One of the core features that makes Chairside different is built-in patient record portability. When a patient switches dental offices, their complete clinical history — X-rays, treatment plans, clinical notes, prescriptions, allergies — can transfer instantly between Chairside deployments, even when those deployments are operated by different vendors.
The Foundation Registry
At the center of this system is the Chairside Foundation — a standalone registry service that connects all Chairside deployments. Foundation stores zero patient health information. It only holds SHA-256 hashes of patient identities and the endpoints of registered Chairside instances.
When a new office needs to find a patient”s records, they query Foundation with the patient”s identity hash. Foundation responds with which instances have records for that patient. The new office then sends a transfer request directly to the old office, signed with an RSA consent token.
FHIR R4 Standard
The actual transfer uses the HL7 FHIR R4 standard — the same interoperability framework used in medical healthcare. The transfer bundle includes Patient, Condition, MedicationRequest, AllergyIntolerance, Procedure, and DocumentReference resources.
This is not just a feature — it is a license requirement. Every Chairside deployment must maintain patient portability. It cannot be removed, disabled, or conditioned on vendor identity. Learn more about patient portability.