WATERTOWN, Mass., Dec. 10, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc., a leading provider of network-enabled healthcare IT services for ambulatory and enterprise customers nationwide, is helping the healthcare industry prepare for flu season by tracking the spread of the illness across the United States with The athenahealth Flu Dashboard.

The Flu Dashboard taps into athenahealth’s vast network to measure influenza-like symptoms across 1 million patient visits per week to more than 25,000 pediatricians, primary care providers, and emergency medical providers. The Dashboard is updated weekly to show trends in near real time and offers year-over-year data to track when the flu peaked in previous seasons. This initiative serves as the latest example of how the company can uniquely provide insights into trends in healthcare and its delivery via the most open, connected network in healthcare.

“Our interactive Flu Dashboard allows users to track the spread of the flu on a week by week basis and even home in on individual states to easily compare how different populations are being impacted by the illness across the country,” said Jessica Sweeney-Platt, Executive Director, Research, at athenahealth. “We have customers who use this data set to help them decide when and where to allocate resources, at a time of year when front-line service providers are stretched pretty thin. It’s important to all of us at athenahealth to make sure that our data insights make their way to those front-line caregivers, in a way that helps them proactively improve patient care and the patient experience.”

To further assist healthcare organizations in preparing for flu season, athenahealth has also shared tips as part of its recently released “4 ways to prep for flu season” infographic, including:

Make a strong vaccine recommendation: Make sure practitioners use protocols to consistently identify patients in need of a flu vaccine during a visit and are encouraging them to get one.
Reach out: Get in touch with patients to encourage them to get their flu vaccines and any other preventive care they may need.
Be accessible: The EHR in use needs to allow for easy online scheduling. Patients should be able to quickly see open slots and book appointments from their phone, tablet, or computer.
Stay on trend: Keep up with flu trends in the U.S. using athenahealth’s Flu Dashboard.

For additional healthcare industry trends and insights made possible by athenahealth’s open, connected network, visit www.athenahealth.com/knowledge-hub.

Flu Dashboard Methodology:

Using diagnosis codes from insurance claims data at the state and national level, the dashboard quantifies how many patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) are seen by each provider and estimates the proportion of symptomatic patients seen by providers around the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines influenza-like illness as either a specific diagnosis of influenza or a fever co-presenting with a cough or sore throat.

About athenahealth, Inc.

athenahealth partners with medical organizations across the country to drive clinical and financial results. Our vision is to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all, and we are pursuing this through our medical record, revenue cycle, patient engagement and care coordination service offerings. Our expert teams build modern technology on an open, connected ecosystem, yielding insights that make a difference for our customers and their patients. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com.

Contact:

Jean Borgman
media@athenahealth.com
617-402-1031

Download PDF

PRESS RELEASEDecember 10, 2019

athenahealth’s connected network unlocks unique industry data to help practices, patients prep for flu season