Epic’s 2024 User Group Meeting (UGM) brought a wealth of insights, with a focus on the latest advancements and evolving trends in healthcare technology. This year’s event showcased key announcements, product updates, and overarching themes that reflect Epic’s desire to drive innovation across its platforms. Major highlights included the introduction of an AI-powered agent within MyChart and generative AI tools for clinician administration. Enhanced billing features were also announced, all aimed at improving efficiency and care delivery.
Among the most significant themes was the growing role of mobile apps in healthcare. As demand for convenience continues to rise, mobile solutions with Epic (or other EHRs) at their core are the primary tools that enable patients to manage their health from anywhere. The surge in telehealth, the need for operational efficiency, and efforts to expand access to underserved populations have further solidified the importance of patient-facing apps. Beyond convenience, mobile apps are increasingly supported by regulatory frameworks that drive their adoption.
Now, in a notable shift, Epic is urging its customers towards more standardized mobile solutions, reducing customization options available to health systems. By implementing predefined templates, workflows, and built-in guardrails, Epic aims to promote consistency, interoperability, and compliance. While these changes simplify implementation and updates, they potentially limit the flexibility for organizations to tailor their mobile apps to specific needs. This marks a significant shift in how healthcare systems may approach custom mobile experiences moving forward.
By introducing these new standards, Epic aims to promote interoperability and ensure regulatory compliance across a variety of health systems. This is not surprising, given Epic’s market share (by the end of 2023, Epic was the primary EHR in over 39% of acute multidisciplinary hospitals, and the fastest-growing EHR by far) – more Epic users equals more reason for Epic to deliver consistent, streamlined, and ideally interoperable solutions.
Changes to Epic’s Mobile App Approach
At Modea, we’ve built several custom, proprietary mobile apps for health systems leveraging Epic’s SDK (software development kit). Now, Epic is rolling out new features that make it possible for health systems to deliver solid mobile experiences without making the investment in a proprietary mobile application. Epic’s MyChart Builder streamlines and simplifies a health system’s ability to display branded content specifically tailored to mobile. By incentivizing health systems to move away from custom patient-facing mobile applications, Epic controls the mobile roadmap for patient-facing experiences, while also making it easier for organizations without extensive digital budgets to meet the needs of increasingly mobile consumers.
The introduction of Epic’s Showroom further underscores the move towards standardization. Replacing the more open ‘App Orchard,’ Showroom limits third-party app integrations to a curated list of partners. This change narrows the scope for custom solutions, which could help differentiate patient engagement strategies and enhance specific clinical workflows.
Epic’s clinician-facing mobile apps, Haiku (for iPhone and Android) and Canto, are leading these updates. They incorporate new AI features and usability improvements. AI-driven tools, such as automated note drafting and insights, aim to reduce clinician workloads and streamline decision-making. Given the importance of the physician digital experience for employee retention, we are encouraged by Epic’s investment in enhancing clinical digital tools.
The trade-offs are similar for patient-facing apps. Before, organizations could implement bespoke experiences, like a specialized symptom checker or behavioral health modules, which allowed them to adapt the apps to local needs and specific patient populations. Additionally, with a fully custom app (versus one whose user interface and features are managed by MyChart), organizations could present a comparable experience to a user whether they were logged in or not. This allowed custom apps to convey a system’s brand and features without requiring users to authenticate.
Opportunities vs. Challenges: Epic’s Standardized Solutions
Epic’s move toward standardization is fundamentally reshaping how health systems approach their mobile solutions. This shift brings both opportunities and challenges for healthcare systems of varying sizes and structures.
Opportunities: Benefits of Standardized Solutions
For smaller healthcare systems with limited resources, Epic’s standardized solutions offer several compelling advantages. These include:
- Faster implementation: Standardized workflows and templates streamline the deployment process, allowing health systems to adopt and implement Epic’s mobile apps more quickly. This can be particularly advantageous for smaller systems that lack the capacity to handle lengthy custom development projects. By offering predefined features and workflows, Epic reduces the time and resources needed to go live with mobile solutions.
- Easier updates: Standardized platforms also simplify maintenance and updates. Because health systems are working with a uniform set of tools and workflows, updates from Epic can be applied seamlessly without the need to test and adjust custom configurations. This reduces the operational burden of managing mobile applications and ensures that health systems always have access to the latest features and security enhancements.
- Improved security: With enhanced security features like two-factor authentication, Epic’s mobile apps provide built-in protection for sensitive health data, helping healthcare systems meet stringent compliance requirements such as HIPAA. Smaller organizations, which may not have dedicated teams for custom app development and security, benefit from Epic’s robust security solutions.
These advantages make Epic’s solutions attractive to smaller healthcare organizations that may lack the technical infrastructure and resources to build and maintain custom mobile applications.
Challenges: Loss of Customization and Differentiation for Larger Systems
While the standardization of Epic’s mobile offerings may simplify operations for smaller systems, it presents challenges for larger and more complex healthcare providers. For institutions that rely on custom workflows to deliver specialized care, Epic’s shift toward standardized templates can be limiting. The built-in guardrails may restrict their ability to tailor solutions to meet specific needs.
- Loss of key differentiators: Custom mobile apps have long been a tool for healthcare systems to differentiate their services in patient engagement and internal clinical workflows. For example, academic medical centers often develop custom workflows to support clinical trials and research initiatives. Standardized solutions may not be flexible enough to accommodate these needs. These organizations rely on the ability to tailor their digital tools for research teams, patients, and faculty. The loss of this flexibility could hinder their ability to offer personalized care and manage complex research operations.
- Challenges for specialized care providers: Specialized care providers, such as oncology or cardiology clinics, may face challenges integrating the specific tools or workflows they require. For instance, oncology clinics might need custom features to track complex chemotherapy regimens. They may also use diagnostic equipment that requires specialized integration. Similarly, cardiology centers may need to track intricate treatment plans or provide patient monitoring features. These needs may not be supported by Epic’s predefined workflows. Without the ability to customize, these specialized providers may struggle to deliver the level of care their patients require.
- Loss of autonomy: The most significant challenge posed by Epic’s move toward standardization is the loss of control over the mobile product roadmap. In a standardized environment, healthcare systems must follow Epic’s development and release cycle. This means they can no longer prioritize or develop features based on the specific needs of their patient populations. As Epic continues to guide the direction of its mobile applications, health systems will need to adjust their strategies. They must align with Epic’s updates instead of tailoring their apps to the evolving needs of their audiences.
Navigating Epic’s Standardization: Industry Perspectives
The healthcare industry’s response to Epic’s shift toward standardization reflects a balancing act. Providers recognize the benefits of streamlined processes while grappling with the challenges of customization. As patients demand personalized digital experiences similar to those offered by consumer brands, healthcare providers must adapt their digital tools. They need to meet these evolving expectations while navigating the complexities of standardization.
Balancing Efficiency and Experience
Leaders from smaller health systems have welcomed the introduction of predefined workflows and standardized mobile features. These updates promise to reduce implementation timelines, lower operational costs, and improve security and compliance. The ability to deploy Epic’s mobile apps without extensive customization appeals to organizations with limited IT resources. This allows them to quickly adopt Epic’s mobile tools while benefiting from built-in compliance with regulations like HIPAA.
Conversely, patients today are increasingly demanding personalized digital experiences in healthcare that match the seamless interactions they enjoy with companies like Amazon and Google. This shift towards healthcare consumerization reflects a rising expectation for smooth, tailored, and engaging experiences throughout the patient journey. As consumers prioritize convenience and personalization, healthcare providers must adapt their digital offerings to meet these evolving needs. A key aspect of these changes is ensuring that patients and their needs remain at the center of the digital experience.
The challenge lies in balancing the efficiencies gained from standardized workflows with the need for customizable systems that cater to individual patient preferences. Meeting these expectations is not just a competitive advantage; it is becoming a fundamental requirement. Enhancing patient satisfaction and engagement is essential in an increasingly consumer-driven market.
Adjusting Mobile App Strategies
In response to these concerns, some organizations are rethinking their mobile app strategies. We are seeing providers pausing investments in custom mobile app development as they assess the full impact of Epic’s changes. (We’re seeing this trend not only among Epic customers but also across organizations using Cerner and other EHRs that are following Epic’s lead.)
These organizations aim to better understand how the push towards standardization will affect their digital and product roadmaps. They are reluctant to commit to substantial custom mobile app investment without knowing what the future holds. In some cases, IT departments are diverting resources from mobile projects to other digital initiatives. These include web-based platforms or headless content management systems. Such systems offer more flexibility in delivering tailored content to patients across multiple channels.
What Comes Next
Good or bad, Epic’s market dominance will significantly affect health systems’ digital experiences. The changes to mobile app standardization are particularly impactful. We will see this effect even in health systems using alternative EHRs. Epic tends to set the tone for EHR product roadmaps.
We believe these changes from Epic have the following implications.
- The importance of a comprehensive, centralized digital experience platform is more prevalent than ever before. Epic’s new MyChart Builder provides templates that simplify the distribution of content to mobile, particularly for patient-facing applications. To maximize the benefits of MyChart Builder, health systems should maintain clean, centralized content. This content can then be easily distributed across various channels.
- We expect to see more uniformity across health systems. Epic’s move limits customization, which means health systems’ mobile experiences will look increasingly uniform. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it could help patients better navigate their care between providers, but it means health systems will need to find other ways to differentiate digitally from competitors (e.g., through content or branding).
- Headless digital platforms will be on the rise. These platforms separate content management from the user interface, allowing organizations to tailor the user experience across channels. This approach provides flexibility in presenting content and optimizing engagement, even as the core app functionality remains standardized. For instance, academic medical centers could use this to showcase research updates in a customized format while retaining Epic’s core features.
Health systems must build adaptable internal teams and collaborate with digitally-savvy partners who can quickly adjust to Epic’s updates. They will also need to work closely with Epic to ensure that future product developments align with their system’s needs. Advocating for features that support their patient populations and clinical teams is essential.
In this new, uncharted landscape, healthcare organizations must remain proactive in delivering the best holistic digital experience for their patients. Rather than focusing solely on mobile or web solutions, health systems should assess their overall digital platform. They need to consider how it reaches users across different channels.
