Why Athenahealth bought Epocrates

Normally Editor Donna would append this HIStalk Connect article [WARNING 31 Aug 2014: linked page may now be infected with malware] to our earlier one [TA 8 Jan] but it’s an extremely thorough external analysis of why Epocrates‘ core product–a mobile drug reference–would be worth nearly $300 million (a 22% premium to share value) to Athenahealth. While most have pointed out the mHealth aspects in improving the latter’s mobile offerings, the real reason, according to writer Travis Good, MD, is for Athenahealth to gain exposure to a hard-to-reach group via Epocrates’ ubiquity, and gain more physician users of its core services, practice management and EHR.