WATERTOWN, Mass., Aug. 03, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN), a leading provider of network-enabled services and mobile applications for healthcare providers nationwide, today announced that it is tracking the impact of the Zika virus across its nationwide network of 80,000 providers and has already identified more than 1,800 patients at risk of infection.
Following the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) travel guidance and testing recommendations issued Monday to a Miami neighborhood with confirmed cases of the infectious disease, athenahealth has identified more than 1,800 patients being treated by 94 providers at 24 different clients within the affected area who are potentially at risk.
athenahealth will contact providers in an effort to help them engage patients for outreach and testing, per the CDC’s recommendation. athenahealth will also activate patients via email and phone in the coming days.
The CDC has declared risk of continued active transmission of the Zika virus.
athenahealth is working with the Borinquen Health Care Center of Miami Dade, which is exhibiting one of the largest impacted patient populations with nearly 1,400 patients.
“Working with athenahealth, we have been able to activate the CDC’s updated guidelines immediately to educate and protect our patients, and the community we serve," said Dr. Diego Shmuels, Director of Quality and Clinical Practice Management at Borinquen Health Care Center of Miami Dade.
“We are focused on bringing the real-time intelligence of the athenahealth network to providers and patients in Florida who are potentially at risk for contracting Zika,” said Dr. Brian Anderson, Senior Manager of Clinical Effectiveness at athenahealth. “This is what we like to call ‘network medicine:’ activating the latest, most evidence-based clinical guidelines to deliver them rapidly to our clients for activation—no software update required.”
The company plans to publish initial Zika patterns observed within the athenahealth network on its website, www.athenaInsight.com, on Thursday.
About athenahealth, Inc.
athenahealth is a leading provider of network-enabled services for electronic health records (EHR), revenue cycle management and medical billing, patient engagement, care coordination, and population health management, as well as Epocrates and other point-of-care mobile apps. We connect care and drive meaningful, measurable results for more than 80,000 health care providers nationwide. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com.