Epic representatives gave a sneak peek at the company's plans for the HIMSS22 Conference and Exhibition this March – including the announcement of Cheers, a new customer relationship management system.  

"The booth will show off how healthcare organizations can use Cheers to help folks shopping or looking for care, complete an easy intake process, access direct care and remain engaged outside the four walls of a health system," said Sam Seering, a member of the implementation services – CRM team at Epic.  

"We’ll demonstrate how Cheers weaves together tens of thousands of data elements and validated insights to help systems know their populations, anticipate their needs and help them navigate their health journeys through omnichannel experiences," Seering added.  

The booth will also offer attendees the chance to review the latest reports from Epic research, which uses its Cosmos database to glean insights about patient populations.  

"We just published a report that answers the question of how likely you are to acquire COVID-19 from a hospital admission," said Dr. Jackie Gerhart, lead clinician for Epic Research, referencing a brief from Monday.  

"Prior to that, Cosmos data was used to expedite the decision to approve Moderna and J+J boosters and in the decision to [approve] vaccinations in 5- to 11-year-olds," she said.  

She also outlined other findings related to COVID-19, such as outcomes for patients who received mechanical ventilation and the rate of MIS-C cases in vaccinated and unvaccinated children.  

"Cancer screening rates dropped during the pandemic, and we haven't seen those rates recover," she noted. "We’ve worked with healthcare organizations and publications like yours to get the word out, hoping to help improve outreach to schedule colon, breast and cervical screenings."  

Gerhart also said that Epic is working on bringing real-world evidence to the point of care to help advance evidence-based medicine – which CEO Judy Faulkner hinted at back in October 2020 at the HLTH VRTL conference.  

"We are calling it 'Best Care for My Patient,'" said Gerhart.   

"The idea is to bring decisions and outcomes from the 130 million patients in Cosmos to show what works best in patients like theirs," she continued. "The size, scale and representativeness of this dataset has exciting potential to advance medical knowledge and improve care.

"Those insights can then be curated for the individual patient and for the broader population," she said.  

Epic also plans to showcase new consumer capabilities to help patients get estimates, schedule visits and connect with providers before having accounts.   

"People who stop by can see how an integrated revenue cycle helps patients avoid surprise bills and set up payment plans, account optional," said Product Development Lead Trevor Berceau.  

"For chronic and longer-term healthcare needs, like recovering from surgery or preparing to have a new baby, we’ll be demoing MyChart Care Companion," Berceau added. "It orchestrates all the personalized reminders, education at home, remote monitoring, consumer devices and telehealth visits a patient might need."  

"We’re always excited to see our customers," said Erika Koch from the Events and Design team, "and it will be nice to reconnect in person."  

Epic is in Booth 2159 at HIMSS22 in Orlando.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Email: kjercich@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.