Brand voice

Acronyms Avoid them unless they’re widely used, and even then, spell them out on first reference (e.g., use “general availability,” not “GA”). Do not use an apostrophe to make an acronym plural.

Ampersand symbol (&) Spell out the word “and” unless space constraints are an issue.

athenahealth All lower case. Use the name in full when referring to the company in public-facing communication. Use “athena” in internal communication only.

athenahealth, Inc. Only when referring to us as the company, e.g., in legal documents. athenahealth remains lower case.

athenista An athenahealth employee. Mostly reserved for internal communications. May use for recruiting. Probably don’t use for marketing. All lower case.

Boilerplate athenahealth strives to cure complexity and simplify the practice of healthcare. Our innovative technology includes electronic health records, revenue cycle management, and patient engagement solutions that help healthcare providers, administrators, and practices eliminate friction for patients while getting paid efficiently. athenahealth partners with practices with purpose-built software backed by expertise to produce the insights needed to drive better clinical and financial outcomes. We’re inspired by our vision to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all. Learn more at www.athenahealth.com.

Bulleted lists Keep items short; use a period after full sentences; use consistent syntax for all in a list; start each bullet with a capital letter.

Busywork One word. Generally stay away from using busywork to avoid implying it is unnecessary. Instead, use administrative work, office work.

Caregiver A lay person involved in patient care, such as a family member. Do not use for professional clinicians.

Clients No longer the preferred term; use “customers” instead. See below for customers.

Clinician A medical professional such as a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant.

Cloud Use “cloud-based” when describing the nature of the athenahealth network and our products and services that are hosted in the cloud.

Comma Use the Oxford/serial comma: that is, a comma before “and” in a list of three or more items. “Clinicians, payers, and patients have to work together.”

Cost We do not reference the cost of our services directly, as a customer’s cost is based on a percent of collections and therefore unique. When referring to the cost of athenahealth services, do not use the word price. Do underscore that we seek to understand an organization’s specific needs to let us reduce customers’ healthcare costs and offer a customized quote.

Customers Use this sparingly to refer to the organizations using our services or our end users. Whenever possible, refer instead to “you” or the specific roles of the users, such as “clinicians.”

Dashes We use em dashes (“—"), not en dashes (“–“). Use a space on both sides of the dash.

Dates Always capitalize months. Spell out the month unless it is used with a date. When used with a date, abbreviate only the following months: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. Do not use st, nd, rd, or th with dates. Include the day of the week for upcoming events; do not include the year for upcoming events unless the event will take place in a subsequent year. Do not include the day, but do include the year for past milestones and events.

Examples: The webinar will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 25. The anniversary party will be held on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. The first moon landing took place on July 20, 1969. athenahealth and Virence joined forces in February 2019.

Degrees, honorifics We use periods for M.D., O.D., Ph.D., etc. On first reference, use honorific at end of name (Nele Jessel, M.D.). On second reference, use just last name unless necessary for clarity (Not: Dr. Jessel).

Ecosystem athenahealth operates within the broader healthcare “ecosystem,” and we use this word to refer to that larger whole, as opposed to “our ecosystem of products,” for example. Our “network,” “platform,” and “products” modernize and connect formerly disparate parts, working together to improve the whole “ecosystem.”

EHR This is our preferred term vs. EMR. An electronic health record comprises more than just an electronic medical record.

EMR We prefer to use EHR. We sometimes use EMR for SEO purposes.

Exclamation points Use sparingly. You get three per year.

Government organizations and programs Some agencies are widely recognized by their initials and can be referred to using their abbreviations (e.g. FBI); when in doubt, spell out the first instance. With government programs, like MIPS or MACRA, spell out the first instance with the acronym in parenthesis. Also, see acronyms.

Headlines Use sentence case: capitalize the first letter of the first word. No periods. Yes question marks, if appropriate. (See also “sub-heads.”)

Healthcare One word.

Healthcare organization We prefer to use healthcare organization because it encompasses more diverse audiences. Practice excludes many of our customers, like hospitals and health systems, but can still be used to describe smaller groups. If using pronouns to refer to a specific organization, use “it,” not “they” (e.g., “FQHC finds the support it needs to serve its unique communities”). See “practice.”

Hyphenated words No hyphen is needed to link a two-word phrase that includes the adverb very and all adverbs ending in “ly” (e.g., hyphenate “high-performing,” “value-based care,” and “work-life balance,” but not “an easily remembered rule”).

High-quality One word, hyphenated. We support the provision of healthcare services that increase the likelihood of desired outcomes. athenahealth’s goal is not to provide high-quality care; it is to facilitate others in our ecosystem to provide that care. We’re here to take down the barriers and smooth the pathways to high-quality care delivery.

Inclusive language We follow AP Style guidelines on race and ethnicity, gender, disability, and more. When in doubt, defer to AP Style and be specific about what you’re describing whenever possible (e.g., describe a patient population as low-wealth instead of underserved). Here are a few AP entries for reference:

• Race and ethnicity: For the latest guidance, see AP’s entry on race-related coverage.
  • People of color: The term is acceptable when necessary in broad references to multiple races other than white. Be specific whenever possible.
• Gender:
  • In general, use terms that can apply to any gender. Such language aims to treat people equally and is inclusive of people whose gender identity is not strictly male or female.
  • Do not presume maleness in constructing a sentence by defaulting to “he/his/him.” Usually it is possible, and always preferable, to reword the sentence to avoid gender.
• Disability:
  • Avoid writing that implies ableism: the belief that abilities of people who aren’t disabled are superior. Avoid using disability-related words lightly or in unrelated situations.
  • When possible, ask people how they want to be described. In describing groups of people, or when individual preferences can’t be determined, use person-first language such as “a woman with autism.”

Internet Lower case.

KLAS copyright When citing a KLAS article or annual award, use the following format: “Name of the Article or Report.” Month 202X. ©202X KLAS Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved. www.KLASResearch.com

M.D. and other professional degrees See “Degrees, honorifics.”

Medical billing Where possible, reference “healthcare payments” or “practice management” within the same paragraph as “medical billing.” Our suite of products and services does more than simply billing services. For large and/or complex healthcare organizations, see “Revenue Cycle Management.”

Medical specialties Do not capitalize unless you’re referring to a department name or the specialty appears in the name of an organization as a proper noun.

Network Our customers and partners make up the nodes of athenahealth’s “network.” Our network is omnidirectional—software “products” flow out across it, and proprietary data flows back in from it, through the connections we provide. Crucially, our “network” is more than just software. Providers work within our “network”, often (but not exclusively) on a “platform” or “product”. “Network” is preferred to system, as it is more specific.

Numbers and rounding

When a number is being used for impact (creating awareness or grabbing attention,) use the number.

When a number is written in prose, spell out whole numbers up to and including nine, except in cases of number ranges (example: “There are 8-12 clinicians in each practice.”) Also spell out numbers in idioms or well-known expressions, like “the face that launched a thousand ships.”

Metrics should be rounded to the two highest places in a number (e.g., 140,000, 2.4, 120). Round down, instead of up, and use a plus sign if you would have otherwise rounded the number up (e.g., 156,321 becomes 150,000+).

Rounding for all other numbers:

• Numbers less than 10 should be rounded to the nearest tenth (one decimal place) if that level of detail is available (e.g., 2.1 days, 9.7%).
• Numbers between 10 and 10,000 should be rounded to the nearest whole number.
• When rounding numbers between 10,000 and 1B, keep only the first two digits of the number. (e.g., 87,000 clinicians, 310,000 interfaces, 99 million patients, 970 million claims).
• Numbers greater than 1B should be rounded to the nearest 100M (e.g., 2.3 billion transactions, $30.8 billion in collections).
• Use K for thousand, M (not MM) for million, B for billion.

Ob-Gyn We capitalize the “O” and “G” and hyphenate the term, except when creating assets for a particular organization or event. If that organization uses different capitalization or punctuation, match the way they spell it.

Orthopedics vs. orthopaedics We spell it without the “a” in the middle, except when creating assets for a particular organization or event. If that organization spells it with “ae,” so will we.

Passive voice Rewrite to make active unless you’re emphasizing the action over the actor, e.g., “Acceptance letters will be mailed the week of October 10.”

Payer vs. Payor We spell it with an “e,” except when creating assets for a particular organization. If that organization spells it with an “o,” so will we.

Percent symbol (%) Use the symbol, not the word.

Physician Use only when writing about physicians specifically, otherwise use “clinician.” For example: “athenahealth can help MSOs like yours grow your affiliated physician network.”

Practice Use only when describing a smaller healthcare group with 0-10 doctors. See “healthcare organization.”

Professional degrees See “degrees.”

Provider See “clinician.”

Releases When referring to athenahealth releases internally, use the following convention: “Release 18.7,” not “our 18.7 release.” When referring to athenahealth releases in public-facing communication, use the following convention: “Spring 2021 Release.” Use the “21.3” convention in internal communication only.

Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) The process of creating, submitting, and getting paid for treatment provided to patients. The revenue cycle management process is critical to ensure that healthcare organizations get paid for the services that they provide as fast as possible. Revenue cycle management technology needs to be connected to the electronic medical record so that the clinical services rendered are paid by the corresponding payer.

Seamless Do not use. Alternatives: Simple, straightforward. When talking about a not-entirely-seamless process, i.e. data migration, instead focus on support from athenahealth.

State abbreviations Use the postal code, e.g., MA, CA, ND. Two capital letters, no other punctuation.

Sub-heads Use sentence case: capitalize the first letter of the first word. (See also “headlines.”)

Tailored Our preferred, benefit-driven alternative for “on-premises” or “customizable”. We use this when referencing the unique needs that our athenaFlex portfolio can fulfill for complex organizations. We also use this when referencing the relationship with our Marketplace partners that integrate with athenahealth to improve performance for practices and healthcare organizations.

Telephone numbers We write them with periods. 617.402.0000

Times We follow AP Style, abbreviating as “a.m.” and “p.m.” When citing a U.S. time zone, keep it simple: ET versus EST/EDT (standard/daylight).

Titles All titles, like “chief executive officer,” should be written in lower case when spelled out. Capitalize titles when using common abbreviations, like CEO.

Tool(s) Use only in a general sense when discussing specific discrete capabilities; use sparingly to alleviate overuse of “product.”

Trademarks and service marks The Legal team is the keeper of the list of trademarked terms and the correct symbol to use with each. If you’re not sure which to use, contact legalnewrequests@athenahealth.com

Updates (network) Do not use “continually updated based on regulatory and payer changes.” Use “regularly updated” (with no reference to regulatory and payer changes) instead.

Wi-Fi Capitalized and hyphenated.

Whitepaper One word.

See the athenahealth Technical Writers’ Style Guide for additional information.