athenahealth Introduces AI-Native Clinical Encounter to Redefine the EHR Experience

athenahealth has announced the launch of its AI-native clinical encounter, a new electronic health record (EHR) experience designed to anticipate clinicians’ needs, surface real-time insights, and automatically generate documentation, orders, and diagnoses. The solution marks a shift from EHR systems focused on recordkeeping to an intelligent, collaborative platform supporting clinical efficiency and patient-centered care.

Bob Segert, chairman and CEO of athenahealth, said, “The future of healthcare technology isn’t about making doctors work the way the system works – it’s about making the system work the way doctors work. With our new AI-native clinical encounter, we’re ushering in a new era where technology fades into the background. It listens to the visit, understands the context, and engages in real time – so clinicians can focus on what truly matters: the patient.”

The AI-native clinical encounter is expected to begin user testing in the first half of 2026. At its core is athenaAmbient, a digital scribe built within athenaOne that automates draft notes, diagnoses, and prescriptions. It also offers contextual suggestions to address care gaps and ensure complete documentation. User testing for athenaAmbient will commence in February 2026, with no additional cost to customers as part of routine software updates.

Complementing athenaAmbient is Sage, an AI-driven clinical copilot embedded into athenaOne that enables clinicians to retrieve patient information and query the EHR in real time. Sage can interpret entire patient charts and answer questions about individual medical histories, supporting both pre-visit preparation and in-visit decision-making.

The AI-native platform is built on athenahealth’s Advanced Intelligence Layer, which synthesizes data from multiple sources — including other EHRs, payers, and registries — to deliver actionable clinical insights. According to Chad Dodd, vice president of product management at athenahealth, “With the next generation of our solution, athenahealth’s AI capabilities are deeply embedded across the clinical experience, rather than spread across isolated tasks, thus enabling cohesive, intelligent workflows that redefine efficiency and care delivery.”

Through these developments, athenahealth aims to reduce administrative burden, enhance documentation accuracy, and shorten reimbursement cycles. The company continues to expand AI-native capabilities across its clinical, patient engagement, and revenue cycle management products, reinforcing its commitment to improving the healthcare experience for both clinicians and patients.

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