---
title: Connect Contacts | Avara
description: Establish bidirectional connections with other organizations on Avara Connect to exchange referrals, imaging, documents, and messages.
---

## What Is a Connect Contact?

A **Connect contact** is a bidirectionally authorized connection between your organization and another organization on the Avara Connect platform. Once approved, both sides can exchange information through Connect’s secure workflows — referrals, imaging, documents, appointments, and messages flow only between organizations you have explicitly trusted.

## What Connect Contacts Enable

With an approved Connect contact, you can:

- **Send and receive referrals** — Route patients between partner organizations
- **Share DICOM studies, documents, and appointments** — Exchange imaging and patient-visible records through [Study Sharing](/connect/study-sharing/index.md)
- **Send secure messages** — Communicate directly within Connect — see [Messaging](/connect/messaging/index.md)

All of these capabilities require an established Connect contact on both sides. You cannot send referrals or shares to an organization you are not connected with.

## Discoverability

In **Settings**, your organization can be marked **Connect discoverable** on or off. When discoverability is **on**, other providers on the Avara Clinical Platform or Avara Connect network can find your organization and request a connection. When it is **off**, your organization remains hidden — connections only happen when your team initiates them.

## Requesting and Approving Connections

Connect contacts are never established unilaterally. The process requires action from both organizations:

1. An **admin user** at one organization requests a connection with another.
2. An **admin user** at the receiving organization must **approve** the request.

Only after both sides have agreed is the connection active and bidirectional sharing permitted.

## Removing a Connect Contact

Any admin user can remove a Connect contact at any time. Removing a contact **stops future** referrals, shares, and messages between the two organizations.

Previously exchanged referrals, shared studies, and message history **remain visible** to both parties — removal does not erase historical records or retroactively revoke access to past shares. To revoke access to a specific study or appointment, use the revocation controls described in [Study Sharing](/connect/study-sharing/#revoking-access/index.md).