Flurry of AI, Partnerships, and New Features Announced at Epic UGM

The theme of this 12 months’s Epic Consumer Group Assembly (UGM) was Castaway which was impressed by each the Tom Hank’s film in addition to earlier fare like Gilligan’s Island. A extra acceptable theme might have been the Quick and Livid films given the quick tempo of bulletins from senior firm leaders on Day 2 of the occasion.

Wearing a brightly coloured “island survivor“ outfit which was completely on-theme, Epic CEO Judy Faulkner strode onto the UGM stage to ship her keynote handle to the amassed viewers of 38,000 prospects and staff (digital + in-person). Her hour-long speech was full of updates.

Generative AI

Sprinkled by Faulkner’s opening handle have been a number of bulletins associated to generative AI, the expertise that has captivated the world. Epic has or will deploy generative AI capabilities within the following areas:

1. In-Baskets. AI will generate drafts of responses to in-basket gadgets for clinicians so as a substitute of getting to hand-craft responses from scratch, they’ll merely modify what the AI creates. Early response has been optimistic with some sufferers commenting how the generated responses are extra empathetic than prior communications.
2. Ambient Scientific Notes. Powered by Microsoft/Nuance’s DAX resolution.
3. Explaining Medical Payments. An AI-powered chatbot might be accessible sooner or later by Epic’s Whats up World platform that can assist clarify advanced medical payments to sufferers.
4. Observe Summaries. For each clinicians and researchers, AI might be used to create summaries of notes.
5. Coding and Billing. AI might be used to make solutions to coders based mostly on what it finds within the medical report.
6. Uncommon Illness analysis. AI embedded inside Epic will in the future be capable to extra shortly determine sufferers who’ve comparable signs and different traits which is able to speed up analysis of uncommon illnesses.

These matched an announcement from Epic’s companion Microsoft which dropped earlier within the day.

Revamped Partnership Program

Throughout her keynote, Faulkner unveiled Epic’s new partnership program, dubbed “Showroom”. Showroom replaces  the corporate’s app market which was shut down in December of final 12 months.

Inside Showroom are 4 distinct partnership classes (be aware: not ranges) for third-party distributors:

• Member Providers for established integrations offering complementary worth. There aren’t any companions on this class but, however Faulkner indicated there might be many within the weeks forward.
• Friends for corporations with new merchandise in new key areas (learn: corporations with promising applied sciences in areas the place Epic doesn’t presently have an answer). There are presently two corporations on this class. Abridge presents generative AI for medical documentation and was the primary firm named to the “Friends” class.  Talkdesk, makers of a contact-center-as-a-service platform is the opposite firm.
• Companions for established market leaders in particular areas. Nuance is an organization on this class. They’ve been working to tightly combine their ambient medical voice resolution, DAX, with Epic for numerous years.  PressGaney can be on this class as an answer supplier for shopper satisfaction surveys.
• Cornerstone Companions for merchandise Epic makes use of in key methods of their software program. Two long-time Epic companions are this class – InterSystems and Microsoft

In a written statement, Alan Hutchinson – Vice President at Epic had this to say: “The Companions and Friends program creates new worth for healthcare by curating distinctive collaborations. Epic works with corporations like Abridge to develop deep integration for his or her services and products, serving to them innovate shortly for the good thing about extra sufferers and suppliers.”

Epic Product Enhancements

After Faulkner’s keynote, numerous Epic leaders received on stage to current updates and make bulletins for his or her particular merchandise. These bulletins have been rapid-fire and met with applause from the viewers:

• Slider Dicer NLP layer to permit researchers and clinicians to question the info utilizing pure language like they’d when speaking to a colleague vs particular question language, accessible now
• URL Shortning & Engagement monitoring for Cheers (Epic’s CRM), powered by Whats up World, coming in November 2023
• Epic Gallery – a brand new module for doc administration (medical and non medical paperwork), coming November 2023
• Conversational SMS for ticket scheduling, coming in Feb 2024
• Employees Scheduling and Optimization module – beginning with Surgeons after which onto nurses, coming November 2024
• Automated UI optimization – the system will robotically rearranges the structure based mostly on how you employ the system in order that it optimizes efficiency and ease of use, coming 2024
• AI for operational optimization – the system will optimize operational capability to maximise utilization of sources like ORs and can also make suggestions to surgeons on the optimum time for procedures based mostly on availability of different sources + affected person acuity, coming sooner or later
• Infusion templates and scheduling – the system will scan previous appointment patterns and upcoming affected person bookings to optimize scheduling of sources, coming sooner or later
• Optimizing size of keep by prioritizing duties and sources based mostly on previous patterns and greatest practices, coming sooner or later

Editor’s be aware: This text was up to date on 24 August 2023 with extra data on Epic’s new partnership program. Particulars on the general identify of this system, “Showroom” was added.