It’s rapidly getting simpler to solve previously daunting challenges
The surge of AI solutions for clinical practice has quickly changed the physician experience. For Chris Voigt, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Privia Health, the best way to empower physicians across his organization is to equip them with the latest clinical efficiency tools – even before they’re generally available – and find out first-hand what actually works.
Innovation is central to Privia’s approach. By encouraging its physicians to participate in athenaOne® alpha and beta programs, Privia iterates quickly, deploys new capabilities at scale, and helps shape features ahead of full release.
“The key for us is getting in front of physicians and collecting feedback early and often,” Voigt says. For example, physicians at Privia have saved time and engaged more meaningfully with patients by leveraging athenaOne’s Ambient Notes feature since early stages of testing.
“athenahealth’s engineers listened to Privia doctors,” Voigt shares. “Listening to physicians and using data insights helps move from quick win to new normal.”
Over the course of 2025 alone, Privia participated in alpha/beta tests for 25 separate features, 12 of which were focused on clinical improvements. Here are just some of the features that providers at Privia accessed and offered feedback on, prior to general release:
- Ambient Notes enhancements such as multilingual support and patient instructions
- athenaOne Mobile for Android Devices enhancements such as patient case support
- ChartSync improvements to vaccine reconciliation
- Configuration of order sets
- OB Worksheet Estimated Date of Delivery (EDD) calculation enhancements
According to Voigt, physicians at Privia choose to participate in alphas and betas because they see the benefit to their own efficiency. “Doctors raise their hands to try new alphas and betas,” he says. “They participate because they see real results.”
Innovation is crucial, and integration is equally important
This rapid deployment of new features across thousands of providers and locations would not be smooth, or even possible, without two integral elements of athenaOne: a comprehensive all-in-one solution, and the agility and scalability of a cloud-based EHR.
“We don’t have to install outside tools” to access the latest innovations, Voigt says of this integrated approach. “Bringing new things to clinicians is easy.”
Voigt understands that there’s a right way and a wrong way to introduce new functionality. When you incorporate it in a piecemeal way, such as by adding a new vendor for each functionality you want to incorporate, it can add significant burden to end users. Not to mention, when each update requires IT intervention, the cost and lift of even a small change become prohibitive. Voigt appreciates the ease of deployment of a single-instance SaaS and what that enables when adding features, such as around ambient scribe apps: “None of [the other solutions] can really be as integrated as athena.”
athenaOne practices a continuous innovation approach, releasing new minor updates on a bi-weekly cadence and major improvements three times a year to all users at once. That’s the advantage of having a single instance for all. When updates are automatic, users stay on the latest version of the software, enhancing efficiency and security.
Organizations like Privia get the enhancements they select even earlier through alpha and beta testing, and they have a chance to share their thoughts to help product teams improve workflows while they’re being developed.
In the last five years, Privia has accessed 177 athenaOne features early and helped shape their development through testing. Seventy of those tests have focused on clinical enhancements, keeping Privia providers well ahead of the game when new features are deployed and giving them a voice in how their core infrastructure works.
Don’t fall behind the curve
Looking for a platform that continuously incorporates innovation with minimal operational disruption? Learn more about athenaOne.
Already using athenaOne and want to help shape what comes next? Connect with your CSM about alpha and beta testing.
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