Epic Agent Factory, a tool for Epic users to build their own AI agents, was announced this past January. Now, according to Derek De Young, Software Developer at Epic, the tool is moving into a new stage where Epic will quickly put it into the hands of their customers.
Agent Factory provides a platform to leverage 129 of the AI features in Epic. De Young describes three stages in its use. First, he expects organizations to shape existing AI features to the organization’s policies, guidelines, data, and workflows. Next, they will build new agentic features for revenue cycle management, clinical decision making, patient engagement, etc. In the future, Epic will expand the scope of Agent Factory to use external connectors and run on partner platforms outside Epic, including Care Everywhere.
At first, the developers who are expected to use Agent Factory will probably be senior analysts who best understand its potential, have a thorough understanding of what Epic already does, and where it could be expanded. Eventually, users might include clinicians and even back office workers. A conversational interface might be developed, and AI might be used to rewrite workflows. They plan to interact with the Medicaid submissions portal and other government sites.
Autonomy will differ for different applications of AI. Certainly, for the foreseeable future, any clinical decisions will be approved by a doctor or nurse. But some organizations are considering fully autonomous agents for some less critical functions such as routine billing. The AI agent itself tends to be able to rate its own confidence in its conclusions.
Because agents monitor their responses to every prompt, the tool is expected to improve continuously. Users can add their own evaluations.
A recent “buildathon” invited groups who had innovative suggestions to work with Epic developers. One of these, for instance, evaluates measles outbreaks and uses CDC guidelines to do outreach for vaccinations. Another application speeds up transfers to community hospitals. The agent makes sure that the important questions are asked, such as whether the patient is stable enough for the move and whether the community hospital has the necessary equipment. Successful agents can be added to a community library so they can be shared with other Epic customers.
Because Agent Factory is hosted in Nebula, Epic’s managed cloud, Epic can add 50 to 60 enhancements per week. Customers can benefit from those enhancements without an upgrade because Agent Factory takes place in Epic’s cloud.
Watch our interview with Derek De Young from Epic to learn more about Epic Agent Factory.
Learn more about Epic: https://www.epic.com/
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