Epic Systems Unveils AI-Powered Healthcare Assistants and Predictive Models at Annual Conference
In the heart of Verona, Wisconsin, tech giant Epic Systems showcased their innovative offerings at their annual Users Group Meeting, hosted on their expansive 1,670-acre campus.
The event, themed around science fiction, saw Judy Faulkner, CEO of Epic, donning a vibrant purple wig, neon green shoes, and an iridescent vest reminiscent of Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story franchise. Addressing a crowd of over 11,000 healthcare executives gathered in an underground auditorium, Faulkner announced Epic’s development of approximately 200 AI features intended to assist patients, clinicians, and insurers.
Epic is renowned for its electronic health record (EHR) software, a digital version of a patient’s medical history that doctors and nurses update regularly. This technology plays a crucial role in the modern U.S. healthcare system, with Epic’s software used by 280 million Americans, according to the company. The platform competes with Oracle Health (formerly Cerner).
Recent developments include MyChart Central, which allows patients to access multiple health systems using a single set of credentials, reducing the need for repetitive usernames and passwords. This feature also benefits healthcare organizations by minimizing patient calls and password resets, Faulkner explained during her keynote speech.
A notable addition to MyChart is Emmie, an always-on AI assistant designed to answer questions about lab results, propose appointment times, and suggest relevant screenings for discussion with doctors. During the three-hour presentation, Faulkner and other executives introduced Emmie, as well as other upcoming AI assistants known as Art and Penny.
Art, intended for clinicians, aims to function as an active AI digital colleague that anticipates necessary information, such as blood pressure trends, updates patient family histories, and places orders. The company also revealed that Art will be capable of drafting clinical notes – a highly anticipated announcement ahead of the conference.
Epic’s Penny assistant focuses on revenue cycle management and administrative tasks like generating appeal letters for denied insurance claims and speeding up medical coding through suggestion services. These features are already live, Faulkner stated.
In collaboration with Microsoft, Epic is developing an AI charting tool for clinical documentation. The two companies have been working together for nearly two decades, and Microsoft’s DAX Copilot product is a popular offering within the AI scribing market.
Epic’s Penny assistant is also designed to streamline administrative tasks such as generating appeal letters for denied insurance claims and expediting medical coding with suggestion services. These features are already in operation.
“With all the challenges health-care organizations are facing, we need to ensure our clinicians and organizations remain strong and well so they can provide the best care for patients,” Faulkner stated.
Epic concluded its executive address by teasing upcoming AI capabilities for Cosmos, a deidentified patient dataset that clinicians can utilize for research. Health systems must opt-in to participate in Cosmos, with the database currently including information from over 1,760 hospitals and 300 million patients.
Epic is building proprietary foundation models called Cosmos AI based on this data. The company is evaluating various applications of these models, having utilized only 8 billion patient encounters thus far – a mere beginning, they asserted. These models may be used to predict potential medical events in a patient’s timeline, such as identifying readmission risks or the likelihood of heart attacks.