In a recent Wall Street Journal report, Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush spoke about the challenges of digitizing the healthcare industry as well as why Athenahealth spent $293 million on medical app vendor Epocrates.
According to Mr. Bush, the healthcare industry is about 95 percent computerized on the revenue-cycle side and 50 percent computerized on the clinical side. In 2013, the average physician is still getting 1,100 faxes per month. Athenahealth is trying to get providers to adopt cloud-based systems. One of its most popular systems is athenaCoordinator, which allows an organization to start paying for and receiving online clinical information from Athenahealth's cloud-based service without having to be on it. It acts like a bridge to the cloud.
Mr. Bush said the reason why Athenahealth purchased Epocrates was that Epocrates is well-established and trusted. The biggest obstacle to Athenahealth has been the fact that it is not well-known.
While Athenhealth's main clients are physician practices, Mr. Bush said that incorporating hospitals has also always been the company's intent. He also believes patients should be able see their health records through a portal and have access to it anywhere in the country.
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According to Mr. Bush, the healthcare industry is about 95 percent computerized on the revenue-cycle side and 50 percent computerized on the clinical side. In 2013, the average physician is still getting 1,100 faxes per month. Athenahealth is trying to get providers to adopt cloud-based systems. One of its most popular systems is athenaCoordinator, which allows an organization to start paying for and receiving online clinical information from Athenahealth's cloud-based service without having to be on it. It acts like a bridge to the cloud.
Mr. Bush said the reason why Athenahealth purchased Epocrates was that Epocrates is well-established and trusted. The biggest obstacle to Athenahealth has been the fact that it is not well-known.
While Athenhealth's main clients are physician practices, Mr. Bush said that incorporating hospitals has also always been the company's intent. He also believes patients should be able see their health records through a portal and have access to it anywhere in the country.
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