Electronic Health Reporter

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 2, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — According to a report recently issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year more than two million people in the U.S. contract infections that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die as a result. Antibiotic resistant bacteria or “superbugs” such as resistant E. coli and staph are of great concern because they are increasingly impervious to typical antibiotics.

To compound the problem, many clinicians who work outside of hospitals are unaware of the bacteria types pervasive in their local areas. Today, from the 7th Annual Health 2.0 Conference in Santa Clara, California, athenahealth, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATHN) and Epocrates together announced a new, free mobile app, “Epocrates Bugs + Drugs,” to arm clinicians with timely geolocated information about bacteria types and resistance patterns, and to support appropriate antibiotic prescribing.

“Epocrates Bugs + Drugs is a game-changer in the clinical toolbox. Traditionally, hospitals have tracked resistance trends on inpatients. Now, Bugs + Drugs goes beyond the hospital setting, transforming lab results from athenahealth’s cloud-based EHR database of 15 million patients into geotargeted data to help physicians identify common and uncommon bugs in the communities where their patients live. Clinicians can access critical resistance information to formulate the best treatment plan.  It’s one step closer to personalized medicine,” said Dr. Anne Meneghetti, Executive Director of Medical Information at Epocrates, an athenahealth company. “This app is a perfect example of pairing athenahealth’s big data with Epocrates’ mobile expertise to better equip caregivers to make confident and efficient decisions in the moments of care. Decisions made in those moments can affect future antibiotic resistance for the entire population.”Â

“The convenience of this app with its localized content provides great insights from an infectious diseases perspective. The real-time, geographic-specific information of the proportions of specific organisms for a particular type of infection and the susceptibility profiles of those organisms allows for more prudent use of antibiotics, which is a major benefit to the patient and the health system,” said Dr. Rajesh Gupta, Infectious Disease Specialist.

To use the app, health care providers simply enter their patient’s location, then intuitively view bacteria common to the area and explore potential bacterial resistance patterns. Epocrates Bugs + Drugs features:

• Lists of bacteria observed in urine, blood, and skin for geolocated communities across the country
• Antibiotic drug options organized by organism susceptibility
• Epocrates’ trusted drug content, including dosing and contraindication information with links to complete monographs
• Continual updates from athenahealth’s cloud-based EHR database
• A sleek, image-rich interface designed specifically for Apple’s iOS 7 operating system

“Epocrates Bugs + Drugs delivers a beautiful, differentiated user experience,” added Abbe Don, Vice President of User Experience at Epocrates. “Health care professionals have been longing for an app experience like this.”

Epocrates Bugs + Drugs is now available at no cost for iOS 7 devices in the Apple App Store: http://bit.ly/18uyL3n

About Epocrates, Inc.

Epocrates, Inc., an athenahealth company, is recognized for developing the #1 medical application among U.S. physicians for clinical content, practice tools, and health industry engagement at the point of care. Epocrates has established a loyal network of more than one million health care professionals, including 50 percent of U.S. physicians, who routinely use its intuitive solutions to help streamline workflow and improve patient care. For more information, please visit www.epocrates.com/company.

About athenahealth, Inc.

athenahealth is a leading provider of cloud-based services for electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and care coordination. athenahealth’s mission is to be caregivers’ most trusted service, helping them do well doing the right thing. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com.

About Health 2.0

Health 2.0 promotes, showcases, and catalyzes new technologies in health care through a worldwide series of conferences, code-a-thons, prize challenges, and more. We also have the leading market intelligence on new health technology companies. For more information on Health 2.0, please visit our web site http://www.health2con.com