In the latest example of a world-class health system yanking its established electronic health record in favor of a blue chip vendor, Mayo Clinic is migrating to Epic.

[See also: Mayo goes all out for decision support]

“We’re confident in choosing Epic as our strategic partner as we continue to enhance Mayo Clinic’s excellence in health care and medical innovation,” said John Noseworthy, MD, Mayo Clinic's president and CEO, in a statement announcing the partnership.

Epic will deploy a single, integrated EHR and revenue cycle management system at the renowned campus. This will replace Mayo’s three EHRs currently in use today, and will be the foundation for the next "several decades" of care delivery there, officials say.

Mayo Clinic currently uses EHRs from both GE and Cerner.

[See also: Intermountain signs sweeping EHR deal]

More than 45,000 Mayo staff will be trained to use the new technology.

"With our staff working together on a common system, we will be able to accelerate innovation, enhance services and provide a better experience for our patients," said Dawn Milliner, MD, Mayo’s chief medical information officer, in a press statement.

The project team is expected to be convened by April 2015, officials say. The system will be built over this year and next, with a rollout planned for 2017.

"The project team will include staff from Mayo Clinic, Epic and external consulting organizations," said Cris Ross, Mayo Clinic's chief information officer, in a statement. "We are announcing our decision today so that we can begin to assemble the project team and launch the project."

In 2012, Partners HealthCare selected Epic to be its "information system of the future" after three pioneering decades using its own self-developed EHR.

In 2013, Intermountain Healthcare embarked on the transition to a Cerner system, citing its abilty to help pivot toward the era of value-based care.

But John Halamka, MD, CIO of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has asked some questions about the mass migration toward name vendors like Epic and Cerner (whom some have likened to the "Coke and Pepsi" of the EHR market).

"At times, in the era of Epic, I feel that screams to join the Epic bandwagon are directed at me." Halamka wrote in 2013, noting that other Hub hospitals, such as Boston Medical Center and Lahey Clinic, were also contracting with the Verona, Wis., behemoth.

[See also: Epic holdout questions install craze]

For the time being, he was happy to be a holdout, he said: "Every day, clinicians ask me for innovations because they know our self-built, cloud-hosted, mobile-friendly core clinical systems are limited only by our imagination."