Partnerships & Collaboration

Built by one clinician.
Grown by a community.

Ortho Truss is open-source orthodontic software at the intersection of clinical practice, software development, and research. We're actively looking for partners in all three.

🎓 Universities & Residency Programs 💻 Developers 🔬 Researchers
Universities & Residencies Developers Researchers FAQ
GPL v3
Fully open source — fork, study,
and build without restriction
12+
Clinical modules spanning
imaging, billing, AI, and portal
0
Cloud dependencies — all data
local, all code auditable
🎓 Universities & Residency Programs

An open platform for orthodontic education and clinical training

Ortho Truss was built in clinical practice, not a lab. That makes it an ideal training environment for residents — real workflows, real HIPAA requirements, real data architecture. We want to work with program directors and faculty to integrate, validate, and improve it together.

  • ✅ Free forever for residency programs — no per-seat licensing, no vendor negotiation
  • ✅ Residents learn on the same stack used in private practice
  • ✅ Open codebase means faculty can audit every clinical workflow
  • ✅ IRB-compatible architecture — HIPAA encryption, immutable audit log, role-based access built in
  • ✅ Feature requests from your program get prioritized in the roadmap
  • ✅ Co-authorship credit on any publications arising from the collaboration
Get in Touch ↓ Review the Codebase ↗
What we're looking for
🏫

Pilot Programs

Deploy Ortho Truss in your clinic and give us structured feedback on resident workflows, onboarding, and missing features.

🗃️

De-identified Datasets

Cephalometric tracings, photo series, or treatment outcome data to train and validate the AI modules under IRB.

📋

Clinical Validation

Residents and attendings who can formally compare Ortho Truss workflows against existing proprietary systems.

🎓

Capstone Projects

Residents or dental students looking for a software-focused capstone or thesis component — we have open modules.

Contact — University & Residency

Tell us about your program and how you'd like to get involved.

Opens your email client — one click to send. No account required.
💻 Developers

A real production app, entirely open, waiting for contributors

Ortho Truss is a full-stack Electron desktop application used in a real clinic. The codebase is complex, well-structured, and actively evolving. Whether you want to ship a specific feature, port it to macOS, or improve the AI pipeline — there is meaningful work here.

  • ✅ Modern stack: Electron 32, React 18, TypeScript, better-sqlite3, Tailwind
  • ✅ GPL v3 — your contributions stay open and are attributed to you
  • ✅ Direct access to the clinician-author for domain questions
  • ✅ Real users — features you ship go into practices immediately
  • ✅ Named in release notes and contributor credits for all merged work
  • ✅ macOS and Linux ports are high priority — no prior orthodontic knowledge needed
Browse the Repo ↗ Discuss a Contribution ↓
Open priorities
🍎

macOS Port

The app is cross-platform by design but has only been packaged and tested on Windows. macOS builds are the top request.

🐧

Linux Port

Academic and research deployments frequently run Linux. AppImage or Snap packaging would open up university use.

🤖

AI / ONNX Pipeline

Ceph landmark model training and pathology detection are in progress. Computer vision engineers welcome.

🧪

Testing Infrastructure

Unit and integration tests are sparse. Building out the test layer is high impact for long-term quality.

Stack at a glance
Electron 32Desktop shell
React 18 + TSUI layer
better-sqlite3Local SQLite DB
ONNX RuntimeOn-device AI
Tailwind CSSStyling

Contact — Developer Collaboration

Tell us what you want to build or contribute.

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🔬 Researchers

Orthodontic software as a research platform

Ortho Truss is designed with research in mind from the ground up — every action is logged, all AI models are modular and replaceable, and the local-first architecture makes IRB-compliant data handling straightforward. We're looking for researchers who want to study, validate, or extend it.

  • ✅ IRB-ready: AES-256-GCM encryption, HMAC-signed audit log, role-based access, no cloud transmission
  • ✅ AI modules are ONNX-based and swappable — bring your own model
  • ✅ Cephalometric landmark detection module available for validation studies
  • ✅ Open to data-sharing agreements for de-identified clinical datasets
  • ✅ Co-authorship on publications that use or validate the platform
  • ✅ Can scope custom data export formats or annotation tooling for study needs
Propose a Study ↓ Review Architecture ↗
Research opportunities
🧠

AI Model Validation

Ceph landmark detection and photo classification modules need formal validation against clinical ground truth.

📊

Outcomes Research

De-identified treatment data for studying treatment duration, compliance patterns, and outcome predictors.

🛡️

Security Audits

Independent security researchers welcome to audit the HIPAA implementation, encryption, and portal architecture.

📐

Aligner Planning

The aligner planner module models biomechanics from STL meshes. Orthodontic biomechanics researchers invited.

Data sharing policy

All data sharing requires a formal data use agreement and IRB approval from the requesting institution. De-identification follows HIPAA Safe Harbor standard. We do not share identified or re-identifiable data under any circumstances.

Contact — Research Collaboration

Tell us about your research and what you need from the platform.

Opens your email client — one click to send.
Common Questions

Frequently asked questions

Yes — completely free, forever. GPL v3 means there are no per-seat fees, no subscription, and no licensing negotiation. You can deploy it across your entire clinic, let every resident use it, and modify it however you need. The only obligation is that derivative works remain open source.
Currently Windows only (Windows 10/11 x64). macOS and Linux ports are the top development priority. The underlying stack (Electron, React, SQLite) is fully cross-platform — packaging and native module builds are the remaining work. If you can contribute to that, please reach out.
Any data sharing requires a formal DUA between your institution and the project, plus IRB approval from your institution covering the intended use. Data must be de-identified to HIPAA Safe Harbor standard before transfer. We can provide a template DUA. No identified or re-identifiable data is accepted under any circumstances.
All merged contributions are named in the release notes and in the GitHub contributors list. For collaborations that produce academic publications, co-authorship is offered commensurate with contribution. For institutional collaborations, we include an acknowledgments section in any resulting papers.
Yes. All AI inference runs through ONNX Runtime. You can drop in any ONNX-format model to replace the built-in ceph landmark detector or photo classifier. The service layer exposes a clean interface that the rest of the app depends on — swapping the model file and updating the metadata JSON is all that's required.
Ortho Truss was built by a practicing orthodontist who needed better software and decided to build it. The long-term goal is a community-maintained, specialty-specific alternative to the dominant proprietary PMS platforms. The GPL v3 license ensures it can never be closed or acquired.

Ready to collaborate?

Reach out through the contact forms above or directly via GitHub. Every message gets a response.

Residency Programs Developers Researchers GitHub Discussions ↗