Leaders at Epic have long been interested in artificial intelligence, but 2023 was the year that the EHR giant really looked into connecting both generative AI and ambient voice listening technology into its workflows.
Judy Faulkner has long been interested in AI's ability to save patients' lives. "I think where AI really works well is when there are so many things to think about that the human brain doesn't work as well as a machine," Ms. Faulkner said in a 2020 podcast. "There are many inputs – for example, the patient is deteriorating or has sepsis – that AI can alert healthcare givers to hours before they would have been able to recognize it on their own. And that's going to be saving a lot of lives – it already is."
Beyond the patient bedside, Epic has looked to utilize AI to help address the clinician's administrative workload. In March, Epic announced that it would use Microsoft's GPT-4 tool within its EHR. Seth Hain, senior vice president of research and development at Epic, said that the collaboration would "help physicians and nurses spend less time at the keyboard and to help them investigate data in more conversational, easy-to-use ways."
In August, Epic named generative AI company Abridge as its "Pal" in its "Partnership and Pals" program. The program is designed to integrate new technologies and companies within Epic's workflows. Abridge uses generative AI to speed up the documentation process. According to the company, the tool can save providers two hours per day on average
A week after partnering with Abridge, Talkdesk, an AI-powered cloud contact center, was named Epic's second "Pal." Through the partnership, Talkdesk's cloud platform will be integrated into Epic's Cheers CRM suite.
In May, Epic synced with Suki, an AI-powered ambient listening company that generates notes from clinician conversations.