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Athenahealth unveils new 'AI-native' EHR capabilities
The company's AI-native clinical encounter aims to reduce clinician burden by automating documentation tasks and providing clinical decision support at the point of care.
Athenahealth unveiled its new AI-native clinical encounter that leverages ambient AI scribe technology and an AI-driven clinical copilot to enhance clinician workflow.
The encounter experience aims to reduce clinicians' cognitive load and administrative burden. For instance, athenaAmbient, a new ambient digital scribe built into the athenaOne EHR platform, provides information to clinicians and automates clinical documentation, including clinical notes, diagnoses and prescriptions. In addition, an AI digital assistant called Sage, also embedded into athenaOne, assesses EHR charts and answers clinical questions about patients' medical history.
The AI-native clinical encounter will begin user testing in the first half of 2026. However, athenaAmbient will enter user testing in February 2026 and will be provided to athenahealth customers as part of routine update processes at no additional cost.
The new clinical encounter follows a slew of AI updates the company has made to its EHR solution. In September, the company unveiled what it termed its "next-generation AI-native EHR," which features an adaptive intelligence layer that combines engines, large language models and machine learning with an ambulatory care-focused dataset.
Prior to that, the company added several AI features to its athenaOne platform, including one that labels clinical, imaging and administrative documents, as well as the Model Context Protocol server, which enables standardized communication between AI models and the athenaOne platform.
Not only that, but the company has also incorporated AI-powered revenue cycle management capabilities to its platform, such as automated insurance selection, patient liability estimation, waitlist scheduling and payer portal agents.
"With the next generation of our solution, athenahealth's AI capabilities are deeply embedded across the clinical experience, rather than spread across isolated tasks, thus enabling cohesive, intelligent workflows that redefine efficiency and care delivery," said Chad Dodd, vice president of product management at athenahealth, in the press release.
The AI-powered EHR arms race is intensifying, with most major EHR vendors announcing new AI capabilities in the last year. Oracle Health debuted a new, AI-driven EHR in August, followed by Epic unveiling various new features, including an AI charting tool it is developing with Microsoft, at its user group meeting.
Research supports these moves, showing that integrating AI features into EHRs enhances the clinician experience.
For instance, a July KLAS Research report showed that net EHR experience scores jumped 13.7 points when ambient speech tools were integrated into EHRs. Physicians also reported 13-point gains in efficiency, usability and patient-centered care perception scores with the integration of ambient tools.
Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers the virtual healthcare landscape, including telehealth, remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics.
