Epic restructured its homepage on Saturday to advertise a new product: Epic TinDr.
The April Fools Day prank promoted a pretend smartphone app that enabled physicians and patients to select one another with Tinder-style swiping. The app would allow physicians and patients to search through profiles to determine interest. "If both parties swipe right, the patient and doctor can start chatting and set up an appointment," according to the website.
Epic's website, which has since been replaced with the company's standard homepage, included testimonials from fake physicians.
"I like being able to choose patients that I think will be a good fit," one testimonial said. "If a photo shows a patient posing next to a car, I usually swipe right. I like knowing that they're going to be able to make it to the appointment."
The website also boasted 70 percent of patients were drawn to the app in initial pilot testing, since the service "doesn't require the commitment of a traditional doctor-patient relationship." "If our first appointment bombs, I can keep swiping to find a different doctor," one patient testimonial said. "It empowers me to make decisions about my own care."