Athenahealth has announced plans to acquire Praxify Technologies for about $63 million.

The deal for the Palo-Alto-based company will help cloud-based EHR company Athenahealth advance its platform strategy and mobile capabilities to drive frictionless workflows and intelligence at and around the moments of care.

Praxify has a number of applications, such as a personal assistant program integrated with EHRs and AI.

"Leveraging advancements in machine learning and natural language processing, Praxify has invested several years in developing highly intuitive technology to enhance the delivery of high-quality patient care. In combination with our cloud platform and services, Praxify's team and technology will help us further reduce the many inefficiencies of health care's clinical and operational workflows," said Athenahealth CTO Prakash Khot in a statement.

Behind the deal is Athenahealth's desire to speed research and development throughout the company with the injection of Praxify's mobile and user experience expertise.

Beyond that, the Praxify technology “will be integrated into Athenahealth's cloud platform, and will create new opportunities for both internal and third-party developers to rapidly build and launch applications,” the company said.

Praxify launched in 2010 and unveiled its “clinical intelligence layer” for EHRs in February. This included MIRA, a mobile application that improves EHR usability and performance, and SIYA, a care management workflow solution for payers, providers, and patients.

MIRA adds a mobile-based layer to an organization’s existing EHR. This speeds up and improves the chart-review process by collecting, analyzing, and displaying relevant patient data in a "glance-able" interface. MIRA also helps physicians complete documentation and orders faster with a voice-activated digital assistant and context-aware, adaptable templates.

A preliminary study at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, Florida, found that doctors who used MIRA technology for the first time improved their documentation and order creation speed by 30 percent over their existing processes.

“It is no secret that physicians today have "point and click fatigue" when it comes to the EHR, leading to higher rates of physician burnout, lower physician productivity, and most importantly, lower patient satisfaction,” said Ram Sahasranam, president and co-founder of Praxify in a statement at the time.

The last Athenahealth buy was in 2013, when it purchased Epocrates – a clinical content app with 300,000 doctors using it – for $293 million.

The Praxify deal announcement comes on the heels of Elliott Management, an activist investor run by Paul Singer, taking a 9.2 percent stake in Athenahealth, according to its May 8th 13D SEC filing.

"We are aware of Elliot's filing and look forward to talking with them to hear their views about the company, and discuss the actions we are taking to drive enhanced growth and value creation for all Athenahealth shareholders," an Athenahealth representative stated in May. "We have great confidence in the company and where we are headed."

Athenahealth's CEO Jonathan Bush, cousin of President George W. Bush and brother of Billy Bush, has been called “colorful” by CNBC, and has a reputation of being “outspoken” according to Bloomberg, but now he has to face an investor who wants to make changes.

At present, Athenahealth has a network of 99,000 providers and 88 million patients.