Epic EHR: Controversies, Tensions, & Goals

Seth Hain is Vice-President of Research & Development and Chris Mast is a Family Medicine physician & Vice-President of Clinical Informatics at Epic. They join for a candid and broad conversation of the current state and future goals of Epic. We also cover their understanding and perspective of challenges and frustrations coming from end users. Epic staff very rarely do any kind of press, it was absolutely fascinating to get behind the curtain.

Key Learnings

1. Background on rise and growth of EHRs, affirming that we are not going back to paper charting, and identifying points of tension

2. What is their sense of the “temperature” of the end-users of Epic and the barriers keeping us from the ideal future state

3. Closing the training, implementation, and experience gap

4. Steps to build and rebuild perceptions and trust

5. What they see and hear from the peer-reviewed literature and social media regarding the work they do

6. Wherein we discuss this JAMA paper

7. The connection of physician and health care provider burnout and EHRs

8. Social media commentary and how much of a role does this play in driving work they do

9. Receiving and integrating individual physician voices who reach out to Epic with concerns and the importance of local Epic champions.