Epic's Deep Space Hall during UGM 2024.
Courtesy of: Epic Systems
In an underground hall packed with thousands of health care executives this week, Epic Systems CEO Jody Faulkner took the stage to deliver a keynote speech dressed as a swan, feathers and all.
Even by the unofficial standards of the tech industry (take Nvidia For example, Faulkner’s outfit may have confused some first-time attendees (e.g., CEO Jensen Hwang’s signature leather jacket). But for many healthcare industry veterans and Epic employees, it was business as usual—a sign that the annual Epic User Group meeting was officially underway. One topic stood out during the healthcare company’s event Tuesday: how new AI features can help doctors and patients.
Epic is a healthcare software giant whose technology is used in thousands of hospitals and clinics across the United States. The company holds the medical records of more than 280 million people in the United States, though patients often store their data with multiple vendors.
Witches and animals
Every year, thousands of people flock to Epic’s headquarters in Verona, Wisconsin, to hear about its latest products and initiatives. UGM is one of the company’s largest annual campus events, and CNBC was in attendance at the festivities on Tuesday.
Epic’s 1,670-acre campus is dotted with farm animals, statues of witches, and buildings themed to Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz. Fittingly, this year’s conference had a “storytime” theme, and Faulkner and other Epic executives spoke dressed as characters from various children’s books.
There was no shortage of comedic skits and anthems as they shared updates across Epic's key products, including its offerings like MyChart, an app patients can use to access their medical records, and Cosmos, an anonymized patient dataset that doctors can use for research.
Seth Hein, Epic's SVP of R&D, speaks at UGM 2024.
Courtesy of: Epic Systems
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Many of Epic’s announcements have centered around how the company is integrating AI into these products. Faulkner said the company has more than 100 AI features in development, though many of the tools are still in the early stages of development.
For example, by the end of this year, Epic said its generative AI will help doctors transcribe text messages, messages and instructions into plain language that patients can understand. Doctors will also be able to use AI to automatically order prescriptions and labs, the company said.
Many doctors have to perform time-consuming tasks like drafting appeal letters for insurance denials and reviewing prior authorization requirements, so Epic said it is working to introduce AI tools that can streamline these processes this year.
By the end of 2025, Epic’s generative AI will be able to pull together results, medications and other details a doctor might need when responding to a patient’s message through MyChart, the company said. Other specific features, such as using AI to calculate wound measurements from images, will be available next year as well.
Epic has announced plans to launch a new staff scheduling app for doctors and nurses called “Teamwork,” which is coming soon. Additionally, Faulkner said Epic is “looking at” how to make it easier to submit claims directly through its software, without the need for an intermediary like a clearinghouse. If Epic succeeds, it could represent a major change in the way insurance claims are processed across the healthcare industry.
It's not yet known whether these features will come to fruition — and whether healthcare systems will actually use them — but Epic wrapped up its presentation Tuesday with a high-level demo of where the company believes its technology can go.
the future
Seth Hein, Epic’s senior vice president of research and development, facilitated the demo. He spoke to the AI agent through the MyChart app about his recovery from the supposed wrist surgery and answered questions about his pain. The agent instructed Hein to open the camera and bend his wrist backward so she could assess his recovery progress. The agent said Hein’s wrist extension was about 60 to 75 degrees, meaning his recovery was ahead of schedule, compared to data from similar patients in Epic’s Cosmos database.
Hein asked the agent if he could start playing pickleball again, and the agent told him he would “have to wait a little longer” before doing so.
In a post-show meeting with reporters, Hein said the demo was happening in real time without human intervention. However, the capability is so new that Epic has yet to give it a name, and Hein said it will likely be a few years before it becomes more widely available.
“It's very, very early to know how and where society, the broader medical community, will embrace this kind of thing, but it's doable,” he said.
