 

Leveraging Kno2’s nationwide network and experience in connecting historically overlooked markets such as post-acute, vision, and behavioral health, the initiative will seek to create a scalable pathway for dental organizations to participate in secure, bidirectional data exchange alongside medical providers, payers, and health systems. This includes medical-to-dental and dental-to-medical referrals, clinical information at the point of care and availability of dental records for the consumer.

When clinical information can move seamlessly between a physician’s office and a dental practice, providers gain a more complete understanding of the patient in front of them. That visibility supports improved safety and quality, reduces administrative waste, encourages medical-dental innovation, and strengthens health equity.

“For years, the industry has talked about connecting oral and overall health, but the infrastructure hasn’t existed. As a result, dental has remained largely disconnected from health information exchange networks that power coordinated care,” said Katie D’Amico, vice president of growth & innovation at CareQuest Innovation Partners, in a statement. “Together with Kno2 and partners across EDRs [electronic dental records] 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. At a time when the need is clear and market momentum is building, we are not just talking about interoperability, we are helping make it happen.”

CareQuest Innovation Partners said that two EDR platforms, serving approximately 20 percent of the dental market, have committed as flagship partners in the initiative. Together, the organizations aim to accelerate integration timelines to production go-live within six months and achieve adoption among 25 percent of participating EDR provider users in the first year. Other organizations across the healthcare ecosystem are invited to join in accelerating the connectivity needed to unlock integrated, whole-person care at scale, the organizations said. 

“When providers lack access to critical health information, patients feel the impact. As federal interoperability compliance requirements intensify, healthcare costs continue to escalate, and policymakers increase scrutiny on system waste and accountability, the time to bring dental fully into the connected ecosystem of healthcare is now,” said Therasa Bell, founder and president of Kno2, in a statement. “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.”