Vol 4: Issue 1

Patient Experience

Patients have choices now that they didn’t have a decade ago — retail and urgent care, concierge practices, employer clinics, and virtual care. At athenahealth, we want to make sure that, no matter how a patient prefers to access the system, that it’s easy to find the right care, in the right place, at the right time — and have confidence that their care team knows their story. In this issue, we cover how the patient experience, and the consumer experience are merging through resources such as universal patient apps, self-scheduling, and on-demand telehealth for chronic conditions, mental health, and more. And on the back end, we share how healthcare organizations are using accurate, curated patient data and artificial intelligence tools to personalize recommendations and close critical care gaps. Nele Jessel, M.D., athenahealth’s chief medical officer, shares how this kind of automation, when done right, frees physicians up to focus on the human connections of healthcare — to really understand what their patients need and want. And we discuss how to ensure these advances are available to all patients, regardless of income or race. On the surface, it may seem counterintuitive, but at athenahealth, we truly believe the result of these technological advances will be putting the patient back at the center of healthcare — and that will define the patient experience of the future.