At HIMSS 2024, athenahealth Unveils New Capabilities to Simplify the Practice of Care While Highlighting Payer Partnerships and Insights on AI

March 05, 2024 at 10:00 AM EST

Company to preview new tech that delivers the next generation of interoperability – moving the industry beyond data exchange to a seamless experience that delivers insights at the moment of care

athenahealth, a leading provider of network-enabled software and services for medical groups and health systems nationwide, will attend HIMSS to demonstrate various ways the company is curing complexity for healthcare practices through its technology, seamlessly integrated data, and deep partnerships.

In addition to its physical footprint in booth 3740 and presence as an Anchor Exhibitor of the event, senior representatives from athenahealth will speak and present throughout HIMSS on a number of timely topics.

Experiential interoperability: Making health data actionable

athenahealth released the results of its third Physician Sentiment Survey (PSS), where 94% of surveyed physicians agreed on the importance of having access to the right clinical data at the right time. At the same time, the majority reported feeling so overburdened by information that it raises their stress levels and is a contributing cause of burnout.

“Healthcare does not have a data issue. It has an insights issue. At athenahealth we prioritize experiential interoperability, which recognizes it’s not enough to just build connections between systems, but rather to identify the insights from the data and bring those insights to the care team at the right time,” said Chad Dodd, VP of product management at athenahealth. “We are working to extract and seamlessly share the appropriate insights from the vast healthcare ecosystem with our physicians naturally in their workflow, so they can spend less time searching for information and more time caring for patients.”

athenahealth will highlight this focus area in the Interoperability Showcase [3760-40], demoing a new product feature called ChartSync that enables clinicians to seamlessly view patient data from multiple EHRs and other sources (i.e. vaccine registries) within the patient's chart. ChartSync consolidates, deduplicates, and transforms incoming data into a common format before surfacing it to physicians. The experience streamlines data integration into the chart through automation or quick review and manual reconciliation. It also makes it easy for the care team to understand when new data has been added and gain quick access to the source, for additional context. The feature is currently in Alpha and will be released later this year.

athenahealth will also participate in an Interoperability Showcase demo [3760-93] as part of its commitment to CommonWell Health Alliance, a not-for-profit trade association devoted to health data access.

Realizing AI opportunities and ensuring they solve clinician needs

athenahealth’s recent survey also shed light on the topic of AI, with 83% of surveyed physicians reporting they believed AI could eventually reduce many of the problems facing healthcare. Among the potential benefits, they noted increasing efficiencies, reducing administrative burden, and improving accuracy of patient diagnoses. athenahealth is already extending a range of traditional and generative AI-driven capabilities across the company’s solutions and has plans for more in the coming months.

In athenahealth’s session, “Demystifying AI in Healthcare: Practical Lessons for Successful Adoption and Provider Satisfaction,” Dr. Nele Jessel, athenahealth’s chief medical officer, and Heather Lane, senior architect, data science, will reveal lessons learned from the company’s first decade deploying AI and machine learning models to wick away administrative work as well as prepare attendees for fielding generative AI models. The session will take place on Tuesday, March 12 at 3 pm ET (location: W304E).

“While we’ve heard a lot of excitement around the potential of generative AI in healthcare, there’s massive value in traditional AI yet to be realized in the technologies physicians and practices use daily,” said Heather Lane. “We will share what we’ve learned throughout our extensive development and deployment of AI, including the critical need to center around physician and patient needs first. This is especially true when considering generative AI applications, which bring AI from behind the scenes to front and center in the user experience.”

Simplifying the practice of care through partnerships

On Wednesday, March 13 at 2:30 pm ET (location: W230A), Gillian McCabe, director of product at athenahealth, will demonstrate how the company has worked with a national health plan and Availity to develop an end-to-end electronic prior authorization process that automates work for practices and exchanges information in real time. The trio will detail how they have eliminated one of the most painful complexities for independent healthcare practices. Sharing outcomes, the group will discuss how industry collaboration is already driving meaningful improvements for providers, patients, and payers.

athenahealth and Surescripts will also unveil a case study detailing how the companies’ partnership improves medication adherence and delivers cost savings for patients. Results from the case study show that athenahealth customers who used Surescripts’ Real Time Prescription Benefit to choose a lower-cost alternative saved their patients over $1.8 million in prescription costs in 2023.

Where to find athenahealth

On the exhibit floor, the company will illustrate how athenaOne helps simplify the practice of care, bring experiential interoperability to life, achieve success in value-based care, and drive innovation through AI capabilities. The booth will also feature the athenahealth Marketplace, and the myriad ways athenahealth works with partners to deliver a simpler experience for all. In addition, athenahealth invites attendees to visit an athenahealth Lounge where guests can enjoy their favorite tea and unwind from the hectic experience of the global conference.

For more information about our presence at HIMSS, or to request a meeting, visit https://www.athenahealth.com/himss-2024.

About athenahealth

athenahealth strives to cure complexity and simplify the practice of healthcare. Our innovative technology includes electronic health records, revenue cycle management, and patient engagement solutions that help healthcare providers, administrators, and practices eliminate friction for patients while getting paid efficiently. athenahealth partners with practices with purpose-built software backed by expertise to produce the insights needed to drive better clinical and financial outcomes. We’re inspired by our vision to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all. Learn more at athenahealth.com.