It’s that time of the year again. It’s the annual journey that Epic users make to Verona, WI to hear from Judy Faulkner and the team at Epic at their user conference called UGM. If you’ve never been to the Epic campus it’s quite the experience, and the whole campus is transformed into a massive conference center where Epic users, Epic staff, and some of the vendors that support them connect and learn. Plus, they invite a few media people like myself to take part.
This is my third time attending Epic’s UGM and it’s amazing how quickly a conference becomes familiar. Plus, with Epic doing a mid-year event where they made a bunch of their AI announcements, there weren’t as many surprises as in past years. Not to mention, many of the biggest things are progressions on efforts they’ve already started.
This is best illustrated by Judy starting off her presentation sharing that at last year’s UGM, Epic mentioned 167 major projects. She shared that 84 of those projects were completed on time, 7 are completed or will soon be completed with a Special Update (SU) and 76 are in progress as planned and on track. Judy is particularly proud that they deliver what they promise. Of course, when you look at that number of projects, you can understand why we shouldn’t expect a bunch of surprising announcements.
I think one of the big things that attendees were watching for at this year’s UGM is who would be on stage with Judy after Sumit Rana’s departure. Seems like the answer to that question was Seth Howard who led the Cool Stuff Ahead section of the event. There was plenty of talk at the event about these changes and some of the other executive departures beyond Sumit. I don’t think customers were concerned about the changes, but they are definitely interested to see who will fill the holes since Sumit had started to become the face of Epic and Seth Hain had become the face of their AI efforts. No doubt this will be an ongoing story until (if?) Judy decides to retire.
Now let’s take a look at some of the big announcements they made at this year’s Epic UGM.
Cosmos Curiosity – This felt like one of the biggest announcements to me and the one we didn’t already know about. Sure, it’s basically an extension of what they were doing with Cosmos, but seeing how it can be used for research and how it could be integrated into the clinician’s workflow was really interesting. I’m curious to see how this is really used by clinicians. Do probabilities really impact their care choices? Can they use it to motivate patients? I have lots of questions, but the idea of using all the Cosmos data to predict outcomes for a population of patients or an individual patient is really interesting and exciting.
Ergo – Healthcare Intelligence in Epic (Coming in Nov 2026) – I found this to be the most confusing announcement that was made at Epic UGM. Although, Judy led with it, so she obviously saw it as really important. I had to talk to a number of Epic people to really understand what it is. Assuming I’ve understood correctly, Ergo is the new clinician interface that flexes to the needs of the clinician in that moment including input from things like the ambient clinical voice tools. Plus, it leverages the various skills of tools like Art, Emmie, Penny, and Cosmos to filter up the information that clinician needs for that specific patient in that moment.
Here’s a high level overview of it:
- Visit Topics – Art and Emmie help curate topics for the visit
- Summarization – Art synthesizes key details from the chart
- Ask Art – Users ask Art about the chart
- Penny – Brings in billing and RCM details
- Insights from Cosmos – Art brings real-world evidence to the point of care
In many ways I see Ergo as the next iteration of the clinician interface. Another way to look at it is packaging all of the various AI tools that they’ve been creating into one interface. Not sure why it needs a product name, but it is a cool new interface and one we knew would be possible thanks to AI. We all knew that different specialties and/or users (ie. doctors vs nurses) needed different information. EHR’s had often allowed that user to change their preferences on what was shown. Ergo is doing this, but dynamically on the fly. Pretty cool to consider. Will take a bit of time to perfect it though I think.
Chart with Art – One of the big announcements at last year’s Epic UGM was Epic’s decision to do their own AI medical Scribe/Ambient Clinical Voice tool. This was such a big deal that they even did a mid-year Cool Stuff Ahead event talking about the first user. The keynote session was short on all the details of Chart with Art. I’m sure there were some breakouts that dove deeper. A few details they did offer was that 70 Specialties Live and they’re live with doctors, nurses (10 organizations live), pharmcists, behavioral health. Plus, they’re working on the integration with the visual documenation of dermatology and dentists.
Another big announcement related to Chart with Art is that Epic now offers a voice recognition or dictation solution. Many of their customers still wanted to be able to dictate something outside of the visit that’s captured ambiently. This new solution from Epic allows a healthcare organization to be able to stop using a product like Dragon. 2 other related features announced was Ask Art which didn’t have many details. Plus, they announced an Evidence in Art which ties in to Drug Facts, Organizational Protocols, and also Clinical Guidelines from UpToDate. Plus, they’re working on adding peer reviewed journals in the future.
Epic and Claude’s Glasswing and Mythos – Epic announced on stage that they have been one of the companies that Claude allowed access to their highly talked about generative AI solution for security. If you’re in the security space, then you’ve probably heard about Glasswing and Mythos. If you haven’t, do a search and read about it. Claude saw it as so powerful at breaching software that it has chosen not to release it to the public (yet?) and just offered it to a limited number of companies. Purportedly to allow those companies to leverage those tools to secure their software. It’s great that Epic got access to it. I’m sure they don’t want to share what it found, but it’s fair to say that they’re likely more secure thanks to what it found.
The presenter that shared the news about Glasswing and Mythos also highlighted that the number of security patches that are being issued across software in general has been really accelerating. Then, he asked the question, “If a vendor isn’t shipping security patches, why aren’t they?” Definitely a powerful idea to ponder. He also highlighted how the hosted version of Epic is able to be patched and secured in 7 days versus much longer for other systems. I’m probably missing a little context with these numbers, but it was a clear message that they feel Epic’s own hosted version gets secured better than others.
Epic Options – Judy highlighted all of the names of the various interfaces to access Epic. It’s always fun to see how excited she gets naming products. I think it may be her favorite part of her job. Sonnet (desktop), Canto (tablet), Haiku (phone), Limerick (watch), and if they ever do a ring (mostly a joke) it will be called Chirp.
Epic Embracng Smaller Organizations – We all know that for the longest time you had to be a large organization to even be able to buy Epic. One of their biggest efforts to get smaller organizations on Epic was Community Connect. That’s still an important initiative for Epic and was the preferred approach according to Judy. However, Epic is also working on a number of new options for smaller organizations: Orchard (small healthcare organizations), Garden Plot (cooperative use for specialties), Flower Pot (for the very small – Coming Soon), Inpatient Garden Plot (small hospitals – Coming Soon). Judy seems pretty committed to getting healthcare organizations of all sizes on Epic.
Epic Research – I’m slightly biased to what’s happening at Epicresearch.org and what Judy announced because my host at Epic for UGM leads that effort. Judy encouraged everyone to sign up for alerts on it. It’s free and will notify you of new research. It was interesting to hear how much more they’re able to do with better data and AI tools.
Even bigger than the research, Epic also talked about new Data Tracker that provide ongoing monitoring for the follwing areas:
- BMI Trends
- GLP-1 Trends
- Communicable Diseases
- Vector-Borne Illnesses
- Fentanyl & Opiate Toxicology
- Telehealth Utilization
- Cancer Incidence
I was also really impressed by Epic using their data to do Health Alerts. It’s cool to see Epic doing outbreak detection & monitoring with all of the data in various Epic systems. Since launching in April, 13 alerts have been published. The one for cyclosporiasis was one week earlier than CDC according to Epic. This will be an interesting Public Health effort to watch.
Epic ERP – The move into the ERP space is progressing as expected. It’s call EpicOps and is starting with Workforce, Supply Chain, and Financials. We already covered most of what was shared at UGM in our interview about the Epic ERP earlier this year. What was interesting to me was that they already had a good number of companies using it or implementing it. This to me is a decade long effort, but it would be a mistake to underestimate what they can do. It won’t really disrupt the ERP today, but it’s going to knock off pieces of the ERP.
RCM AI – I always find the announcmeents around RCM (Revenue Cycle Management) interesting because there’s a whole industry of companies that are focused on this. I’ve asked them many times whether these announcements from Epic impact them. The consensus seems to be that in the short term it may cause a little slow down, but the complexity of RCM is something that they think Epic won’t fully take on. Especially since it often requires a mixture of software and services. That said, Epic did share some interesting details about their AI efforts related to RCM:
- Professional Coding Assistant – 360+ Live – More than 40 groups reduced coding denials by 20% or more
- Denial Appeals Assistant – 330+ Live – Appeals created 23% faster for medical necessity denials
- Medical Necessity Insights – 180+ Live – 12,500 hours saved in prior auth submission
They also mentioned a number of other features coming including: CDI Nudges, Automated Claim Edit Resolution, and AR Valuation.
Autonomous Coding (Penny) is available now for radiology and emergency medicine. Working on surgery and pathology in the future. Based on the AI’s confidence it will auto-code or if it’s low confidence it will mark it as needing review.
Agent Factory – We’d already heard quite a bit about agent factory before UGM, so most of this wasn’t a surprise. We also have an interview with Derek De Young who presented Epic’s agent factory on stage where we dive into a lot more detail about it. So, watch for that interview coming out in the next few weeks. Although, I found it interesting how he framed the keys to agent factory being: Integrated, Personalized, and Continuously Improved. It was also really impressive to see the 129 features (78 more in development) of Art, Emmie, and Penny that are available in agent factory. It’s going to open up a lot of opportunities for ambitious organizations. Plus, I was fascinated with how Epic is using agent factory to solve some problems too. More on that to come in our interview.
Clinical Trial Management System – Looks like Epic’s CTMS is going to be claled Forward. It’s an end-to-end study management built directly into Epic and is coming in November for early adopters. I think this was announced last year and was mostly just an update on timeline.
Organ Donations in MyChart – This was highlighted last year as well. Although, the numbers are pretty astounding. 300,00 people have signed up through MyChart as an organ donor. MyChart is now the #1 source of new organ donor registrations in the US.
MyChart Central – This was largely an update on what was announced last year. MyChart Central is now live in 50 states. MyChart Central Device Data and Emmie in MyChart Central are coming soon which differs from today where you can just login to MyChart instances for different organizations. Some other patient focused features included Incoming Voice AI & Voice AI Referral Scheduling which will be available in 2027. Smarter Check-In with a pre-visit assistant and dynamic topic curation is coming in 2027. Epic is also considering ways to improve adherence and outcomes in the future.
Intelligent Exam Room – They didn’t offer too many details on this, but the demo did show how the TV for the patients could be used by the patient for entertaininment, education, etc, but the doctor could also pull up MyChart in the exam room as well. I wonder if it will be a unique format that shows specifc information to the patient and doctor or if it will basically be Ergo that’s dynamically pulling info during the visit. Seems like Ergo should be able to accomplish this. It reminds me of the demos that eClinicalWorks has shown at their user events with a shared screen between patient and doctor. 15 years ago I remember writing about doctors sharing their EHR screen with patients with really good results. This is the next iteration of that idea.
Integrated eFax – All of the eFax companies likely woke up for this slide. Their eFax is available in Hello World and they’re working on fax referrals being automatically populated.
Epic Savvy – Coming in the future. It will allow organizations to collect payments without a payment gateway. That includes payments via bank which will save on credit card fees. It will be interesting to compare these to other payment processors. My guess is that Epic will have a really good rate.
Pulse AI Adoption and AI Feature Cost – Looing at how AI is being used and how much it will cost. Plus, an Inventory and Outcomes and Evaluation tool to look at if the AI is creating value and doing what it should. This actually may have been the topic of the conference. Everyone loves all the new AI, but they’re also wondering how they’re going to afford it all. That includes not just the cost of the AI itself, but also the work to implement and integrate it into their workflows.
Epic did talk about AI Responsibility in the keynote. They shared that with great power comes great responsibility to do the following:
- Apply the right Guardrails
- Evaluate Responses
- Monitor Outcomes
- Manage Costs
Epic Usage, Support and Implementation – These topics have been a big one for Judy for quite a while. Especially when it comes to customers that aren’t using the various pieces of Epic. They already have a number of programs including honor roll where you can earn a discount on the product if you’re using it, but Judy also highlighted the executive package which highlights the various opportunities for an organization to better utilize Epic. Sounds like these packets were a bit overwhelming and so they’re revising it with a page that has that organization’s top opportunities. This packet is designed to help organizations save lifes, make money, and work more efficiently.
Even more interesting was Judy’s stated desire to do what she called “Helping You Do More with Less.” Here are the suite of support that they’ve put together for organizations:
- Technical services
- Implementation services
- Ongoing services
- Level up
- Guides
- Rangers (Epic staff you hire) – like Boost, but long term
The new one is Rangers which is where an organization pays for an Epic staff to be permanently dedicated to them and onsite. Judy said they’ve been doing something kind of like this with their Boost program where an Epic employee needs to move (generally for personal reasons) and would still like to work for Epic, but technically can’t because Epic requires you to be in the office in Madison (or they did announce some international offices). This feels like a nice way to get around the must work in the office rule to me. Although, I also feel like Judy also saw that Epic received 340,000 applicants for jobs at Epic. No doubt, there were more people in that group that would be qualified to work at Epic and could help out Epic customers. It will be interesting to see how this program is accepted by customers and how it grows.
Analyst build assistant – This assistant kind of reminds me of the tool that Rhapsody created for integration experts, but this is an AI tool for Epic analysts. Seems like this is just a view into what they’re starting since they mentioned the assistant would eventually actually be able to actually do stuff the analyst would normally do. Accelerating the work of Epic Analysts is a worthy goal since they can be hard to find and aren’t cheap.
Here are a number of other announcements and items mentioned:
- Diagnostic Image Exchange allows health systems to share diagnosticquality images—including CTs, X-rays, MRIs, and more and is availale now.
- Growth in Integrations – Payer, Diagnostics, Devices, Specialty Societies, Surgical Implant Manufacturers, and Life Sciences
- Real-Time Patient Flow Insights is coming soon to free up beds and decrease length of stay.
- New Underpayment Recovery Automation
- Medicaid Application Assistant – Knows the state specific Medicaid application fields and automatically populates the state Medicaid portal with a patient’s information. Also, reminds patients of redetermination when needed.
It’s always interesting when Carl Dvorak hops on stage to talk about Epic’s international growth. Although, this quote from Sue Sheridan, CEO at Patients for Patient Safety US, was actually one of the most insightful things he shared “Clinicians adopt AI at the speed of trust. Patients adopt it at the speed of desperation.” I’ll be chewing on that one for a while.
I also love that Judy always ends her talk with “Have fun and learn a lot.” That’s a good mantra for a lot of things in life.
That’s my roundup from Epic UGM. I probably missed a few things, but hopefully it gives you a good overview of what was shared. Let us know what you think of these announcements on social media.
No comments:
Post a Comment