{"id":8017,"date":"2025-09-08T04:24:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=8017"},"modified":"2025-09-08T04:24:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:24:05","slug":"epics-emmie-chatbot-enhances-the-patient-voice-for-their-real-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=8017","title":{"rendered":"Epic\u2019s \u201cEmmie\u201d Chatbot Enhances the Patient Voice \u2013 For Their *Real* Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By MICHAEL MILLENSON<\/p>\n

A Rock Health write-up of this year\u2019s Epic Users Group Meeting<\/a> captured the artificial intelligence vibe with a play on the names of three new AI chatbots rolled out by the country\u2019s dominant electronic health record firm. \u201cEpic Goes APE (Art, Penny and Emmie),\u201d read the headline, using the first letters of the names of chatbots designed for, respectively, clinicians, revenue cycle managers and patients.<\/p>\n

Emmie does positive things for patients \u2013 more on that in moment \u2013 but at its core the chatbot is a B2B play, designed to address the needs of the hospitals, medical groups and others whose fees have built the privately held EHR firm into an estimated $5 billion business.<\/p>\n

Emmie is not an agent of patient\u00a0autonomy<\/em>. Its purpose is to help Epic customers (health systems and physician practices) provide more and better services to their customer, the patient, as long as that patient remains a customer.<\/p>\n

That context is important. Yes, in a way it\u2019s #PatientsUseAI, but that use is analogous to the AI algorithms deployed by Netflix. While you may marvel at their power of personalization, they\u2019re never going to tell you that the best movie for your particular interest is harbored over at Hulu and, by the way, even if you\u2019re watching tons of programs with medical themes, you\u2019re still a couch potato.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t present at the gathering at Epic\u2019s Verona, Wisconsin headquarters, but news accounts and LinkedIn postings suggest that, unsurprisingly for this type of meeting, there was more drama than details. Much of what was unveiled and hinted at \u2013 the company said it\u2019s working on more than 200 AI applications \u2013 will be rolled out over the course of 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s\u00a0Epic\u2019s introduction of Emmie and Art<\/a>\u00a0from its LinkedIn account:<\/p>\n

Informed by their chart and connected devices, Emmie is designed to support patients between visits. Whether it\u2019s explaining test results in easy-to-understand terms, suggesting next steps, or guiding patients through open-ended conversations about their health, Emmie makes it easier for patients to stay on top of their health and walk into the exam room with a clear picture.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the clinician side, Art is gathering data from Emmie to get the doctor the information they need before the visit even begins. Art is designed to reduce administrative burden, help doctors better understand their patients, and offer context-informed insights. This can take the form of generating pre-visit summaries, taking real-time notes, and even taking actions like placing orders or verifying prior authorization requirements.<\/em><\/p>\n

That Rock Health analysis<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0suggested that the real significance \u201cmay be less the function and more the channel,\u201d since consumers are far more willing to share health data with their provider \u00ad\u2013 in this case through Epic\u2019s MyChart \u2013 than with a tech company (such as an AI vendor). \u201cBy capturing patient questions, decisions, and symptom-checking,\u201d Rock Health noted, \u201cEpic gains visibility into information consumers might hesitate to share with a generalist tech company. The EHR giant has already signaled that this data will feed back into [its] tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or as Epic did\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0say, \u201cWe empower our customers. We empower patients. We empower ourselves.\u201d Good intentions alone do not get your product into use by more than half of all acute-care hospital beds in America, according to a KLAS estimate of market share.<\/p>\n

At\u00a0Healthcare IT Today<\/em>, veteran tech journalist John Lynn\u00a0sniffed out the actual schedule<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0for all Emmie\u2019s promised pro-patient wonders. According to Lynn (presumably from Epic itself),<\/p>\n

proactive outreach and images is coming in March, 2026<\/p>\n

active engagement in November, 2026<\/p>\n

future screenings arrive sometime in 2026 (no month given).<\/p>\n

Bill payment, scheduling abilities using SMS (texting) and a voice agent are all \u201ccoming in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I commented on the Epic LinkedIn post, \u201cHow about patient-reported outcome measures [e.g.\u00a0Proteus Consortium\u2019s<\/a>], whether from an app linked to Epic (i.e., like Twistle by Health Catalyst or others) or the patient\u2019s own wearables?\u201d I tagged\u00a0Seth Hain<\/a>, Epic\u2019s senior vice president of research and development, who played a prominent role at the meeting, but got no reply. (To be fair, maybe he took some vacation time after an intense few weeks.)<\/p>\n

In a recent STAT First Opinion<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0that took up the topic of autonomy, I asserted that true informed consent means physicians should be obligated to inform patients what Epic\u2019s Cosmos system says about the likely outcomes of treatment for individuals with their clinical profile. Those predictions come from a database drawing on a mind-boggling 15.7 billion patient encounters.\u00a0But<\/strong>\u00a0patients should be able to access that information about different hospitals\u2019 results on their own.<\/p>\n

At the Users Group Meeting, Epic announced a further refinement of Cosmos, with founder and chief executive officer Judy Faulkner proudly announcing that the company will be able to \u201cpredict the future\u201d for patients. (For a deep dive into Cosmos, I recommend the posts of\u00a0veteran medical informatics expert Mark Braustein<\/a><\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

Faulkner did what any smart businessperson would do. She spoke about how her company\u2019s product would enable an important segment of customers, clinicians and health systems, to provide better care. What those customers actually do (or don\u2019t do) for their \u201ccustomer,\u201d the patient, with the Epic software? Evidently \u201cNot my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael L. Millenson is president of Health Quality Advisors & a regular THCB Contributor. This first appeared in the \u201cPatients use AI\u201d Substack<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MICHAEL MILLENSON A Rock Health write-up of this year\u2019s Epic Users Group Meeting captured the artificial intelligence vibe with a play on the names of three new AI chatbots rolled out by the country\u2019s dominant electronic health record firm. \u201cEpic Goes APE (Art, Penny and Emmie),\u201d read the headline, using the first letters of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}