Athenahealth Connects Patient Health Records to Anthropic’s Claude Through New MCP Tool

The integration uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and allows patients to authorize, manage, and revoke access to their health data.

Athenahealth has launched athenaPatient MCP, a new tool that allows patients to connect their electronic health records (EHRs) from its athenaOne platform to Anthropic’s Claude, enabling AI-generated responses based on their personal medical information. The integration uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and allows patients to authorize, manage, and revoke access to their health data.

Patients authenticate through their athenahealth patient portal credentials and choose which categories of medical information they want to share. According to the company, their portal credentials are not shared with Claude, and data is encrypted during transmission.

Paul Brient, chief product and operations officer at athenahealth, said patients retain control over the information accessed by the AI assistant and can withdraw permission at any time. The company will also restrict athenaPatient MCP access to AI assistants that do not use patient information to train their models.

Through the integration, Claude can reference laboratory results, medications, vital signs, health conditions, diagnostic reports, immunizations, visit history, allergies, procedures, and care plans. Patients can use natural language prompts to understand their medical information, review results, and prepare questions for upcoming appointments.

Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the United States can add the athenaPatient MCP connector through their Claude settings.

The launch comes as more Americans turn to generative AI for health-related information. An August 2026 Pew Research Center survey found that 34% of US adults had used AI assistants for health purposes, including understanding symptoms and diagnoses.

Brient said Claude is the first AI assistant supported through the new connection, but the company plans to extend access to other models. Athenahealth has built the solution around MCP, an emerging interoperability framework that enables AI systems to connect with external data sources.

The company is positioning the tool as a way for patients to understand their medical records between clinical visits. Brient said the integration is also intended to help patients have more informed conversations with their care teams without creating additional administrative work for clinicians.

The development comes amid broader efforts by EHR companies to integrate patient data with generative AI platforms. OpenAI's ChatGPT for Healthcare has introduced integrations with Epic's EHR, enabling authorized clinicians to access and summarize patient information. Oracle has also introduced an AI-powered patient portal that allows users to interact with their electronic health records through a conversational interface.

Athenahealth provides cloud-based EHR, revenue cycle management, and patient engagement solutions, primarily serving small and independent healthcare practices. The company has also expanded AI capabilities across its athenaOne platform, including the rollout of more than 80 AI features for revenue cycle management operations.

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