Health IT

To accelerate R&D, athenahealth will acquire Praxify Technologies for $63 million

Health IT company athenahealth's latest acquisition? Palo Alto, California-based Praxify Technologies, which wants to revamp how providers work with health data.

big fish acquisition deal

Watertown, Massachusetts-based athenahealth is making moves.

On Thursday, the health IT vendor unveiled its plans to acquire Palo Alto, California-based Praxify Technologies in a $63 million deal, according to Reuters.

The completion of the transaction is subject to closing conditions.

Founded in 2010, Praxify seeks to rethink how clinicians work with valuable health data. The company believes that physicians are spending too much time working with technology and thereby missing out on potential time with the patient. Using Praxify’s applications, physicians can better streamline their workflows, thus improving productivity and decision support.

The company’s solutions include MIRA and SIYA.

For use in acute and ambulatory settings, MIRA is a tool that gives providers clinical intelligence at the point of care. Through its voice-activated component, physicians can document patient encounters simply by speaking.

SIYA is a platform intended for care management that enables providers to better assist patients outside the four walls of the hospital. Its suite includes everything from virtual health coaching to wearable integration to online scheduling to telemedicine.

Through the acquisition, Praxify’s technologies will be integrated into athenahealth’s platform.

Additionally, athenahealth hopes Praxify’s expertise in UX design will spur more research and development within the company, as well as build upon its current mobile capabilities.

In a statement, athenahealth CTO Prakash Khot noted the possibilities that this deal creates:

Leveraging advancements in machine learning and natural language processing, Praxify has invested several years in developing highly intuitive technology to enhance the delivery of high quality patient care. In combination with our cloud platform and services, Praxify’s team and technology will help us further reduce the many inefficiencies of healthcare’s clinical and operational workflows. We will work together to surface new streams of knowledge in natural and mobile ways, so providers and care teams can be fully present, informed, and efficient. We’re thrilled to have their talented team join our mission to make healthcare work as it should.

The deal appears to be quite premeditated, as athenahealth spokesperson Holly Spring told the Boston Business Journal the acquisition was something the company “has been evaluating for some time.”

Yet this certainly isn’t the first time athenahealth has taken a dive in the acquiring pool. In August 2016, the vendor nabbed Arsenal Health, which took part in athenahealth’s More Disruption Please accelerator. Another acquisition from last summer was Filament Labs, which did business as Patient IO. The move spoke to athenahealth’s interest in population health services.

Photo: maxsattana, Getty Images 

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