Research & Analytics
We advance oral health access, equity, and integration through rigorous, actionable research that informs policy, practice, and systems change.
Transforming Health with Integrated Data and Actionable Insights
Our vision for the future is an integrated data ecosystem that accelerates learning, enables collaboration, and drives actionable change across the health system. To get there, we are bringing together dental, medical, and social data to help move evidence into policy and practice.
Where We Change the Health System
- Whole-person health
- Medicaid innovation and equity
- Quality measurement and value-based care
- Rural and underserved community needs
- Workforce and delivery system transformation
How We Change the Health System
- Advanced health analytics
- Mixed methods research and evaluation
- Equity-focused insights and measurement
- Data ecosystem development and governance
- Policy-and action-oriented storytelling
Research Priorities
Advancing Medical-Dental Integration (MDI)
Key focus areas include:
- Relationships between oral health and chronic conditions
- Health outcomes and costs in integrated versus non‑integrated systems
- Patient and provider perspectives on integrated care
- Evaluation of innovative care and payment models
Intended impact:
Equip health systems, payers, and policymakers with evidence that helps them to design and scale effective medical-dental integration.
Centering Health Equity Through Metrics and Data Collection
Key focus areas include:
- Oral health equity data collection at state and national levels
- Impacts of policy, social drivers of health, and cost on access to care
- Development and testing of quality and equity metrics
- Patient‑reported outcomes and experiences, including discrimination and trust
Intended impact:
Strengthen the evidence base needed to advance equitable oral health policy, accountability, and system improvement.
Expanding Reach to Interprofessional Audiences
Key focus areas include:
- Research on interprofessional education and practice
- Collaboration with health systems, industry, and policy partners
- Dissemination through non‑dental journals, conferences, and media
- Implementation‑focused products that translate research into action
Intended impact:
Empower a broad network of health leaders to advance sustainable systems
change that includes oral health.
Making Data More Integrated and Accessible to Improve Whole Health
The CareQuest Institute Health Data Exchange brings together dental, medical, and social data in a single, cloud-based environment. It enables researchers, policymakers, payers, and providers to quickly find, access, and use high-quality datasets and tools to drive whole-person health insights.
Within the Exchange, you can:
- Find: Search curated datasets and data products with clear documentation.
- Access: Request data directly in the platform and track approvals with secure, role-based permissions.
- Use: Analyze data in the built-in Analytics Workbench, explore dashboards, and accelerate insights with AI-powered tools.
Data sources include: claims (Medicaid, Medicare, commercial); clinical data (electronic medical/dental records; social and community datasets; CareQuest pilots and programs.
Featured Data Products
Search for key findings, explore trends, and analyze outcomes, all in one place.
A clear, consolidated view of US dental coverage data across states. Explore adult coverage levels, population demographics, provider density, and cost and utilization metrics, all in one place.
Transform how you interact with dental and medical data through a secure, intuitive, AI-powered interface. Uncover trends, generate insights, and explore patient outcomes.
Featured Research
Out of Pocket: A Snapshot of Adults’ Dental and Medical Care Coverage
Dental Care in Crisis: Tracking the Cost and Prevalence of Emergency Department Visits for Non-Traumatic Dental Conditions
Oral Health in America: Who Gets Left Behind?
Partner with Us
We prioritize high-impact research, strategic partnerships, and accessible dissemination to support policy-relevant change and health system transformation. We are interested in collaborating with partners to explore, publish, and disseminate actionable research, analytics, and evaluations to create a health care system that is accessible, equitable, and integrated.