athenahealth Thrive 2024 Deep Dive: Building a Thriving Ecosystem for the Future of Healthcare

Last week we hosted our annual customer event, Thrive 2024. More than 2,300 customers, partners, and athenahealth team members gathered in Austin, TX to connect, discuss the challenges and opportunities healthcare practices face, and hear about how athenahealth is delivering on the promise of curing complexity and simplifying the practice of care.

Over the course of three days, we held 8 mainstage keynotes and panels, more than 100 breakout sessions, and 27 user group meetings, while offering attendees endless opportunities to connect with athenahealth teams and Marketplace partners in our expansive and lively expo hall. We also announced exciting product and company updates that will set practices up to thrive in the years ahead.

Here’s what you might have missed:

Cultivating a thriving ecosystem to deliver improved healthcare outcomes

In his keynote, CEO Bob Segert highlighted athenahealth’s vision of a thriving healthcare ecosystem, which requires fostering collaboration and partnership both within athenahealth’s own network, as well as across the wider healthcare system.

athenahealth created the first Marketplace among EHRs and continues to extend the benefits of over 500¹ partners who integrate with athenahealth to more than 160,000² providers on the network. This year’s conference featured 84 external partners, showcasing the power of our collective ecosystem, highlighting the value of integrated solutions.

On the Thrive mainstage, leaders from across the healthcare industry talked about the collective challenges in the healthcare system today, as well as the opportunities to come together in pursuit of a shared goal of improving health outcomes.

Dr. Jerome Adams, the 20th U.S. Surgeon General, made a strong case for digital health equity, and the need for diverse representation at the table to see past blind spots and ensure community health needs are met. Following his keynote presentation, Dr. Adams sat down with Bob to discuss how we can best leverage new technology to bring focus back to healthier communities, social determinants of health and increase healthcare access and overall equity. We also welcomed Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, President-Elect of the American Medical Association (AMA), to spotlight a critical issue impacting ambulatory care practices: fair Medicare reimbursement. athenahealth is proud to join the AMA in promoting their “Fix Medicare Now” campaign and supporting the passage of H.R. 2427 to tie Medicare physician reimbursement to medical inflation. Bob Segert published an op-ed earlier this year about the importance of investing in policies that build more resiliency in the healthcare system, something Dr. Mukkamala echoed on stage: “We need to invest in our physician structure. It is not just about paying physicians, but rather setting up a system that invests in preventative health, so people stay out of expensive hospitals/healthcare facilities.” Dr. Mukkamala also joined our athenahealth podcast on the floor at Thrive – hear more on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Introducing Ambient Notes and other new products and capabilities

As technology continues to evolve, athenahealth leads the way in leveraging the latest innovations, including AI, to solve clinicians’ problems and deliver outcomes that help practices truly thrive.

For more than 8 years, athenahealth has been developing and deploying AI capabilities to reduce administrative burdens and drive improved outcomes behind the scenes. We’ve recently begun to highlight some of these investment areas and features on LinkedIn, sharing how AI can address a variety of administrative burdens – for instance, automating the collection of insurance information to take that task off a staff member’s plate and reduce downstream denials due to errors.

This year on the mainstage, our chief product officer Paul Brient announced exciting new and upcoming capabilities, including Ambient Notes, a solution that brings the power of ambient listening and generative AI technology directly into athenaOne. Ambient Notes will offer practices a new level of convenience, flexibility, and personalization, as practices will be able to choose and switch between industry-leading models, starting with Suki AI and iScribe AI.

Paul also shared the company’s continued investments in supporting the unique needs of specialties, highlighting the company’s latest solutions, athenaOne for Orthopedics and athenaOne for Behavioral Health.

Delivering value to customers that goes beyond software

As our chief operating officer Bret Connor emphasized in his session on the mainstage, achieving great outcomes requires more than just software. Customer Success teams and technology-enabled services are hard at work curing complexities for our customers – improving their onboarding experience with fewer handoffs, ensuring they get the most out of their products and features through guided support, helping them maximize the revenue cycle through enhanced services, and resolving their issues quickly and efficiently, including with the help of AI.

Beyond services, athenahealth’s network of more than 160,000 clinicians can provide a unique understanding of community-based medicine, along with valuable insights that can better inform the practice of care. One of our initiatives, the Patient Digital Engagement Index (PDEI), helps clinicians measure and enhance their interactions with patients – a key step in achieving improved healthcare outcomes. Our VP of Research Jessica Sweeney-Platt previewed research findings pointing to the importance of patient engagement and the tangible business benefits it delivers for practices.

Ensuring customers are at the center of healthcare tech innovation

One of athenahealth’s core values is “obsess over customers,” and it’s something that influences our product roadmap, our business model, our support and services model, and everything in between.

In his keynote, CEO Bob Segert evoked the spirit of the company’s namesake Athena, known as the patron goddess of heroic endeavors, to highlight five athenahealth practices and partners going above and beyond to simplify the practice of care on behalf of their clinicians, their patients, and their communities.

We also hosted two mainstage panels that brought together customers from varying practice sizes, specialties, and roles to share about their own experiences engaging with athenahealth to provide feedback or share their perspective on evolving features and offerings.

In Designing for the clinician experience, our Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nele Jessel spoke with clinicians who have directly advised the company through participation in product testing or through the Clinician Advisory Board about how our user-centered approach to design helps them grow and adapt in the evolving healthcare market. In the past year, 44%³ of athenahealth’s product enhancements were inspired in part by customer input, and the company offers extensive Alpha and Beta testing opportunities through its Success Community.

Specialties were top of mind this year given the recent launches of athenaOne for Women’s Health, Urgent Care, Behavioral Health, and Orthopedics as well as the company’s broad investments in extending specialty-specific features and support. In Delivering value for specialty practices, VP of Product Development Chad Dodd welcomed specialty and multi-specialty practices to talk about the importance of creating tailored workflows that meet specialty practice needs. As one customer noted, "athenahealth's success is our success."

Looking ahead to athenahealth Thrive 2025

Through Thrive we continue to reaffirm our company-wide commitment to building a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.

We look forward to seeing you next year as we move Thrive from Austin, TX to Nashville, TN! Join the list here to get the lowest price when registration opens. Plus, be the first to know all the Thrive updates and upcoming announcements.