What Epic has in store for 2022: 4 things to know

The expansion of its data mining tool Cosmos, enhancing ambient voice capabilities of its Hey Epic! Platform and recruiting more patients for clinical trials are among the key business strategies for EHR vendor Epic in 2022.

Here's the rundown of what the vendor has planned for this year:

Cosmos Expansion

Cosmos, a program that mines data from patient records at various health systems, has reached more than 130 million patient records, and in 2022, Epic plans to strengthen Cosmos' impact on clinical practice by expanding research tools and supporting deep data analysis. 

"Epic Research, which studies Cosmos data, is expanding its scope and using close-to-real-time data to help the public health community speed up the surveillance of and response to diseases other than COVID-19," Jackie Gerhart, MD, of the clinical informatics team at Epic told Becker's. "This work will build on the previous briefs you’ve seen about COVID-19, cancer screenings, and pediatric lead exposure."

Best Care for My Patient will also utilize the same Cosmos dataset to help physicians advance evidence-based medicine at the point of care. By drawing from the experiences of millions of patients, physicians will gain more insight into the needs of the individual patients they see each day, according to Dr. Gerhart. 

Hey Epic!

Epic is focused on enhancing the patient-provider experience through Hey Epic! and ambient voice. 

"Physicians are already using Hey Epic! for commands in their offices, and we’re excited to see them bring the assistant into the exam room as a care collaborator," Dr. Gerhart said. "This could include asking Hey Epic! to pull up a lab result or growth chart to facilitate a conversation, to queue up visit documentation or to communicate with the care team."

Dr. Gerhart told Becker's that ambient voice could expand the role of the hands-free assistant by anticipating clinicians’ needs and drafting documentation. The company is actively working on functionality that will draft physicians’ notes based on their conversations with their patients. 

Payer Platform

In 2022, Epic is focused on helping its customers connect patients to the broader health grid. 

"With Payer Platform, our customers are already reducing administrative burden while working together to close care gaps and support value-based care. It’s exciting to see payer-provider collaboration evolve," Jim McDermott, software developer for Payer Platform at Epic told Becker's.

Clinical Trials

Epic also plans to focus part of its 2022 business strategy in clinical trials. 

"In the research space, we’re working to help more patients enroll in clinical trials, help more health systems — including smaller, rural organizations — conduct those trials, and help researchers make effective treatments available sooner," Noah Nuechterlein, clinical researcher and developer at Epic, told Becker's.

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