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John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | September 01, 2023
Epic is developing generative AI solutions with Microsoft.
At its annual Users Group Meeting in late August, Epic gave attendees an inside look at a few of the generative AI solutions it is developing with Microsoft to offset labor, financial, and other exhausting challenges currently plaguing the healthcare industry.
The two have integrated the conversational, ambient, and generative AI capabilities of Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service and Nuance DAX Express systems within Epic’s EHR platform to automate and simplify cumbersome administrative tasks for clinicians and staff, expecting these joint capabilities to relieve burdens created by nationwide physician shortages, burnout, and exorbitant administrative costs.
Here are four of those potential innovations:
- Summarizing notes faster: With In Basket, Epic’s AI-assisted hub for managing and communicating task progress, Microsoft’s solutions will suggest text to clinicians and facilitate rapid reviews with in-context summaries to make documenting medical information faster.
- Quicker clinician workflow: Microsoft subsidiary Nuance Communications is the creator of Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX), which automatically documents in-office and telehealth visits. Microsoft has now integrated it into Epic’s Hyperdrive platform, a client application that facilitates integrations with other products, and its Haiku mobile application, which provides authorized clinical Epic EHR users with secure access to clinic schedules, patient lists, health summaries, test results, and notes. This creates more organized, thorough collections of information and reduces challenging, complex steps in day-to-day workflow.
- Streamlined medical coding: Using generative AI, the two have created an AI-powered solution that utilizes clinical EHR documentation to make suggestions to coders for accurate coding and billing, streamlining the process.
- Filling in the gaps: Epic’s SliceDicer is a self-service reporting tool that enables users to collect and use data to customize unique searches for information. With this solution, an initial set of users are currently applying Azure OpenAI Service to fill gaps in clinical evidence using real-world data and to research rare diseases and other conditions.
