At its annual user's conference, the EHR giant unveils a strategy that includes hundreds of AI programs and plans to address inpatient monitoring
As healthcare organizations develop AI strategies that use both in-house talent and outside vendors, Epic is reminding the industry that most of those new tools will work best through the EHR.
And they're even better if you're part of the Epic universe.
The nation's largest EHR vendor launched its 45th annual User's Group Meeting (UGM) on Tuesday with an exposition from company founder and CEO Judy Faulkner and several top executives on past successes, current programs—including a glitzy accounting of health systems and hospitals switching over to the Epic platform--and future plans. And with more than 100 AI applications now in use, the company aims to keep the momentum going.
"Healthcare still has tons of problems and … challenges," she announced, and Epic's goal is to "try to make care better."
Epic's pitch to attendees from every state and 16 countries, both at the Verona, Wisconsin campus and online, was two-fold. The company wants to keep its customers in-house, embracing new services and opportunities rather than adding onto the platform from outside sources (what Faulkner called YOYO, or You're On Your Own). In addition, Epic is looking to establish its capabilities as an AI innovator, with hopes of using the technology as a springboard to more growth.
Faulkner spearheaded this strategy by noting Epic has scored early successes with AI in two clinical care programs currently in the spotlight: e-mail inboxes and the doctor-patient encounter.
According to Faulkner, some 186 healthcare organizations are now using Epic's AI Charting tool, which uses ambient technology to capture the conversation, produce a transcript almost immediately and, after clinician review, enter the data into the medical record.
"A click saved is a click earned," she said.
She and other executives said the company plans to enhance this service to include orders, ED notes, inpatient notes and charting for nurses (a feature that Baptist Health, Duke and Intermountain Health are already testing).
In addition, Faulkner said more than 150 healthcare organizations now use In Basket ART (Automated Response Technology), which uses AI to sort through e-mail messages and, in some cases, provide responses. The tool, she said, saves clinicians about 30 seconds per message and, in many cases, offers patients a more empathetic response than one written by a stressed-out doctor or nurse.
"I think that's kind of funny: The machine is more human than the human," she added.
Proposed enhancements on that tool include meeting summaries, message drafts, conversational search and suggestions.
And while the company has more than 100 AI features now inn use, Faulkner and her executives noted many other possibilities for the technology, including bi-directional faxing, routing claims through the EHR without the need of a clearinghouse, personalized patient reminders and recommendations through MyChart, chronic disease management summaries, and billing code recommendations.
Two areas of particular interest are payers and inpatient services. Company executives said Epic will develop AI tools to help providers work with payers on everything from claims to appeals and billing, and will debut a Professional Billing Exchange this fall.
As the inpatient experience, Faulkner and executives said Epic is designing AI tools to help monitor patients and detect or even prevent falls, as well as tools to automatically identify staff when they enter a room, aid in virtual nursing, and help patients with communications and entertainment options.
As with any user's conference, the Epic presentation was meant to update healthcare organizations on the company's progress, but it also underscored the intense competition in the healthcare marketplace for AI. As Senior Vice President Sumit Rana noted, there will come a time when the health system C-Suite has "AI vs. AI" conversations.
"While AI might not be perfect, it is developing rapidly," he noted. "AI is a force multiplier."
Eric Wicklund is the associate content manager and senior editor for Innovation at HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Epic Founder Judy Faulkner and several top executives laid out their AI strategy during the first day of the annual User’s Group Meeting (UGM).
The company already has hundreds of clients using AI to document patient encounters and clean up e-mail inboxes.
Future plans include nurse hand-offs and inpatient monitoring and services.