Athenahealth Connects Patient Health Records to Claude AI

Electronic health record (EHR) company athenahealth has introduced athenaPatient MCP, a new connection that allows patients to access their medical records through Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant. The solution connects Claude directly with athenahealth’s athenaOne platform, allowing patients to ask questions and receive answers informed by their clinical data.

The connection uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Patients authenticate through their athenahealth patient portal credentials and decide which information Claude can access. According to athenahealth, patients’ login credentials are not shared with Claude. Information is encrypted during transmission, and patients can revoke access at any time.

Paul Brient, athenahealth’s chief product and operations officer, described the purpose of the initiative, saying, “At its core, this is about helping patients get value from their own healthcare data.”

Patient-controlled access to medical records

With patients’ permission, Claude can reference information from their records, including laboratory results, medications, vital signs, health conditions, diagnostic reports, immunizations, visit histories, allergies, procedures and care plans. Athenahealth executives said this clinical information can help Claude provide personalized answers rather than generic or incomplete information.

Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the United States can add the athenaPatient MCP connector through their Claude settings. Athenahealth will limit access to AI assistants that do not use patient information to train their models.

Brient also encouraged patients to review the privacy and data-use policies of the services they choose. He said the company approached the initiative with the principle that healthcare information requires a higher standard of protection.

Claude is the first integration

Athenahealth has enabled Claude as the first connection through athenaPatient MCP, but the company plans to expand access to other AI models. Brient did not provide details about additional integrations.

He said Anthropic had been a launch collaborator because of its approach to responsible AI development. However, athenahealth’s strategy is not built around a specific AI model. Brient noted that new models and tools are entering the market frequently, and the company designed the connector with these developments in mind.

Rather than building all generative AI capabilities directly into athenaPatient, athenahealth developed the connection to work with general-purpose AI assistants that patients choose to use.

Syed Mohiuddin, Anthropic’s head of healthcare, said the integration gives patients an option to bring their medical records into Claude and explore questions about their health, helping them feel more prepared for conversations with their care teams.

Patient understanding and clinical workload

Patients are increasingly using generative AI assistants to interpret medical information, including laboratory results, medication instructions, and diagnoses. An August Pew Research Center survey found that 34% of U.S. adults had used AI assistants for health-related purposes, including looking up symptoms and understanding a diagnosis.

Some healthcare providers have expressed concern that patients using AI chatbots to interpret their records and test results could send more follow-up messages to physicians. Brient said athenahealth designed the connection to help patients better understand information provided by their healthcare professionals without creating additional administrative work for clinicians.

He explained that patients may have questions about laboratory results that arrive after appointments, or they may forget medication instructions and need further clarification. According to Brient, a stronger understanding of their health information can make conversations between patients and their care teams more productive.

Healthcare companies expand AI integration

Athenahealth provides EHR software, revenue cycle management and patient engagement solutions to small and independent provider practices. A year before the announcement, the company introduced new AI features for ambulatory providers as part of a broader upgrade to its athenaOne platform. During the summer, it also rolled out more than 80 AI features for revenue cycle management operations.

Other EHR companies are developing connections between clinical information and AI tools. OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Healthcare integrates with Epic’s EHR, allowing authorized clinicians to access and summarize patient information within ChatGPT or supported Epic workflows. The integration can bring together clinical notes, laboratory results, medications, and specialist documentation.

Oracle has also introduced an AI-powered patient portal that allows patients to interact with their electronic health records through a conversational interface built on OpenAI models.

Brient said MCP provides a framework for connecting AI systems with relevant clinical information while maintaining appropriate permissions, security and governance. However, he acknowledged that whether MCP will ultimately become the interoperability layer for AI in healthcare remains uncertain.

Athenahealth intends to continue developing connections that allow patients to use their health information through AI assistants while retaining control over what they share.

Athenahealth Connects Patient Health Records to Claude AI

Athenahealth has introduced a new technology solution that allows patients to connect their electronic health records directly to Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant. Announced on November 2, 2026, the new solution, called athenaPatient MCP, aims to help individuals better understand their medical information through personalized AI-powered conversations.

The announcement represents an important development in healthcare technology as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into patient engagement and digital health services. Through this new connection, Athenahealth enables patients to access their medical information through conversational AI rather than relying entirely on traditional patient portals.

The integration uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that allows AI applications to securely connect with external information systems. This technology enables Claude to retrieve authorized clinical information directly from Athenahealth’s healthcare platform when patients request it.