Epic partners with Microsoft to roll out AI-powered clinical scribe
EHR market leader Epic Systems announced Tuesday it is preparing to release its own automatic clinical documentation tool powered by artificial intelligence. The news of this potential AI scribe was first revealed by Politico on Aug. 7, with the outlet citing multiple internal sources with knowledge of the feature who chose to reveal details under the protection of anonymity.
At the time, Politico said the new tool was expected to be officially unveiled this month. For days prior, LinkedIn and social media were flooded with posts from individuals speculating on what its launch would mean for the dedicated, vendor-agnostic AI scribe market. After the Politico report, the specifics of what Epic was launching were also still largely a mystery.
On Aug. 19, Epic finally made the news official, revealing that it is working alongside Microsoft-owned Nuance and one of the more popular dedicated AI clinical documentation companies, Abridge, whose technology is used by major health systems including Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente.
Epic previously worked with both Nuance and Abridge to integrate their tools into its EHR platform. Now they will be native, meaning providers on Epic have direct access to the AI scribe to document patient encounters and clinical notes automatically.
Other EHRs—including Athenahealth, Oracle and Elation—already have such features fully onboarded. This observation led an Axios reporter to comment that, while Epic is “joining the party late,” its market dominance means startups will be “forced to differentiate more quickly” in order to offer value to hospitals, health systems and provider groups who intend to use AI scribes.
Before the official announcement, Rik Renard, RN, who works as head of strategy and product at healthcare AI firm Sword Intelligence, spoke to HealthExec offering some speculation on what the then-rumored announcement would mean for smaller firms.
He commented that newly launched Epic features tend to take a “year or two” to reach the maturity of third-party options. However, he said, the AI scribe market has been oversaturated for a while, and smaller companies have already been working to find their niche value proposition.
“Right now there are more than 120 scribes on the market. The vast, vast majority of those companies realized that transcribing and generating a note is just a feature, and the only way to survive is if you can automate upstream or downstream activities from the note,” Renard said, meaning that successful tools support care delivery while also helping providers meet the demands of coding claims and billing insurance.
This includes features such as “ICD-10 matching, maybe even writing appeals if the prior authorization is not accepted." He added that many of the available AI transcription products have received funding with such a focus in mind.
Perfect timing?
As for Epic, more will be revealed after launch, but the company said it intends to support revenue cycle managers with its AI documentation tools—and the direct link to the Epic EHR has clear advantages for patients and providers who are always seeking a smooth transition between encounters that maintains care continuity.
How it will impact the overall market in the short term is unknown, but Renard said Epic is right on time making this announcement, even if it comes years after its competitors have already added AI scribes to their EHR and billing platforms.
"Epic had to time this right. When you're the dominant EHR vendor, jumping into AI scribes too early could look like you're using your monopoly to crush competitors before they even get started. Antitrust regulators don't love that," he said. "But, multiple AI scribe companies have already gained real traction and market share. So Epic can launch their product and say 'hey, we're just responding to customer demand' instead of 'we're here to kill the competition.'"
Renard added that Epic could fill a void in the market by offering a simple solution that does one thing very well—it transcribes.
“They have seen all of these AI scribes popping up left and right, getting insane traction and probably have also spoken to some of their customers where they say, ‘We're actually not interested in these sorts of scribes doing A, B and C—we just wanted to write a note, and that's it.’ And that would be perfect for Epic, because there are still customers that will use [the tool to do just that],” he said, noting that its existing client base is already paying big premiums for “a scribe that’s just a scribe,” which Epic can now offer for a cheaper price tag.
A date for the rollout was not revealed.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.