athenahealth

athenahealth began in 1997 as Athena Women's Health, a women's health and birthing center in San Diego, California. Cofounders Jonathan Bush and Todd Park set out to create a comfortable and comprehensive center, where mothers could receive "a warm and supportive environment, personal attention, better care, and superior results" while the back-end business was "a ruthlessly efficient operation, with a laser focus on costs."[3]

At the birthing center, only 10% of babies were delivered by C-section, one third of the national average, and 90% of mothers were able to breastfeed their newborns, beating the national average of 67% at the time.[3] Yet while quality increased, costs followed in suit, and Bush and Park eventually closed their birthing center and started a medical data company called athenahealth on the heels of the Internet boom of 1999.

In 1998, venture funder Mark Wilson offered to buy athenahealth's software for $11 million.[3] Bush and Park turned down the offer and transitioned the business model from birthing centers to internet-based healthcare. They transformed Athena Women's Health to athenahealth, Inc., pulling in Ed Park, Todd Park's younger brother and engineer, to develop a practice management system.[4] Their new business endeavor aimed to “let doctors be doctors” and remove incessant and burdensome paperwork off doctors’ desks.

In 2000, athenahealth's first client, Anchor Medical Associates, went live on athenaCollector, and in February, its first electronic claim was submitted. While its first office opened its doors in Waltham, Massachusetts in 2002, athenahealth moved to Watertown, Massachusetts in 2005 and is still headquartered there today.

athenahealth announced an initial public offering of its common stock on June 22, 2007.[5] The offering was completed on September 20, 2007, at a price of $18 per share. It trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol ATHN.[6]

Since moving its headquarters to Watertown in 2005, athenahealth has created campuses in: Chennai, India, in 2005; Belfast, Maine, in 2008; Princeton, New Jersey, in 2013; Atlanta, Georgia, and San Francisco, California, in 2014; Austin, Texas, in 2015; and Bangalore and Pune, India, in 2017.

On February 7, 2018, former CEO of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt became the chairman of the board.[7] On June 6, 2018, Immelt was named executive chairman.[8]

In 2017–2018, under pressure from investor Elliott Management, athenahealth undertook substantial cost-cutting measures, and Bush resigned.[9]

In November 2018, Athenahealth was bought by Elliott and Veritas Capital for $5.7 billion, and then merged with an organisation that Veritas Capital had acquired from GE Healthcare in April 2018.[10]

athenaOne is athenahealth's fully integrated suite of cloud-based services, combining practice management (athenaCollector), an electronic health record (EHR) system (athenaClinicals), and care coordination (athenaCommunicator) into a single packaged offering.

athenahealth's first product, athenaCollector, a cloud-based revenue cycle and practice management service, was launched in 2000.[11] Built by Ed Park, the revenue cycle management system formed the foundation of athenaNet, athenahealth's web-based system at large. (Ed Park would go on to become athenahealth's Chief Operating Officer and member of its board.)[12]

In 2006, the company launched athenaClinicals, reported as the "first economically sustainable, service-based" electronic medical records (EMR) system.[13][14] athenaClinicals has been ranked as leading the market in EHR usability, due to its productivity and ability to reduce providers’ work, effectiveness of delivering patient care, and intuitive user interface.[15]

In 2008, athenahealth introduced athenaCommunicator to manage phone calls.[16] Since then, the product has evolved into a suite of "patient engagement services," including a patient portal, patient self-scheduling solution, and live operator service to better help patients to schedule appointments, reschedule appointments, and make payments.[17]

In 2013, the company purchased the Epocrates mobile brand, and continued to occupy Epocrates's offices in Princeton, New Jersey and San Francisco, California. As an athenahealth service, Epocrates aggregates treatment information, including dosing and contraindications, to provide clinical decision support in the prescribing moments of care.[18][19]

Epocrates drug monographs have also been embedded into the athenaClinicals EHR system to enhance productivity and reduce time not spent on patients.

athenahealth's More Disruption Please (MDP) program was launched in 2011. The initiative is both a partner program and an incubator environment for independent companies to develop products and services connected to athenahealth's ecosystem.[20]

In 2014, athenahealth created the More Disruption Please accelerator, an opportunity for young startups still finding their legs to begin developing in athenahealth's MDP space. “The goal of [the MDP accelerator] is to lower the barrier of entry for the best solutions to help us build the healthcare Internet,” said Mandira Singh, director of the More Disruption Please program.[21] In its first full year, the accelerator added five companies to its portfolio.

In April 2016, athenahealth acquired Arsenal Health, which developed a Smart Scheduling service for healthcare providers. Arsenal Health was athenahealth's first MDP investment, in 2014.[22]

athenahealth launched MDP Labs in 2017. The program invites all entrepreneurs, from startups to mature companies, to innovate in healthcare and fix what's broken.[23] athenahealth's MDP Labs offers workspace in its downtown San Francisco office, tailored programming, dedicated mentorship, opportunities for partnerships and funding, and exposure to potential clients.[24]

In January 2015, athenahealth announced the acquisition of RazorInsights, a "leader in cloud-based EHR and financial solutions" for rural, critical access, and community hospitals. The purchase extended athenahealth's established position in the outpatient market into the 50-bed and under inpatient care environment, which makes up nearly one third of the hospital market.[25]

In February 2015, athenahealth announced that it had purchased webOMR, a web-based clinical applications and EHR platform developed by Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. athenahealth collaborated with BIDMC on the development of athenahealth's acute care service offering, using Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, a 58-bed community hospital, as the alpha development site.[26]

athenahealth announced its acquisition of Praxify Technologies in June 2017.[27]