50 things to know about Epic

EHR vendor Epic Systems holds the largest market share for digital health records in hospitals.

Here are 50 things to know about Epic:

1. Epic was founded in 1979 by Judy Faulkner.
   
   
2. Epic is headquartered in Verona, Wis., with a campus known for its creatively designed, themed buildings.
   
   
3. Judy Faulkner is Epic's founder and current CEO. According to Forbes, Ms. Faulkner's net worth is $7.7 billion.
   
   
4. Epic is a private company, and Ms. Faulkner has expressed that she has no intention to take the company public or sell it.
   
   
5. Ms. Faulkner, 81, has all of Epic's voting shares and plans to transfer them to a trust governed by her family and several longtime employees upon her death.
   
   
6. Epic maintains electronic records for over 325 million patients.
   
   
7. Epic's suite of healthcare software products includes EpicCare ambulatory and inpatient EHRs, the MyChart patient portal, and revenue cycle management tools.
   
   
8. In 2023, Epic held 39.1% of the acute care hospital EHR market share, according to market intelligence firm KLAS Research.
   
   
9. Epic was the only EHR vendor to gain market share in 2023, according to KLAS. None of its competitors netted any hospitals or beds that year.
   
   
10. Epic now covers over half of acute multispecialty hospital beds in the U.S., with 51.5%, per KLAS. Its closest competitor, Oracle Health, covers 23.8%.
    
    
11. Epic is the market leader for health systems of all sizes, standalone hospitals with over 200 beds, academic medical centers, and children's hospitals, but trails in standalone hospitals with 26 to 200 beds (Meditech), one to 25 beds (Oracle Health), and specialty hospitals (Oracle Health), KLAS found.
    
    
12. Epic welcomed 19 new health system customers at its annual Users Group Meeting in August.
    
    
13. Big health systems switching to Epic include Pittsburgh-based UPMC, New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health, and Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health.
    
    
14. From 2017 to 2023, Epic picked up 633 U.S. hospital clients, per KLAS, followed by Oracle Cerner (57) and Meditech (15).
    
    
15. Some health IT observers have wondered if Epic is getting too big. Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan said the agency could get involved in an antitrust lawsuit filed by data startup Particle Health.
    
    
16. Epic implementations typically take years, but health systems can start going live with the EHR in a matter of months.
    
    
17. New Epic EHRs can range from tens of millions of dollars to over $1 billion depending on the size of the health system.
    
    
18. Epic is the EHR of choice for every health system on U.S. News & World Report's best hospitals list.
    
    
19. In 2023, Epic reported a revenue of $4.9 billion.
    
    
20. The company has a 14,000-person workforce.
    
    
21. Epic mainly hires employees using a standardized test.
    
    
22. In the past year, Epic received 370,000 job applications, hiring just over 2,000 new employees.
    
    
23. MyChart is the No. 1 healthcare app with 190 million users. Many people now have a MyChart account from birth, including 40% of newborns and 580,000 babies under the age of 1.
    
    
24. More than 90% of medical students and residents train on Epic.
     
25. Epic works with health systems to test and launch new features in real-world settings.
    
    
26. Epic has an international footprint, with customers in countries such as Canada, Australia and the U.K.
    
    
27. Epic has never invested in another company's product or acquired another company, and Ms. Faulkner has indicated that the EHR vendor has no plans to do so in the future.
    
    
28. Epic has also never accepted venture capital funding.
    
    
29. Epic has its own research division known as Epic Research, which was originally established as the Epic Health Research Network in 2020 before being rebranded to its current name.
    
    
30. In 2019, the company launched Cosmos, a clinical informatics network that allows health systems to share and clean insights from anonymous patient data. The database now contains 270 million deidentified patient records.
    
    
31. Epic is also expanding into the payer, precision medicine and specialty labs spaces.
    
    
32. In the past year, 78 million clinicians changed an order for a medication based on an advisory in Epic.
    
    
33. Epic has a partnership with tech giant Microsoft. The two companies are working on developing an artificial intelligence solution that uses ambient technology to streamline nursing documentation.
    
    
34. Epic said it plans to have its entire customer base committed to the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement by the end of 2024, ensuring full participation in this government-endorsed medical records exchange by 2025.
    
    
35. While Epic said it committed to improving interoperability, through efforts like TEFCA and MyChart's Care Anywhere, some rivals have accused the company of holding back healthcare data exchange.
    
    
36. Epic has asked for changes to a proposed HHS interoperability rule.
    
    
37. Epic is moving heavily into the AI space, with more than 100 generative AI applications either having been released or in development. AI now generates over 1 million MyChart draft messages a month, while AI charting is live on Epic at over 180 organizations.
    
    
38. Epic has also integrated AI-powered clinical documentation tools from Abridge and Microsoft's Nuance into its EHR.
    
    
39. Some nurses, however, have been critical of Epic's AI tools, saying that humans would make better choices.
41. About 7,000 customers annually attend Epic's Users Group Meeting at its Wisconsin headquarters.
    
    
42. Epic had its largest-ever go-live at London-based Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, with 45,000 users, in October 2023.
    
    
43. Epic has the largest hospital EHR market share in the world after adding big contracts in Canada and Australia in 2023, according to KLAS.
    
    
44. Epic recently added, for the hospital setting, AI monitoring for cameras to help detect patients' fall risk and in-room experience hardware including smart TVs equipped with MyChart.
    
    
45. Epic has dozens of new products in the works, including a staff scheduling app for physicians and nurses, real-time insurance eligibility checks, and AI agents for MyChart.
    
    
46. Epic's EHR got its name from the word for a Greek poem, or "a glorious recounting of events," in this case the story of a patient, according to Ms. Faulkner.
    
    
47. In January, Epic released its new Showroom platform to connect customers with digital tools that work with its EHR.
    
    
48. In July, Epic said individuals will be able to securely share their health data with apps of their choice, allowing patients to import their health records directly into platforms like health coaching or medication reminder apps using their Epic login credentials.
    
    
49. Epic also has a life sciences program to help healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies and medical manufacturers recruit research participants. 
    
    
50. The EHR vendor even has a place for vendors to showcase their interoperability capabilities with Epic software.
    
    
51. Epic has committed to the Biden administration's "Enhancing Oncology Model," a CMS initiative under the Cancer Moonshot aimed at reducing costs, improving patient-centered care, and enhancing outcomes for cancer patients.