The Flu Dashboard taps into athenahealth’s vast network to measure influenza-like symptoms across 1 million patient visits per week to more than 25,000 pediatricians, primary care providers, and emergency medical providers. The Dashboard is updated weekly to show trends in near real time and offers year-over-year data to track when the flu peaked in previous seasons. This initiative serves as the latest example of how the company can uniquely provide insights into trends in healthcare and its delivery via the most open, connected network in healthcare.“Our interactive Flu Dashboard allows users to track the spread of the flu on a week by week basis and even home in on individual states to easily compare how different populations are being impacted by the illness across the country,” said Jessica Sweeney-Platt, Executive Director, Research, at athenahealth. “We have customers who use this data set to help them decide when and where to allocate resources, at a time of year when front-line service providers are stretched pretty thin. It’s important to all of us at athenahealth to make sure that our data insights make their way to those front-line caregivers, in a way that helps them proactively improve patient care and the patient experience.”To further assist healthcare organizations in preparing for flu season, athenahealth has also shared tips as part of its recently released “4 ways to prep for flu season” infographic, including:

• Make a strong vaccine recommendation: Make sure practitioners use protocols to consistently identify patients in need of a flu vaccine during a visit and are encouraging them to get one.
• Reach out: Get in touch with patients to encourage them to get their flu vaccines and any other preventive care they may need.
• Be accessible: The EHR in use needs to allow for easy online scheduling. Patients should be able to quickly see open slots and book appointments from their phone, tablet, or computer.
• Stay on trend: Keep up with flu trends in the U.S. using athenahealth’s Flu Dashboard.

For additional healthcare industry trends and insights made possible by athenahealth’s open, connected network, visit www.athenahealth.com/insight.