athenahealth has introduced the next generation of its AI-native patient engagement suite within athenaOne, designed to simplify communication between patients and healthcare providers. The updated platform includes new text and voice capabilities, allowing patients to interact with a virtual assistant at their doctor’s office to ask common questions or schedule appointments. These features are integrated directly into existing athenaOne workflows, helping patients manage care more efficiently while reducing staff workload and improving practice productivity.
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Paul Brient, Chief Product and Operations Officer at athenahealth, highlighted that traditional patient–provider communication has remained largely unchanged for decades and cannot keep up with the demands of modern healthcare. He explained that AI assistants can manage routine interactions reliably, reducing administrative burden and creating a more dependable system for both patients and care teams.
The new athenaOne patient engagement tools include several key capabilities. Patient Conversations offer text and voice options that allow faster, more convenient communication. The texting feature, currently in alpha and expanding later this year, supports two-way messaging and secure web chat, enabling staff to follow up seamlessly if needed. The voice feature, launching in the second half of the year, acts as a virtual front desk assistant, providing multilingual support for incoming calls and handling routine requests without wait times. Future updates will include real-time language translation and intelligent task automation to help staff focus on the most important interactions.
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Lesley Terry, Practice Manager at Red River Family Practice in Austin, Texas, noted that these text and voice tools will transform patient engagement by delivering instant responses, reducing phone call volume, and minimizing wait times. She added that these features will improve workflow efficiency and enhance patient convenience.
Additional features include Waitlist Scheduling, available in the first half of the year, which uses AI to identify appointment openings due to cancellations and notify patients via text. The Intelligent Patient Assistant, launching later this year in the patient portal and athenaPatient mobile app, helps patients reschedule appointments or answer questions about balances, reducing routine staff inquiries while helping patients better understand their medical records. Enhanced Patient Self-Scheduling, also coming later this year, allows patients to book appointments by describing their needs in plain language, and the system matches them with the best provider, appointment type, and time slot based on availability, streamlining scheduling workflows and giving patients more control over care management.
These updates are part of athenahealth’s ongoing investment in AI-native capabilities across its clinical, patient engagement, and practice management solutions within the athenaOne platform, aiming to modernize healthcare operations and improve the patient experience.
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