A Deep Dive Into the Announcements at Epic UGM 2025

For those who’re on LinkedIn and you’re employed in well being IT, you then’ve actually seen everybody sharing their ideas, views, and emotions in regards to the current Epic UGM convention.  Little question it’s a significant occasion when you concentrate on what number of customers Epic has throughout the nation and the world.

Very long time readers will learn about my love and affection for consumer conferences and Epic’s UGM is not any exception.  Bringing collectively customers is all the time highly effective.  Plus, Epic sort of lays out the roadmap for the 12 months at UGM which is all the time insightful.  Actually, Judy began off her keynote speaking about what number of bulletins had been made eventually 12 months’s UGM and the way a big majority of them had been accomplished with many nonetheless in progress and solely a handful of them had been cancelled.

Whereas I’m certain it’s going to by no means change whereas Judy remains to be main Epic, Verona is just not the perfect place for a convention.  I met one one that had a 6 AM flight in Chicago (2 hours away).  That’s simply not secure, however I digress.  A minimum of downtown Madison is enjoyable because you see Epic customers all over the place you go in Madison at evening.  Plus, I did get some superb cheese curds.  The rain did put a little bit of a damper on issues too, however it was solely dangerous the primary day I used to be there.

As press I used to be in a position to attend the primary opening keynote that I feel known as the Cool Stuff keynote the place they share all of the cool stuff that’s taking place.  Then, we had a media Q&A with some Epic specialists after which we may attend some periods.  Though, I used to be in a position to do some video interviews as an alternative of periods which we’ll share over the following few weeks.

Judy all the time kicks off the keynote and I heard a number of folks say how superb it’s that she’s doing every thing she’s doing after having simply celebrated her 82nd birthday.  There’s no signal she’s slowing down since I feel Epic is her ardour.  Though, she did battle a bit with a frog in her throat which involved some.

Kicking off the keynote Judy provided up these efforts behind the work Epic is doing:

1. Assist clinicians love their jobs
2. Assist healthcare organizations keep finanically sturdy
3. Assist sufferers be wholesome

I’ve heard some on-line complaints that the sufferers shouldn’t be third on the checklist.  I don’t consider this checklist was completed in precedence order.  I feel it was simply three main objectives for Epic and displays the issues they hear most from their clients.  Whereas actually one may argue that Epic may do extra for sufferers, there’s one other slide (Aspect Notice: We weren’t allowed to take or share photos from the keynote, so I can’t share it) that was proven a number of instances that exhibits the affected person on the middle of every thing that Epic does.

After Judy’s opening, Sumit Rana got here out to share his perspective on the place Epic was heading and the way Epic was approaching innovation.  Many consider that Rana is the inheritor obvious to interchange Judy as CEO, however that’s all hypothesis since Judy is maintaining that information near the chest.  Nonetheless, the truth that he got here out after Judy might be a superb indication of his significance within the group.

In Rana’s presentation, he provided a very attention-grabbing framework for a way Epic is approaching the software program they’re constructing:

• Get rid of
• Automate
• Increase
• Rework

I want I’d been in a position to seize the entire examples he gave for every, however I do keep in mind he recommended that prior auth could be an ideal instance of Get rid of since that work doesn’t add any worth.

Rana additionally provided a good less complicated approach of how Epic is approaching improvement when he talked about “Software program that assists” all the best way to “Software program that carries out duties.”  I feel it’s secure to say that a lot of the AI in use at the moment is software program that assists which is sweet, however software program that may perform duties is what is going to actually rework healthcare.

Shifting previous a few of their broader views, right here’s a take a look at among the greater gadgets that had been talked about on stage at Epic’s UGM 2025 after which I’ll share some fast hit gadgets as nicely.  And my apologies prematurely for the size, however I used to be making an attempt to channel my internal Brendan Keeler (he’s the grasp of lengthy posts).

AI Medical Scribe – AI Charting – AI Assistant

All of the speak of the city going into Epic UGM was rumors that Epic was going to announce their very own AI Medical Scribe (Ambient Medical Voice/EHR AI Assistant) answer to compete with all the opposite AI medical scribe solutions on the market.  Seems that Judy sort of made it a non-event throughout the keynote by simply primarily saying that an Epic native AI charting is underneath improvement in partnership with Microsoft and can be obtainable early subsequent 12 months.

I after all wanted to know extra, so I requested throughout the media Q&A lunch if this was principally Epic white labeling the Microsoft-Nuance DAX-Copilot (I feel it’s formally known as Microsoft Dragon Copilot now, however it’s gone by quite a few totally different names) or in the event that they had been doing one thing extra past what Dragon Copilot provided.   I assume they had been anticipating the query since Epic’s response was to learn the next assertion:

Epic’s native AI Charting is being developed, and we anticipate that it is going to be prepared for restricted use by early subsequent 12 months. Epic is doing the listening, utilizing Haiku and Canto. Microsoft provides Epic with Dragon Ambient AI know-how–transcription and diarization, in addition to necessary notice parts. Epic then takes all of that to create the ultimate notice and go to documentation.

Clients can use different third events to do Ambient AI as they do at the moment.

Microsoft put out their very own announcement on LinkedIn which does sort of describe that Epic is constructing a brand new AI charting functionality with some Dragon parts.  I’ll allow you to learn each statements and see what you surmise about what Epic goes to do.  Plus, I’ll save my very own commentary on what all this implies for the AI Medical Scribe house for future articles and podcasts.

Nonetheless, I used to be curious if Microsoft was planning to proceed to supply DAX/Copilot individually from Epic or when you wanted to undergo Epic to get it as soon as it launches.  Sadly, Microsoft’s PR particular person replied that they didn’t have something additional to share right now.  I assume that in all probability means they’re nonetheless making an attempt to determine it out.

Little question, we’ll be looking ahead to this to be rolled out subsequent 12 months and can have loads of dialogue about it between at times.

Cosmos and Cosmos AI

Probably the most ahead pondering and doubtlessly transformative bulletins at Epic UGM was Cosmos AI.  Seth Hain shared how Epic has taken among the Epic information and primarily created their very own LLM.  Right here’s what it consists of at the moment:

• 8 billion encounters
• 136 billion tokens
• 1 billion parameters

They usually’re simply getting began. Hain shared that they’re publishing a paper with a crew from Yale known as Generative Medical Event Models Improve with Scale.  I haven’t had an opportunity to have a look at it but, however it highlights among the work they’re doing.

What was most spectacular about this LLM was that the fashions that it created had been performing higher than most of the machine studying fashions that had been on the market already.  Plus, this one LLM was in a position to clear up all kinds of challenges whereas many different fashions needed to be goal constructed for very particular conditions.

For sure it’s early within the improvement of Cosmos AI, however he gave an ideal instance of the way it could possibly be used to evaluate a sufferers danger for sure ailments.  May we use that to enhance the care {that a} affected person is receiving?

Cosmos AI Lab is coming quickly and can be obtainable just like the best way they rolled out Cosmos.  Researchers can get entry to it and assist to form the methods the Cosmos AI can be built-in into Epic.  I’m excited to see what insights we will discover once we create an LLM from the huge quantity of information obtainable.

Shifting beyong Cosmos AI, Cosmos is performing some actually attention-grabbing issues already.  Seems {that a} database of 300 million distinctive sufferers and 16 billion encounters is highly effective.  Right here’s a take a look at a few of what’s obtainable in Cosmos:

• Greatest care selections – We discovered about this final 12 months.  Will probably be obtainable to Cosmos contributors within the Nov 2025 launch
• Look-alikes – This was highlighted final 12 months, however is now obtainable to those that contribute to Cosmos. Try among the utilization numbers:
  • 900,000 clinicians at the moment are taking part within the Look-Alikes community
  • 92% of queries discover a match
  • 10,700 matches thus far
• Uncommon Illness Progress Charts
• Surgical patient-reported outcomes
• Antibiogram

I used to be additionally actually intrigued when Sumit Rana recommended that Cosmos could possibly be used to supply guardrails for AI.  It is sensible that if AI suggests one thing, you may test the actual world proof within Cosmos to see if the information strains up.

In Judy’s keynote, she additionally highlighted Epicresearch.org and their efforts to try to publish one thing new weekly.

Different Epic AI

Shifting past the most popular AI on the market, AI medical scribes, Judy talked about that Epic is engaged on 160-200 AI initiatives (one time she stated 160-190).  That’s up from 100 AI initiatives talked about final 12 months.  She additionally recommended that as an alternative of utilizing the time period AI, she most popular to name it Healthcare Intelligence.  We’ll see if that branding sticks.

Judy additionally introduced what is actually three classes of AI options with their names:

• Artwork – We’ve identified about Artwork earlier than, however it’s now expanded to incorporate all their AI assistant options for clinicians.
• Emmie – That is Epic’s AI assistant for Sufferers.
• Penny – That is Epic’s AI assistant for RCM (Income Cycle Administration) – (Aspect Notice: Judy was tickled on the identify Penny)

Artwork seemes prefer it’s probably the most developed of the three and presents clinicians assist with the next:

• AI summaries contextualized – Nov 2026
• Digital colleague – Nov 2026
• Evaluate information – Nov 2026
• Take motion – Nov 2026
• Actual time authorization – Future
• Knowledgeable by cosmos – Future
• Chat with Artwork – Nov 2026
• Straightforward wrap up – future
• AI chart written notes (See above about AI medical scribes)

Emmie is Epic’s Digital Assistant for sufferers and consists of the next:

• Proactive outreach and pictures – Mar 2026
• Future screenings  – 2026
• Energetic engagement – Nov 2026
• Invoice pay and cost plans
• Ticket scheduling with SMS
• Rescheduling with SMS
• Voice Agent (Coming within the Future)

Listening to about Emmie.  I received’t be shocked if this turns into a sort of LLM for sufferers that may use their very own private information in a non-public and safe approach versus ChatGPT, Gemini, and so on which aren’t safe.

Penny is Epic’s Digital Assistant for RCM and consists of the next:

• Outpatient Denials Appeals AI Assistant
• Autonomous Coding (Coming in Nov 2026) – Beginning with ED and Radiology
• Automated Claims Observe-Up (Coming in Nov 2026)

It undoubtedly didn’t seem like they had been providing a complete take a look at every thing that Artwork, Emmie, and Penny are in a position to do and what they’re going to do.  Plus, there’s a superb probability I missed some gadgets, however not less than this offers you a taste of the place their AI assistant efforts are headed.

I do assume it was attention-grabbing throughout Sumit Rana’s portion that he provided these ideas for Epic customers in terms of the entire AI options which can be heading their approach:

1. Keep curious and study new methods to make use of AI
2. Reassess danger tolerance for every space
3. Know your pioneers
4. Repeatedly study and adapt
5. Sustain the urgency

New Epic UI

One of many issues that I feel lots of people in all probability missed is that Epic gave a fairly good view at what the longer term UI of Epic goes to be with most of it rolling out in November 2026.  The way in which it was introduced was how AI was being built-in into the move of an ambulatory go to.  It had a sort of affected person plan that included the objectives for that go to that the physician walked by.  Plus, AI was built-in into the screens to permit for entry to the sufferers document utilizing AI and naturally entry to varied elements of Cosmos.  Epic additionally previewed a sort of related revamp of the consumer interface for nurses on the acute care aspect as nicely.

Sadly, with out photos and video, it’s sort of arduous to explain every thing they confirmed on display.  Nonetheless, I feel it’s secure to say that Epic’s UI is getting a facelift with AI powering so many components of the brand new UI.

On the affected person aspect, they’re nonetheless going to have entry to all their identical MyChart options, however the affected person UI goes to alter as nicely.  Epic shared {that a} digital concierge is coming in Nov 2025 which can be attention-grabbing for sufferers.  Though, I used to be extra intrigued by the Preventative Care Reminders that Epic is planning to roll out in Feb 2026.  They described it as a centralized to do checklist for sufferers.  Little question Emmie goes to rework the MyChart interface as nicely.

New Sofware – ERP, Medical Trials, and A lot Extra

Most likely one of many greatest bulletins at Epic UGM was that Epic goes all in on constructing an ERP designed for healthcare and naturally built-in with the Epic EHR (By the best way, Judy needs to drop the digital off EHR since she says it’s redundant now).  Nonetheless, Judy additionally described their efforts to construct a medical trials platform in addition to all kinds of different options.

Right here’s a fast take a look at these two huge ones and quite a few different options on the Epic roadmap:

Epic Ops – A Healthcare-Centered, Natively Built-in ERP

Little question quite a lot of clients have been wanting an built-in ERP that labored nicely with Epic.  They highlighted the plain instance of getting your provide chain administration efforts be built-in instantly into the provides obtainable in Epic (Desire Card).  The identical is true for issues like worker onboarding and scheduling which can be helpful whenever you’re scheduling issues like ORs in Epic.

This can be a huge endeavor for Epic.  Will probably be attention-grabbing to see how lengthy it takes them to construct out the entire ERP performance that’s wanted in healthcare.  Their timeline for the preliminary items is out by center of Could 2027.  Right here’s what they’re presently for a roadmap for the EpicOps ERP with solely Teamwork being obtainable at the moment.

• Workforce – Employees Scheduling (Teamwork), Time & Attendance, Credentialing, Human Assets, Payroll
• Provide Chain – Merchandise Catalog, Stock Administration, Procurement, Contract Administration, Vendor Administration
• Financials – Common Ledger, Value Accounting, Budgeting, Money and Financial institution, Accounts Payable

The one I discover most attention-grabbing is EpicOps for credentialing.  That’s a giant problem since onboarding suppliers is so necessary, however there are some huge corporations making use of quite a lot of know-how to this drawback.  Will probably be attention-grabbing to see if Epic can compete with them.

Ahead for Medical Trials Administration

Judy commented on many individuals asking them to create a medical trials platform and their response was all the time that there have been already platforms on the market.  Nonetheless, now they see a possibility to do one thing a bit of totally different.

• Finish-to Finish Medical Trials in One System
  • Get Research Began
  • Run Research
  • Handle Funds
• Out there to Early adopters in November 2026

Different New Modules and Software program:

• Blood Financial institution – This was first talked about final 12 months.
• Cell and Gene Remedy
• Group Registries Platform – This will have gotten the largest cheer from the group.  Submitting to registries is so time consuming.  Try this video I did about automating just perinatal risk assessements to see what I imply.
• Diagnostics Picture Alternate – Will Epic be at RSNA this 12 months?
• Digital Fetal Monitoring
• Digital Prior Auths for Drugs – Undoubtedly going to be an attention-grabbing house to look at.  Each payer wants to handle digital prior auths and I ponder if their reply can be Epic Payer Platform.
• Embryology
• Whats up World for Non-Us Teams
• Clever Hospital Rooms – I ponder what this can seem like, however see the nursing efforts beneath for some thought.  One factor I feel we will be sure is that it is going to be software program, not {hardware}.
• Nationwide Supplier Listing – Judy talked about that this venture internally was stopped to help the Nationwide Supplier Listing effort that CMS is main.
• Occupational Well being
• Orthodontics – I ponder who’s driving this demand, however it was attention-grabbing to listen to at Epic UGM what number of dentists benefitted from being on Epic.  Dentists modified drugs 234,000 instances in 2024 based mostly on warnings proven in Epic.

MyChart Central

For those who observe Epic, you then in all probability heard that this was coming.  In its present iteration, each Epic set up has its personal MyChart login.  For those who’re a affected person going to a number of places, you could have dozens of Epic MyChart logins along with your information unfold throughout all of them.

Judy introduced that MyChart Central will now mix your whole MyChart logins in a single place.  Customers will solely have to recollect one login to have the ability to entry all of their MyChart information and options throughout each Epic set up.  She famous that underneath this new mannequin, issues like demographics for a affected person will be up to date as soon as and it is going to be up to date at each healthcare group.

I do know all of us have quite a lot of questions on how precisely that is going to work.  I additionally anticipate some bumps alongside the best way because it’s a reasonably large change in how MyChart was initially designed.  Plus, hospitals and medical practices love their autonomy and so it is going to be attention-grabbing to see how Epic navigates that.  Nonetheless, I feel this can be a good step ahead for sufferers who don’t wish to keep in mind a dozen MyChart logins.

That is already reside in Madison and MyChart Central is planning to roll out in November 2025.

Epic Coaching

Judy should have discovered the KLAS Arch Collaborative information actually compelling across the correlation between consumer satisfaction and EHR coaching (BTW, it’s compelling) since she devoted a big chunk of the keynote to their coaching choices.  Actually, she had Jenna Timm come out and share about quite a few the large coaching efforts that Epic is providing its customers together with: Onboarding, ongoing, on the fly

Timm shared how speciality particular coaching goes nicely whenever you go reside because you’re coaching the entire specialists.  Nonetheless, after go-live you might solely practice somebody from that speciality each 6 months.  To assist with that, Epic has rolled out specialty particular onboarding that features 106 specialties supported throughout 360 movies and it looks as if they’re simply getting began.

Timm additionally highlighed their Thrive Programs that had been estimated to supply a 90 min time financial savings per week.  Epic additionally has SmartUser programs that target Epic effectivity.  This consists of 30+ free 30-60 min programs that offered an estimated 45 min saved per week, 6% extra appointments per day, and 5% much less time spend outdoors scheduled hours.  Timm additionally talked about the Epic Exemplars program the place Epic customers can share their expertise and insights with the group.

Nonetheless, probably the most attention-grabbing coaching merchandise for me was a “What’s New in Epic” function that assist customers find out about new options they obtain in an Epic improve.  Additionally, they’re engaged on an Ask Epic answer that prompts customers to allow them to learn about shortcuts they’re not utilizing.

For those who’ve lived by upgrades and coaching, you possibly can see how helpful these can be if completed nicely.

Monetary Efforts

I actually assume that Judy has heard from her clients how they’re struggling in terms of income.  Anybody that works in healthcare has heard about it and each healthcare group is effected.  I feel that’s in all probability why Judy spent fairly a little bit of time targeted on varied options that may assist the monetary efficiency of Epic customers.

Right here’s a couple of of them I famous:

• Penny – As talked about above, this new RCM AI assistant will assist healthcare organizations financially.  For those who’ve ever adopted the RCM house, you know the way a lot alternative there may be right here.
• Value discount dashboard – I don’t have a UserWeb login, so I can’t see this dashboard, however Judy stated you possibly can view it at http://pulse.epic.com/
• Govt Dashboard – Identical difficulty right here, however you will discover the manager dashboard at http://exec.epic.com/  She recommended you subcribe to those dashboards.

Epic Growth Efforts

Certainly one of my favourite components of Epic UGM is listening to the entire inventive ways in which Epic is trying to make Epic obtainable to an increasing number of organizations together with people who had been too small to purchase Epic earlier than.  Judy introduced quite a few nation broad implementations together with: Northern Eire and Singapore.  She additionally shared many State, Province, Territory, and Area Implementations from the next international locations:

• Canada
• Australia
• Denmark
• Norway
• Finland
• USA (Washington)

She additionally recommended that rural was a giant focus for Epic and stated there have been 3 ways for rural organizations to make use of Epic:

1. Prolong your occasion with Join
2. Create a state-sponsored shared occasion
3. Rural organizations work collectively to create a shared occasion

Final 12 months you may additionally keep in mind that Judy introduced Backyard Plot that was targeted on the 20-80 supplier market.  That’s nonetheless going ahead and is on the market for Major Care and Ortho with Gastro and Urology coming quickly.  She went on to announce that together with Backyard Plot, they’re additionally going to supply Orchard for 80-180 supplier practices.  Plus, they’re contemplating Flower Plot for practices underneath 20 suppliers, however she’s not sure if that can be doable or not.

Different Objects Price Mentioning

AI pricing – Once I discovered that Epic’s AI options had been pay as you go, my first response to the CIO who informed me was “that’s going so as to add up shortly.”  The excellent news is that Epic now has a pay as you go choice in order for you that flexibility and as you take a look at new AI options and so they have a brand new “AI Suite” pricing choice.  The AI suite is “all you possibly can eat” and is the best choice when you’ve got broad adoption of that AI answer at your group.  I’ll have an interest to see how they worth the suite and in the event that they group AI instruments into the packages or not

On-line Self Scheduling – Try the stats article popping out subsequent week in terms of the expansion of on-line self scheduling in MyChart.  Nonetheless, Epic will have the ability to robotically generate schedules for suppliers based mostly on objectives like new sufferers, urgency, and again to backs to assist speed up self scheduling. (Coming in Nov 2025)

Honor roll – Judy was actually happy with the dignity roll which is sensible.  It should be powerful to know your software program can accomplish that far more and other people aren’t utilizing it.  This 12 months they did add an honorable point out for these which can be working in the direction of honor roll and a brand new MyChart Honor roll.

Epic’s Employees Are Utilizing AI – Sumit provided 4 areas the place Epic is utilizing AI to speed up the Epic crew’s work: Improvement & Technical Help, Analysis & Evaluation, Communication & Collaboration, and Design & Documentation.

Payer Platform – I’m really a bit of shocked that Payer Platform wasn’t extra of a spotlight at UGM.  Perhaps as a result of quite a lot of Epic customers received’t really use payer platform or be impacted by it.  I nonetheless assume this can be a significant focus of Epic and goes to unravel some main issues for suppliers and payers.  Actually, I feel many payers will look to Payer Platform to handle their must do digital prior auth.

AI Consumer Engagement Personas – Sumit additionally provided primarily personas for customers and the way they really feel about AI: Pioneer, Optimist, Dabbler, Reluctant, Skeptic.  He recommended that you need to interact the skeptics regardless that they’re a problem.

Organ Donation in MyChart – This can be one of many coolest issues shared at UGM.  Epic partnered with Donate Life to encourage organ donation and to permit MyChart customers to turn into organ donors.  What an ideal thought.

Outbreak Detection and Monitoring – This was quick on particulars, however Judy stated that they’d use cosmos to determine and monitor illness outbreaks.  I’ll have an interest to see how shortly they will determine this and I assume they’ll work with public well being when an outbreak is occurring.  One of many journalists at UGM recommended that journalists ought to get the notifications so they might write about an outbreak early too.  I feel that’s higher to funnel by public well being, however credit score the journalist for wanting to interrupt the story.

Quick Installs and Huge Bang is Higher – That is considerably anecdotal, however Judy stated that once they began they thought sluggish installs with a restricted set of options was higher.  Nonetheless, they shortly realized that Quick Installs and Huge Bang are higher.

Carl Dvorak took the stage briefly to speak about Epic internationally.  He shared that worldwide is rising.  Then, he recommended that we must always have worldwide benchmarks.  Plus, you possibly can create your personal benchmarks in Cogito robotically when you’ve got greater than 5 organizations (makes it nameless) otherwise you simply want permission from the organizations if underneath 5.

Epic presents Operational Companies for particular points.  Two examples shared had been decreasing size of keep and bettering outpatient entry.  Looks like it’s principally Epic consulting providers.

Well being Grid – This was talked about a couple of instances generically and customarily.  They didn’t dive into an excessive amount of element aside from one slide with quite a lot of logos.  Right here’s how they broke out the Well being Grid on the slide:

• Payers with Payer Platform – 29 logos (7 new)
• Units with Aura – 3 logos (2 new)
• Diagnostics with Aura – 14 logos (4 new)
• Specialty Societies with the Group Registry Platform (New!) – 3 logos
• Surgical Implant Producers (New!) – 1 emblem

Nurse Expertise – An entire roadmap was proven on how Epic is working to rework the nurse expertise on the bedside.  The Bedside TV together with system information is on the middle of this.  Though, there’s AI charting combined in there in Early 2026 into Nov 2026.  In fact, Cosmo Insights for nurses is on the roadmap too.

Affected person switch advisor – They didn’t give a lot element on what that is, however sufferers transfers is an issue so I’m curious what they take into account.  It’s scheduled for March 2026

A number of Consumer Occasions – In case you didn’t know, Epic presents a bunch of consumer conferences: Management (UGM), Specialists (XGM), Third Events (Open @ Epic), Join Websites & Hosts (Join Collaboration), European Specialists (European Software Boards), European Management (EGM), Center East (Epic Majlis), Asia-Pacific (Epic APGM).

Random Judy Request – I really feel like annually Judy provides some kind of random request for one thing she’d like modified in healthcare.  This 12 months she confirmed an image of pediatric hospitals and the way colourful and playful they had been (The Kids’s hospitals began cheering).  Then, she confirmed an image of grownup hospitals and the way drab they’re as compared.  Then she recommended, adults thrive in inventive areas too.  Subsequent 12 months she needs to share photos of enhancements.  Will probably be attention-grabbing who solutions that decision.

As Judy wrapped up her portion of the keynote, she stated this:

We predict the longer term so we will put together for it and so we will change it.

For sure, Epic is doing rather a lot in so many alternative areas.  It’s really fairly arduous to foretell the longer term with Epic, however hopefully this offers you some perception.