athenahealth to Embed Microsoft Dragon Copilot in EHR

The integration brings real-time ambient clinical documentation into Athenahealth’s EHR, enabling Dragon Copilot to automatically generate accurate patient notes and significantly reduce manual data entry for clinicians.

athenahealth is expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities with the decision to embed Microsoft’s Dragon Copilot directly into its electronic health record system, marking one of the company’s most significant documentation-focused upgrades in recent years.

Dragon Copilot, built with Microsoft’s generative AI and Nuance’s ambient clinical intelligence, listens to patient provider conversations and automatically generates structured clinical notes.

The tool is designed to minimize the heavy documentation load that physicians often shoulder after clinic hours.

athenahealth’s Chairman and CEO, Bob Segert, said the move reflects the company’s commitment to giving clinicians more time back in their day. “This integration allows us to deliver meaningful time savings for providers, enabling them to focus more deeply on patient care,” he said.

Dragon Copilot offers real-time transcript capture, specialty-tailored note templates, and secure in-workflow processing to deliver accurate summaries with minimal clinician correction.

Nuance’s Healthcare Division is leading the technical enablement of the integration within the EHR environment. “Our focus is on bringing ambient intelligence to everyday clinical workflows in a way that feels natural and secure,” said Diana Nole, EVP and General Manager, Nuance Healthcare.

She emphasized that the technology aligns with stringent privacy standards while supporting both small practices and large health systems.

athenahealth has been piloting various ambient AI tools with selected ambulatory groups over the past year to refine user experience, understand specialty-specific needs and validate performance in real clinic settings.

The company believes that embedding ambient technology directly into the EHR workflow - rather than offering it as a separate add-on will help drive usage and enable providers to experience time savings from the first day of deployment.

Looking ahead, the organization plans to continue expanding its AI portfolio, focusing on reducing cognitive load for clinicians and enhancing the quality of clinical data captured within the EHR.

athenahealth’s leaders say the Dragon Copilot integration is one of several innovations planned to support a more connected, efficient and sustainable model of outpatient care.

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