The athenahealth podcast

“This is my favorite week of the year, for sure,” said Chief Product Officer Paul Brient as he joined the athenahealth podcast from the exhibition hall at Thrive, our annual summit where we bring together customers, partners, and athenistas for a week of learning and connection. In a wide-ranging conversation, he shares with us his excitement about the Fall 2026 Release as well as the big-picture transformation of athenaOne into a life-changing clinical companion for clinicians utilizing AI functionality. To learn more about features in the Fall 2026 Release, be sure to check out the Release Centers on the Success Community. To watch this podcast on YouTube, visit https://www.youtube.com/@athenahealth/videos.

The advent of artificial intelligence represents perhaps the most dramatic change to healthcare technology the industry has ever seen, rivaled only by the transition from paper charts to electronic health records. But with AI so new to clinical workflows, it comes with some critical questions around data validity, bias, security, and human oversight. In the latest episode of the athenahealth podcast, we talk through how we’re leveraging AI to enhance athenaOne – with processes to build and evaluate AI features in a clinician-focused, patient-focused, responsible manner.

Learn more about AI in athenaOne: https://www.athenahealth.com/solutions/athenaone/ai-powered-healthcare

When you need help with athenaOne, you don't always want to open a case and then wait for an answer. Sometimes you need a clear answer to a straightforward question. That’s where Sage, athenaOne’s AI assistant, comes in. Sage is now embedded directly in the Success Community and allows you to ask for help in your own words, get information from existing athenahealth resources, and, when your question requires more support, move into a conversation with a person or the case process. Learn more about Sage in the latest episode of the athenahealth podcast.

Small habits can make AI-generated notes more useful while helping clinicians stay focused on patients. In this episode of the athenahealth podcast, we discuss how to use athenaAmbient before, during, and after a visit, from preparing the recording to clearly stating clinical details. We also cover personalizing note settings, reviewing every draft for accuracy, and assessing whether the full documentation workflow is improving.

Register now for Thrive: https://www.athenahealth.com/resources/events/thrive.

Clinicians can spend less time documenting care and navigating charts when AI is built directly into their workflow. In the latest episode of the athenahealth podcast, we introduce the athenaAmbient and AI-native encounter open betas. We go in-depth on the two experiences, what customers can expect during rollout, and how they can prepare – and share how customer feedback will help shape these capabilities as access expands.

The Summer 2026 Release shows how athenaOne is evolving to reduce administrative work, support stronger revenue cycle performance, and improve the patient experience. In this episode of the athenahealth podcast, we share a conversation with Chief Product Officer Paul Brient from the Summer 2026 Release Walk-through webinar about how AI and automation are being built into clinical, financial, and patient-facing workflows. You’ll also hear what these enhancements mean for practices today and how they support the longer-term vision for athenaOne.

Successful onboarding onto an EHR shapes everything that follows, from adoption to long-term performance. In this episode of the athenahealth podcast, we explore how thoughtful planning, workflow discovery, training, and change management help organizations prepare for a successful transition to athenaOne. We also discuss practical lessons for navigating implementation complexity, building internal confidence, and preparing for go-live with the right foundation in place.

As value-based care continues to evolve, independent practices face growing pressure to improve outcomes while navigating an increasingly complex healthcare environment. In the latest episode of the athenahealth podcast, we're joined by Sean Cavanaugh, Chief Policy Officer at Aledade, to discuss why accountable care is reaching an important inflection point, how technology can reduce administrative burden, and why strong partnerships are helping practices succeed while delivering better care for patients. Check out the Aledade's page on the athenahealth marketplace to learn more here: https://athenaconnect.athenahealth.com/marketplace/product/aledade-app

How can practices increase throughput without sacrificing the patient experience? In our latest athenahealth podcast episode, we highlight two upcoming athenaOne enhancements that streamline scheduling, improve patient communication, and reduce staff workload. From waitlist scheduling to AI-assisted patient conversations, these tools will help patients connect with care more easily and help staff focus on what matters most.

Modernization at Tribal health centers requires respect, partnership, and understanding of Tribal sovereignty. In the latest episode of the athenahealth podcast, we're joined by Tony Lucero, a Tribal health consultant and enrolled member of Isleta Pueblo to discuss how Tribal health centers are redefining what modernization means when driven by Tribal priorities, not external timelines, and how community health leaders are strengthening financial sustainability, supporting staff through workforce challenges, and leveraging innovation in ways that preserve culture and build trust with their communities.

We're joined by Dr. Nele Jessel, Chief Medical Officer, to go in-depth on the results from the 2026 Physician Sentiment Survey -- our annual survey of 1,000+ physicians nationwide across specialties, practice sizes, and locations -- and to look at how the features in the Spring 2026 Release address the hopes, concerns, and perspectives we're hearing from survey respondents and users of athenaOne.

To learn more about the Physician Sentiment Survey, please visit the athenaInstitute page at athenahealth.com.

As part of the Spring 2026 Release Walk-through webinar this week, we welcomed Nora Iluri, who leads the teams building and updating revenue cycle workflows in athenaOne. In the latest athenahealth podcast, we share our conversation with her about the ways we’re reducing your revenue cycle tasks and using AI to get you paid faster and more comprehensively.

The Spring 2026 Release comes to athenaOne from March 18-20. Learn more about the Spring 2026 Release by visiting the Release Centers on the Success Community.

The latest episode of the athenahealth podcast looks at the vital work being done in rural communities, where healthcare providers must overcome unique geographic, economic, and infrastructure challenges to deliver comprehensive care – with the help of athenaOne solutions. Get tips for engaging patients with limited internet connectivity, using incentive programs and athenaOne tools to drive clinical efficiency, and preparing reluctant clinicians for AI adoption while maintaining the personal touch that's essential to building trust in tight-knit communities.

As of November, over one-third of eligible appointments on athenaOne saw patients using Enhanced Self Check-in – a significant jump even from the 23% we were seeing at the end of 2024. Enhanced Self Check-in supports practices with the ability to capture important patient information in advance of an encounter, including expanded automated check-in messaging, insurance card capture, collecting online patient payments, patient screeners, and medications review. In the latest episode of the athenahealth podcast, we're joined by Virginia Urology to hear more about how they adopted Enhanced Self Check-in.

Healthcare stands at a crossroads. While AI breakthroughs and innovation dominate the headlines, complexity remains a persistent challenge for too many practices nationwide. Navigating this ever-evolving landscape can feel overwhelming, but at athenahealth, we view complexity not as a barrier, but as an invitation to lead.

In the latest episode of the athenahealth podcast, we introduce you to the athenaInstitute, athenahealth’s platform for championing ideas and actions that help cure complexity in ambulatory care. Through timely insights, expert collaboration, and a spotlight on industry-shaping innovation, the athenaInstitute aims to accelerate meaningful progress for practices and the patients they serve.

Learn more by navigating to https://www.athenahealth.com/athenainstitute.

In an interview recorded at Thrive Summit in November, we explore how innovative clinicians are leveraging athenaOne and artificial intelligence tools to overcome geographic barriers while maintaining the personal connection that's so vital to effective patient care. Dr. Allen Gee is a neurologist practicing in Wyoming, where he's one of only eight full-time neurologists serving a state of over 500,000 residents across hundreds of miles.

With his focus on "neurohealth" — treating the whole person rather than just symptoms — Dr. Gee shares his insights on using athenaOne's tools for patient engagement, how AI is helping him focus on patients rather than screens, and why he believes the future of healthcare lies in the collaboration between human intelligence and artificial intelligence.

Since its launch in 2023, Appointment Schedule has gradually replaced the legacy scheduling workflow in athenaOne. Appointment Schedule offers more in-depth visibility to a provider or department’s schedule as well as open or booked slots, and it allows users to view the calendar and start booking without first selecting a patient. As of July, over 90% of athenaOne practices who scheduled an appointment did so with the new Appointment Schedule workflow. By the end of 2025, two-thirds of organizations will have fully migrated to the new Appointment Schedule workflow.

Want some tips and tricks on transitioning to the new Appointment Schedule workflow from an organization that has been with us throughout the journey? Check out an interview recorded at Thrive Summit in Nashville in early November.

This episode is brought to you by Pretty Good AI: https://marketplace.athenahealth.com/product/pretty-good-ai

If you were at Thrive in early November, you were in the room when we introduced the AI-native clinical encounter, a reimagined experience that anticipates clinicians’ needs, surfaces relevant insights at the moment of care, and drafts documentation, orders, and diagnoses based on the clinician-patient conversation.

Listen to a conversation with Dr. Vik Mali, a pediatrician from the suburbs of Detroit, about his experience as an early tester of these AI features -- including Sage, a digital assistant embedded into athenaOne that clinicians can use to obtain information about their patient.

The Fall 2025 Release talks place from November 12-14. If you missed the recent Fall 2025 Release Walk-through webinar, we're publishing a conversation with Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nele Jessel that we featured in that webinar, a conversation that focused on the various ways we're using AI to transform the clinician experience in athenaOne, both with new features in the Fall 2025 Release and in the months to come.

Imagine a world where every step of patient care and the revenue cycle work together in a faster, smarter way, and where documentation is generated from what is said during the encounter, and is complete and compliant, with real-time, autonomously coded claims. Our ambition is to reduce your revenue cycle workload by at least 50% by 2027, while, at the same time, dramatically improving revenue cycle outcomes. It’s about taking more work off your plate than we ever thought possible.

This episode is brought to you by Pretty Good AI: https://marketplace.athenahealth.com/product/pretty-good-ai