athenahealth Welcomes Paul Brient as Chief Product Officer
Former PatientKeeper CEO and Industry Innovator to Drive Product Strategy for Healthcare IT Pioneer
WATERTOWN, Mass., Sept. 05, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — athenahealth, Inc., a leading provider of network-enabled services for ambulatory and hospital customers nationwide, announced today that Paul Brient will join the company as Chief Product Officer (CPO). Brient comes to athenahealth from PatientKeeper, Inc. where he served as CEO for 17 years and led the company’s mission to advance healthcare with instinctive, empowering technology that respects the importance of physicians. As CPO, Brient will serve a crucial role in helping shape the company’s product roadmap to optimize the athenahealth network and drive clinical density.
“At the helm of PatientKeeper, Paul focused on creating solutions that enhance physician workflows and EHR investments,” said Bob Segert, chairman and chief executive officer of athenahealth. “He knows our customers just as well as we do, and we share a similar vision and philosophy. With Paul leading our product strategy and roadmap, we will be that much closer to achieving our vision – to create a thriving healthcare ecosystem which will enable accessible, affordable and sustainable healthcare for all.”
Brient has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare information technology, including physician workflow and practice automation, payer-based medical management, pharmaceutical-based disease management and medical devices. He led PatientKeeper from a pre-revenue startup in 2002, to what is now a wholly owned subsidiary of HCA Healthcare, serving more than 75,000 physicians.
Prior to joining PatientKeeper, he held senior executive-level positions at leading healthcare and consulting firms, including McKesson Corporation, HPR, and The Boston Consulting Group. Brient launched his healthcare IT career as the founder and president of BCS, an early physician practice management software company.
“I have long admired and respected athenahealth as a leader in healthcare IT,” said Brient. “I watched the organization as it pioneered new solutions to truly help practitioners spend more time on patient care, and less time and frustration dealing with technology. I am thrilled at the opportunity to join Bob and the athenahealth leadership team in the pursuit of healthcare innovation and inspiration.”
Brient serves on the Advisory Board for LRVHealth and has held board positions for a variety of healthcare technology companies, including GetWellNetwork and Reva Systems. He is a Henry Crown Fellow at The Aspen Institute and a 2011 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year New England Region award winner.
Brient earned his MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science summa cum laude from Princeton University.
About athenahealth, Inc.
athenahealth partners with hospital and ambulatory customers to drive clinical and financial results. We offer medical record, revenue cycle, patient engagement and care coordination services. Our technology and analytics help healthcare providers across the continuum of care effectively manage their financial, clinical, and human capital workflows. We combine insights from our network of more than 160,000 providers with deep industry knowledge and perform administrative work at scale. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com.
SOURCE: athenahealth