athenahealth has partnered with rater8 to integrate AI-powered reputation management tools into its athenaOne platform. The integration embeds rater8's healthcare-focused review, listings and patient feedback capabilities directly into athenaOne workflows, enabling practices to manage their digital presence without switching platforms. Nearly 300 athenahealth customers across over 30 specialties already use rater8's solution. Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics recorded a 443% increase in patient reviews and an 84% rise in Google listing views after one year, translating to more booked appointments. Across all rater8 customers, 98% of posted reviews are four or five stars, with an average physician rating of 4.90. Customers experience an average 1,595% increase in reviews during their first year, improving search visibility and patient acquisition in an increasingly AI-driven healthcare market.

Can Solventum overcome competition from big tech's AI solutions in autonomous coding space. Here's what an analyst has to say regarding concerns about heightened competition from Microsoft and other tech companies, which could adversely affect Solventum's Health Information Systems segment. Omar Ford, Editor-in-Chief, MD+DI, Informa Markets - Engineering April 6, 2026 At a glance. * High switching costs and contracts may shield Solventum's HIS. * Analysts remain optimistic despite investor concerns over AI. * CEO highlights strong growth in autonomous coding adoption. Solventum's Health Information Systems (HIS) segment is facing competition from some huge players on the tech side. But the question is, can the Eagan, MN-based company, which is ranked 16th on the Top 100 Medical Device Companies list, overcome these headwinds and dispel investor concerns? One analyst seems to think so. Solventum's traditional coding tools are facing pressure from AI-driven autonomous coding provided by competitors like Microsoft, Optum, Epic, and Athena. "AI has been a growing concern among investors relating to Solventum's HIS business," Zimmerman wrote. "As the industry shifts toward autonomous coding, Solventum's tools for supporting traditional coding may become obsolete." Zimmerman went on to write, "Our basic takeaway is that we remain positive on Solventum shares relative to the current share price. We think much of this move is premature and assumes Solventum remains stagnant in the face of any competitive pressure from new AI entrants in autonomous coding. In addition, we believe the recent decline assumes nothing with respect to any portfolio management if it were to be announced." Zimmerman noted that Solventum said it could combat the rise of new AI entrants in autonomous coding because of the following factors: high switching costs, established customer track records, longer contractual periods, and risk of newer AI models not as effective. Solventum's performance in HIS space. In Solventum's most recent earnings call, its CEO Bryan Hanson, spoke about the company's HIS performance. "Our Health Information Systems business delivered another solid quarter, supported by its growth driver, revenue cycle management, and we continue to see adoption of 360 Encompass progress against our international expansion efforts and gains in autonomous coding," Hanson said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of the call. "And relative to autonomous coding, our strong automation and acceptance rates are further positioning us as the largest, and importantly, most capable autonomous coding vendor." Solventum's progress up to this point. Solventum is 3M's former healthcare business. 3M announced it was spinning out the company in 2022. The company struggled shortly after it was spun off from 3M - coming up with a long-range plan that analysts said meh to. However, Solventum began picking up steam in 2025. The firm also engaged in M&A. In November of 2025, Solventum acquired Acera Surgical, a developer of materials for regenerative wound care, for $850 million, positioning itself as a strong player in the regenerative tissue matrices category within the acute care settings market, which is estimated to be worth $900 million. Editor-in-Chief, MD+DI, Informa Markets - Engineering Omar Ford is a seasoned journalist specializing in medical technology, healthcare innovation, and the medical device and diagnostics industry. As the editor-in-chief of Medical Device + Diagnostics Industry (MD+DI), he has earned a reputation as a leading authority in the field, offering in-depth insights into the latest trends, regulatory changes, and technological advancements shaping the future of healthcare. Omar has been a featured speaker at MD&M and MEDevice events. Omar has written for several publications prior to MD+DI. He is a former contributor at Bioworld Medtech, an online publication owned by Clarivate. He was a general assignment reporter for the Beaufort Gazette and an education and county reporter for the Griffin Daily News. He is the 2001 winner of the Judson Chapman Award from the South Carolina Press Association and the 2003 McClatchy President's Award recipient. Omar has a bachelor's degree in print journalism from the University of South Carolina. Throughout his tenure at MD+DI, Omar has covered a wide array of topics, including medical technology innovations, regulatory affairs, market dynamics, and the growing impact of artificial intelligence in healthcare. Omar is the host of the Let's Talk Medtech podcast.

10 things every practice administrator should know about AI in medical practice. From ambient scribes to diagnostic decision support, artificial intelligence is reshaping how medicine gets done. (AI) is no longer a horizon issue for U.S. physicians. It's embedded in (EHR) platforms, prior authorization workflows and patient communication tools that practices use every day, often without much fanfare or formal training. For physicians trying to separate the useful from the overhyped, the landscape can feel overwhelming. These 10 points can help physicians navigate AI on their own terms. 1: you are probably already using AI, whether you know it or not. Most major EHR vendors, including Epic, Oracle Health and athenahealth, have integrated AI-powered features into their platforms in recent years, from predictive tools to automated prior authorization flagging. Before evaluating any new AI product, take stock of what your current systems already offer. Many practices have AI features sitting dormant that they have never activated. 2: ambient AI scribes are the technology with the most immediate ROI, but they're not all the same. Ambient documentation tools that listen to patient-physician conversations and automatically generate clinical notes have advanced faster than almost any other AI application in medicine. Products from companies including Microsoft-owned Nuance, Abridge, Ambience Healthcare and Suki vary significantly in how they handle specialty-specific language, EHR integration, turnaround time and pricing. Many vendors offer pilots or evaluation periods. Use them before committing. 3: read every note your AI scribe generates. Every one. Ambient scribes reduce documentation burden, but they don't eliminate physician responsibility for what ends up in the chart. Errors in AI-generated notes, such as misattributed symptoms, wrong medication doses or missed negations, carry the same legal and clinical weight as errors in notes you write yourself. Spot-checking is not enough. Develop a fast, consistent review habit before signing off. 4: understand how your malpractice carrier handles AI. Most major carriers have not excluded AI-related claims outright. The Doctors Company, for example, has stated publicly that it has no exclusion for AI and would defend and potentially indemnify physicians if AI played a role in a claim. That said, policy language across the industry is still evolving, and carriers are still working through how to assess AI-related risk and underwriting. Before deploying any AI tool in your practice, contact your insurer and confirm specifically how AI-related scenarios would be handled under your current coverage. 5: AI diagnostic support tools are aids, not diagnosticians. Tools that flag potential diagnoses, surface drug interactions or identify patients at risk for deterioration can add genuine value, but they are trained on data sets that may not reflect your patient population. Overreliance is a documented risk. These tools work best when physicians treat them as a second set of eyes, not a second opinion. 6: know who owns your patient data when you sign an AI vendor contract. Many AI tools learn and improve by training on deidentified patient data. Vendor contracts vary widely in how they define deidentification, who retains data rights and whether patient data can be used to train models that serve other health systems or clients. Have legal counsel review any AI vendor agreement before signing, with specific attention to data use and retention clauses. 7: patient attitudes toward AI are more complicated than they appear. Research suggests patient openness to AI in health care varies considerably by context and is not universally positive. A 2025 study published in JAMA Network Open found that patients actually portal message responses on quality measures but reported lower satisfaction once they knew AI was involved. Separately, a national found U.S. adults generally hold low expectations for benefits from AI in health care, with trust in their physician as a stronger driver of comfort than AI itself. What the research consistently supports is that transparency matters: Most patients want to know when AI is being used in their care and how. Make disclosure part of your practice workflow, not an afterthought. Take our survey: tell us how AI is changing your practice. We want to hear directly from physicians and practice administrators. Physicians Practice and Medical Economics are surveying readers on their experience with AI scribes and the broader question: Is AI making medicine better? Your responses will inform our ongoing coverage and may be featured in an upcoming report. The survey takes approximately five minutes to complete. Please take a moment to anonymously share your experience in the window below, or to answer. The story continues below. 8: front desk and billing AI can save you money before you ever see a patient. Prior authorization automation, insurance eligibility verification and claims scrubbing tools have some of the clearest, most measurable ROI in the AI landscape. If your practice has not evaluated this category, it is a lower-risk entry point than clinical AI and often pays for itself quickly. Several specialty-agnostic platforms now target independent and small-group practices specifically. 9: AI will not fix a broken workflow. It will make it faster. Practices seeing the most benefit from AI tools tend to be those that have already done the work of standardizing clinical and administrative workflows. AI layered onto a disorganized documentation process, a fragmented EHR setup or a poorly defined triage protocol tends to amplify existing problems rather than solve them. Before piloting any AI tool, map the workflow it is meant to improve. 10: the regulatory environment is still catching up, and physicians have a stake in shaping it. The Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Congress are all actively developing frameworks for AI in health care, with new guidance and proposed rules appearing regularly. The has been pushing for national standards around transparency, bias mitigation and the appropriate apportionment of physician liability for AI errors. Staying informed on the regulatory landscape and engaging through your specialty society when comment periods open matters for the long-term trajectory of how AI gets used in medicine. Have thoughts on how AI is affecting your practice or medicine as a whole? on AI scribes and the future of medicine. Optimize your practice with the Physicians Practice newsletter, offering management pearls, leadership tips, and business strategies tailored for practice administrators and physicians of any specialty.