The Apple Watch has been available to purchase for just a few days, but already athenahealth has an app for it.
AthenaText, which was launched as an iPhone app and in its electronic medical record system last week, allows doctors and other health care professionals to text each other secure messages that still meet federal privacy regulations.
In its first iteration that will be available once the Apple Watches are in consumer’s hands, the software will allow doctors to be notified of secure messages and even read them on their watches.
“Like any developer, we want to stay current on what’s going on in new platforms. As part of the developer program at Apple, we had access to the watch kits, and we began to explore what would become possible,” said Abbe Don, vice president of user experience and strategic design at athenahealth (Nasdaq:ATHN), a Watertown-based health IT company.
Don said there would eventually be other capabilities added to the app.
Currently, the app is available in the iTunes store. Approximately 3,500 users have been using the product while it was in beta testing, said Don.
The company sees the platform as being usable not only between a physician and his or her staff within a doctor’s office, but even broader between doctors at different institutions, and even between doctor’s offices and hospitals – all who will operate through the app.
More surprising than the connectivity is perhaps the cost: athenaText is free to download and use.
Don said the device is meant to be a ramp to other Athena products, as its medication search engine Epocrates currently is for physicians.
“It’s part of our growth strategy,” Don said.
Date: April 13, 2015