Watertown, March 2023 – athenahealth, Inc., a leading provider of network-enabled software and services for medical groups and health systems nationwide, and Smile Foundation today announced the expansion of their partnership with the launch of a second mobile medical unit, as part of the Smile on Wheels initiative, in Bengaluru, India. The mobile medical units providess free care to underprivileged and underserved communities in Karnataka state.

The expansion is a result of the success of the partnership’s first mobile medical unit, which was launched in August 2021 to help strengthen public health infrastructure and provide primary healthcare to Chennai residents. To date, the original unit has served more than 25,000 people. athenaGives, athenahealth’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, provides financial support for Smile on Wheels’ mobile medical units.

In addition to healthcare accessibility, another  primary objective of the second mobile medical unit in Bengaluru is safe motherhood, ensuring all women receive the care they need to be healthy throughout pregnancy and childbirth and to reduce the number of maternal mortalities. 

Smile on Wheels is a national-level mobile healthcare program from Smile Foundation, that benefits underprivileged communities. Under the program, well-equipped mobile medical units, along with specialized doctors, nurses, medical staff, and medicine reach out to doorsteps of people in identified villages and underserved urban communities to provide crucial access to primary healthcare services in unserved or underserved areas. Smile on Wheels has so far provided free healthcare services to more than 1.5 million children and families across India. 

“Ensuring healthcare of children and young mothers is crucial for both wellbeing of families and prosperity of the society. We are glad to take our partnership with athenahealth further and to complement the efforts of the governments,” said Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-founder & Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation. 

“We are proud to partner with Smile Foundation to support patients in underprivileged communities in India,” said Gillian Perron, head of athenaGives at athenahealth. “Maternal health is a global issue, and we look forward to continuing to work with organizations both in India and the United States to help improve pregnancy and childbirth outcomes.”

 athenahealth also collaborated with Akshaya Patra to distribute 4,000 shatki kits in Bengaluru and Chennai in March 2023. The kits are designed to improve the nutritional status of pregnant women who have limited financial resources.

 About athenahealth, Inc.  

athenahealth creates innovative healthcare technology that connects clinicians, patients, payers, and partners in differentiated ways. Our electronic health record, revenue cycle management, and patient engagement tools allow anytime, anywhere access, driving better financial outcomes for our customers and enabling our provider customers to deliver better quality care. In everything we do, we’re inspired by our vision to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com. 

athenaGives is athenahealth’s global corporate social responsibility program with a mission to provide equitable access to healthcare for all; improve food security; and support science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. 

 About Smile Foundation 

Smile Foundation is a national development organization directly benefitting over 1.5 million underprivileged children and their families every year through more than 400 welfare projects in education, healthcare, livelihood and women empowerment spread across 2,000 remote villages and urban slums in 25 states of India.