The booming health IT industry in Georgia is getting a little bigger.
Gov. Nathan Deal announced Monday that athenahealth Inc. will expand its presence in the state, creating 500 new jobs and investing $10.8 million.
athenahealth provides cloud-based services for electronic health records, practice management and care coordination.
Based in Watertown, Mass., the company acquired Alpharetta-based Anodyne Health in 2009. athenahealth will consolidate its Alpharetta workforce of about 100 at its new location at Ponce City Market in Atlanta, and will add 500 additional jobs over the next five years, Deal’s office said.
“Ponce City Market offers athenahealth everything we could ask for in an office space as we deepen our roots in Atlanta and presents us with the opportunity to provide a daily environment that lives up to the work-life aspirations of our company,” said Jonathan Bush, chairman and CEO of athenahealth, in a statement.
“We are building a national health information backbone that will have a revolutionary impact on the cost and quality of health care and are increasingly focused on ensuring our teams work in environments that encourage innovation and collaboration and support the important work we do,’’ Bush added.
A cluster of health information technology companies has mushroomed in Georgia, and especially the Atlanta area. Recently, Healthcare Informatics Magazine listed nine Georgia companies among the Top 100 health IT firms in the nation.
The list, based on annual revenues, placed McKesson Technology Solutions, based in Alpharetta, as the leading company in the industry nationally.
The Technology Association of Georgia says there are more than 225 health IT companies in the state, combining for $4 billion in annual revenues and employing more than 15,000 people. Georgia is the leading state for the health IT industry, the association says.
“athenahealth’s expansion is a huge win for Georgia and is a great example of why Atlanta is considered the nation’s health IT capital,” said Hans Gant, senior vice president of economic development for the Metro Atlanta Chamber.
Here’s a recent GHN article about the health IT industry in Georgia.