Becker's Hospital Review

65 CIO / HEALTH IT What Epic has done since Oracle bought Cerner By Laura Dyrda O racle's $28.4 billion deal to buy Cerner and plans for a nationwide healthcare database have captured the attention of health IT executives since the deal was announced in December. But Epic, which has the largest hospital EHR market share, has also been active in the last six months. Epic reported $3.8 billion in revenue for 2021 and serves more than 430,000 hospi- tal beds, a net gain of 19,000 in the last two years. Worldwide, more than 285 million patients have electronic records in Epic, in- cluding 253 million Americans. e EHR giant has been busy installing EHRs within Walmart health clinics aer it signed a deal with the retailer last year. Sev- eral large health systems, including Naples, Fla.-based NCH Healthcare System and Kootenai Health in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, have converted their EHRs to Epic in the last six months as well. A big focus for both Cerner and Epic has been interoperability, aer federal govern- ment mandates went into effect. Epic said this month it will join the Trust Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, a new health information exchange network aiming to improve data interoperability. Epic will apply to become a qualified health in- formation network, giving its community of more than 2,000 hospitals and 45,000 clinics a chance to join the nationwide framework. e initiative seems to address many of the same goals Oracle's Chief Technology Offi- cer Larry Ellison outlined for the company's nationwide healthcare database powered by Cerner. Epic's Cosmos platform has also grown to in- clude data from about 800 hospitals, 10,000 clinics and 120 million patients. e data includes information from patients in rural and urban areas and across demographics to capture information about people from sev- eral socioeconomic backgrounds that aren't available in other datasets, according to Phil Lindemann, vice president of business intel- ligence and analytics at Epic. Clinicians and patients can use the data in Cosmos to see which treatments worked best for patients like them. "We're targeting the first-use cases — com- mon diagnoses like hypertension and dia- betes — within the next two years, and then we'll expand from there. We plan to imple- ment this in offices a bit more gradually than other applications and features we've devel- oped so that we can learn as we go and make sure that we're getting it right, because this has the potential to change the way practice is done completely," Mr. Lindemann told Becker's. Epic opened Cosmos up for broad research across all participants in the last year, and researchers used the information to detect higher incidences of myocarditis in children with COVID-19 than those who never had the virus. e company anticipates Cosmos could add to drug development in the future, in addition to other applications. Epic plans to strengthen the Cosmos platform this year. In March, Epic launched a soware service geared toward independent physicians. e company's Garden Plot gives independent physicians access to Epic's EHR so physician groups that don't have the full platform in- tegrated can still access the records for con- tinuity of care. Garden Plot is available to primary care and specialist groups with 40 or more providers. e company also strengthened its offerings for health systems in March, launching a customer relationship management system. e CRM, named Cheers, sends messages to patients who use Epic's MyChart portal about care and connects to healthcare pro- viders' phone systems to automatically pull up patient records when they call. Epic is also working on ambient voice tech- nology. Physicians are already using the technology, named Hey Epic!, for commands in their offices, and the company is working with physicians to bring its voice assistant into the exam room to pull lab results or growth chart information and queue up visit documentation. e company is working on a functionality to dra physicians' notes as well, based on conversations with patients. Finally, Epic has been working on its payer platform to help customers connect with pa- tients, reduce the administrative burden and foster value-based care. n Teladoc hires former Providence exec Mike Waters as COO By Naomi Diaz Teladoc named Mike Waters as chief operating officer. In this role, Mr. Waters will work with Jason Gorevic, CEO of Teladoc, on the company's overall operations and execution, according to a July 25 press release. He will also take responsibility for Teladoc's member services and relations, supply chain and provider network. Mr. Waters joins Teladoc from Renton, Wash.-based Providence, where he served as executive vice president and chief executive of the ambulatory care network. In this role, Mr. Waters oversaw the overall strategy and execution of the ambu- latory care network and created personalized, convenient, affordable health solutions for outpatient services. Mr. Waters will step into his new role July 25. n

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