Athenahealth, iTriage Link More Patients, Docs on Mobile

A couple of companies trying to make mobile applications more useful for doctors and patients are linking up.

Watertown, MA-based Athenahealth (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ATHN]]) says today that it’s partnering with iTriage, a consumer healthcare app company based in Denver. The deal essentially puts the Athenahealth roster of some 40,000 healthcare professionals in front of what iTriage says are “millions” of users of its mobile app.

That app is designed to let people look up symptoms they might be having, find more information, and get pointers to a healthcare provider nearby who might be helpful. The companies didn’t say whether there’s any money changing hands as part of the deal.

Athenahealth provides digital services, including electronic health records, to doctors and hospitals. In January, Athenahealth bought San Mateo, CA-based Epocrates, a mobile medical-app company.

At this week’s Xconomy Mobile Madness conference, Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush was pretty blunt about the need to make healthcare apps better—“We’re the best in healthcare, but we suck” compared to the experience and depth of many non-healthcare consumer tools, he said. Athenahealth says this partnership is part of its larger push to make digital healthcare services better.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.