Epic Systems is celebrating 45 years of healthcare innovation by adhering to a principle it has upheld since its inception: building everything in-house, with patients and clinicians at the center.
Epic, founded in 1979 by Judith Faulkner in a Madison, Wis., basement, began by developing software to manage patient data in ambulatory care settings. Over the decades, the company has grown from a small startup into one of the most influential names in healthcare IT, supplying software to hospitals, health systems and patients around the world.
Where innovation began
Epic’s innovation journey began in 1979 with the launch of Chronicles, a patient-centered clinical system that introduced user-defined data elements — laying the groundwork for its data-driven philosophy.
The company expanded on that foundation in 1986 with a unified database that integrated clinical, billing and scheduling data. By 1992, it had introduced a graphical user interface-based EHR system.
A major shift occurred in 2000 with the debut of MyChart, which launched a new era in patient engagement.
“There wasn’t an integrated patient portal before then,” Leela Vaughn, vice president and sales executive at Epic told Becker’s. “Fast forward to 2025…we have 195 million active MyChart users.”
Innovation driven by direct experience
Epic uses an internal approach called “developer immersion” to help guide its innovation strategy. This initiative involves Epic developers shadowing healthcare professionals to better understand their needs and improve software.
“We’ve always believed that the software developers should talk directly with the people who will ultimately use the software — the physicians, the nurses, the schedulers, even the patients,” said Seth Howard, vice president of research and development at Epic. “The way that we approach innovation today is very similar to the way that we have approached it over the past 45 years.”
That approach led to nearly 27,000 days of on-site staff shadowing at hospitals and clinics in 2024 alone.
AI and the next chapter
When generative AI first emerged in late 2022, Epic quickly moved to integrate it into its platform.
“We saw the opportunity it [generative AI] had to support healthcare,” Mr. Howard said.
The company’s first AI use case was a tool called In Basket Art, which helps clinicians respond to MyChart messages.
“We introduced In-Basket Art in April 2023, just a few months after generative AI gained mainstream attention,” Mr. Howard said. “Since then, we’ve continued adding use cases. One example is AI charting. This system listens to conversations between clinicians and patients and then synthesizes the visit note, tees up orders and pulls relevant chart information — helping automate documentation.”
According to Epic, about 6.5 million notes are generated every month using this AI-powered tool.
“Overall, AI is supporting clinicians, improving patient experience and helping health systems from a financial standpoint,” Mr. Howard said, citing examples such as The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, using an AI tool in Epic to help document lung cancer early, and Northwestern Medicine in Chicago using a tool from Epic to help automate the appeals process by gathering necessary information after a claim denial.
“This is just the beginning — there are about 150 AI-related projects currently underway,” Mr. Howard said.
Looking ahead, he said Epic is entering its next phase of AI: agentic AI.
“While the first wave of AI focused on helping people work more efficiently, agentic AI is about identifying tasks that can be fully offloaded — like administrative work — and determining when AI can act autonomously,” Mr. Howard said. “Of course, appropriate guardrails are essential: knowing when to involve a clinician, when to seek patient input, and when AI can safely take action on its own.”
Despite its global footprint, Epic is aiming to continue operating with the same philosophy it began with.
“If you were to ask, what does success look like, it would be happy clinicians using the software, keeping their patients healthy and engaged,” Mr. Howard said.
