Epic

Legend says that the size of the bands on the woolly bear caterpillar is proportional to the severity of the coming winter. Looks like we’re in for a moderate winter!

More people in the United States die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer despite breakthroughs in research, diagnostics, and treatments.    Education, training, and awareness are crucial in overcoming lung cancer treatment barriers, such as lack of knowledge, absence of symptoms, fear of positive results, and guilt due to social stigma. To address these challenges, researchers at University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center are developing a lung cancer screening eligibility tool.   Through this initiative, patients will get screened for smoking, easily obtain a lung cancer screening referral, and work with a tobacco treatment specialist to come up with a personalized treatment strategy. https://lnkd.in/gaMMvvKA

Patients seeking approval for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) must provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) with medical records, and they often submit their records through mail or fax, increasing the time until they get approved and the likelihood that they omit required information.    Using Epic, Access Community Health Network (ACCESS) has implemented a program for patients to exchange their records electronically with the SSA. Through this framework, patients have seen their typical application processing reduced by almost 50%, helping alleviate a significant financial challenge for patients and cutting down on administrative burden for ACCESS’s Patient Benefits team.    Nice work, ACCESS!

Many health system visits require patients to provide their insurance ID cards during registration—a process which can increase registration time and cause headaches for patients. UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Elevance Health, Highmark, Independence Blue Cross, and Aetna, a CVS Health Company are using Epic Payer Platform to send digital member ID cards directly from payer to provider. By streamlining the ID exchange process, administrative burden is reduced and the patient experience is simplified. The ID card image is also visible in the patient’s MyChart as soon as their provider has it on file. In the month of September, the Payer Platform network exchanged about 930,000 ID cards. The effort is led by UnitedHealthcare and Humana on the payer side, who have sent providers over 2 million and 1.4 million ID cards respectively since the beginning of 2025. 

Early detection plays a vital part in reducing cancer mortality, yet it’s estimated that about half of cancer cases still remain undiagnosed until advanced stages.     While industry guidelines recommend identifying candidates based on personal and family cancer history, fewer than 30% of eligible individuals undergo testing, with rates even lower among underserved populations.    Yale New Haven Health and Yale University created a tool within Epic to identify patients who were a good fit for genetic testing. It automatically flagged around 60,000 patients as being at risk for inherited cancer, 79% of whom had never had any prior genetic evaluation and therefore might otherwise have been missed.    Compared to previous methods, this tool has been especially effective at identifying more at-risk people from underserved communities, who typically face barriers to quality healthcare.    Using Cheers, Epic’s CRM suite, Yale sends out a campaign to qualifying patients asking if they’d like to receive a test. Upon opting in, the system automatically places a lab order and sends instructions for how to complete the test, via MyChart.    Across one campaign instance, 8.5% of contacted patients signed up for testing and 16% of tested patients had cancer-related genetic mutations.    https://lnkd.in/ePC2tC7s  

Home monitoring is more than just convenience. It’s reshaping how care is delivered.    Spaarne Gasthuis achieved a 70% reduction in hospital consults for patients enrolled in their new Thuismonitoring (Home Monitoring) Center. The program allows patients with stable or chronic conditions, such as rheumatology or gestational diabetes, to complete check-ups at home through questionnaires and lab results tracking.     Both patients and providers are seeing the benefits, proving how powerful digital care can be.  Read more: https://lnkd.in/gn8GFzn2

KLAS Research’s annual Points of Light awards celebrate strategic payer and provider collaborations that reduce administrative burden for payers and providers, streamline revenue cycle processes, and improve the member experience. This year, six were awarded to members of the Epic community, including two of the three voted most impactful.  Texas Health Resources saw reduced registration times and clerical errors after working with Humana to automate the registration process. Additionally, Ballad Health reduced the amount of time they spent processing prior authorizations after electronic medical prior authorization was implemented within Epic, helping patients receive timely care. Congratulations, everyone!

Today we welcomed nearly 1000 experts from around the world to the Open@Epic conference where we shared new ways to connect with Epic. The goal: easier patient-driven app connections and an elevated app developer experience. Here are some highlights:  - MyChart Central gives patients a single sign-on and the ability to share data from multiple organizations with the apps of their choosing - Increased MyChart Connectivity using the Bluetooth Generic Health Sensor spec for easier connections with patients’ home devices - The Clarity Data Model is now available for app developers to license  - More Public APIs to further facilitate meaningful data exchange - A Five-Step Guide to help new developers bring their ideas to life - 40+ Developer Playbooks highlighting recommended workflows & tech for common data exchange patterns - Expanding Sandbox Testing Capabilities for developers to generate test data and review API call results https://lnkd.in/euDCJwCA

An industry first: Quest’s nationwide lab network will use Epic’s integrated system—bringing faster results, simpler scheduling, and clearer insights. For providers, standardized data across Quest’s network will bring greater transparency into the testing process and results that are easier to interpret and share with patients. A single comprehensive test list for providers across the country will make results easier to understand and trend. And after a test is ordered, MyChart will make it simpler for patients to find and schedule visits. https://lnkd.in/ePNepfcM

Mount Sinai Medical Center has become the first organization to implement the Spanish-language version of Art, the AI for clinicians.     Art works to reduce administrative burden by using generative AI to draft suggested replies to MyChart messages. Art is designed to lower the time it takes to respond to patients, and providers can still review and edit messages before sending.    Nearly a third of Mount Sinai’s patients speak Spanish as their primary language, so it's no surprise that they’re playing a pivotal role in advancing AI support for multilingual care as collaborators and first adopters of this new version of Art. By making digital communication more accessible and inclusive, they are delivering more personalized care and building trust with their Spanish-speaking patients.    Read more: https://lnkd.in/ev2yyVgV