CareQuest Institute for Oral Health and Henry Schein, Inc. today announced the BRIDGE Health Network. The movement unites health care providers across diverse geographies and care settings. Its mission is to advance dental-medical integration.
The first pilot programs will add a new workflow to routine dental hygiene visits. Hygienists will record patient vitals and lifestyle markers. They will also run CLIA-waived point-of-care screenings, including HbA1c. As a result, practices can expand preventive care and give patients regular, comprehensive health summaries. These steps will also help close care gaps with medical providers.
“Diabetes can go undiagnosed for years, and the dental chair is one of the few places people reliably show up during that window,” said Dr. Ryan Hungate, Chief Strategy and Clinical Officer at Henry Schein One. “This pilot puts a point-of-care HbA1c screening in the operatory to help identify patients who may be at risk and could benefit from follow-up with a medical provider. This screening result is now captured directly in Ascend or Axium, helping create a more holistic health history of the patient for future visits.”
Why Dental Visits Matter for Early Detection
Regular oral health visits give providers a convenient way to spot potential health risks. Chairside point-of-care testing strengthens that opportunity. Patients at risk can then receive guidance on appropriate medical follow-up. However, the oral health visit remains an underleveraged access point in health care. This gap persists despite the clear connection between oral health and overall health.
Diabetes shows the scale of the problem. Notably, 80% of individuals with prediabetes and 28% with diabetes do not know their condition. Dental settings offer a key opportunity for earlier detection. Chairside A1C screening has identified elevated HbA1c levels in more than 11% of previously undiagnosed patients with type 2 diabetes. It has also flagged an additional 47% with prediabetes. Moreover, earlier action on these conditions could save the US health care system up to $100 million a year.
How the BRIDGE Health Network Will Work
CareQuest and Henry Schein created the network to close these gaps and strengthen ties between dentistry and medicine. Providers from varied practice settings will take part. Through real-world pilots, the network aims to show that dental-medical integration is both practical and scalable. Ultimately, the partners want to improve outcomes for patients, providers, payers, and society as a whole.
“Dentistry has historically been a siloed area of health care despite the strong correlation it has with a myriad of chronic health conditions,” said Azeem Mallick, MBA, Vice President of Innovation & Partnerships at CareQuest Institute for Oral Health. “The BRIDGE Health Network reflects our commitment to improving overall health through oral health, and our collaboration with Henry Schein helps us scale that impact by bringing practical, integrated solutions to providers across a wide range of care settings.”
The first pilots will bring vitals, lifestyle markers, and point-of-care screenings, including A1C, into dental offices. Dental teams will screen for risk and share a systemic-health summary. They will also provide educational resources and support patients in follow-up care. The initiative has three intended outcomes:
- Co-design pilots to demonstrate the efficacy, feasibility, and benefit of preventive health screenings in dental settings.
- Advance the business case for models that honor dental-medical integration across clinical, financial, and operational outcomes.
- Take the initiative’s learnings and outcomes to create a clear playbook with actionable workflows and best practices to educate others and advance the dental-medical integration model.
Henry Schein will lead pilot implementation. The company will also act as the primary contact for device and supply distribution, technical support, and clinic engagement and training. This work reflects its commitment to helping health care professionals build practical screening workflows into routine care. Meanwhile, CareQuest will provide program-level data, working with Henry Schein and the participating clinics.
In addition, Dentrix Ascend now includes new fields for the pilot. Participating practices can capture point-of-care screening data directly within their dental technology. This change brings broader health information into the patient record and the dental care workflow.
Inaugural Cohort and Upcoming Events
Together, the collaborators will co-develop the playbook. They will also provide marketing opportunities for the BRIDGE Health Network. A select group of organizations is contributing to the network’s early learnings. These organizations represent a broad range of care delivery settings across the oral health ecosystem. The inaugural cohort includes community-based and safety-net providers, multi-site dental organizations, and leading academic institutions. The members are Bright Direction Dental, Imagine Medical & Dental Group, NKC Dental, Smile House JBL, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, Workman School of Dental Medicine at High Point University, Westwind Integrative Health, and Zufall Health.
“Health care is at an exciting inflection point, one where dentistry and medicine are increasingly being viewed as synergistic rather than two separate entities, “ said David Kochman, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Henry Schein. “In collaboration with CareQuest and our clinical partners, the BRIDGE Health Network is creating a blueprint for a new approach to primary health care – focused on early detection and prevention, built upon the foundation of dental-medical integration.”
The network recently appeared at the American Academy for Oral Systemic Health Conference (AAOSH) from September 10-12. Attendees saw various point-of-care tests there. Next, the BRIDGE Health Network will appear at HLTH from November 15-18, 2026. Finally, it will appear at the Rocky Mountain Dental Convention from January 21-23, 2027.
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News Source: Businesswire.com
