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How New Epic EHR Partnerships Will Improve Molecular Testing Processes

EHR partnerships

On July 7, 2022, Caris Life Sciences announced a partnership with Epic Systems to enhance the ability of oncologists to access molecular testing for their patients. Molecular profile services added include whole exome and whole transcriptome sequencing for blood and tissue samples—making Caris the first Epic partner with these capabilities.

This partnership provides these services to cancer specialists with access to Epic EHR, which is roughly about 60 percent of all cancer specialists in the United States. These oncologists can order a range of molecular tests for the 250 million-plus patients who have electronic medical records in Epic.

These services can be accessed through Epic’s Orders and Results Anywhere (ORA) network, supplementing the Caris integration into Epic’s Genomics module. Plus, oncologists can access test results in the EHR system without any interim steps, which streamlines workflows and allows providers to create an informed treatment plan quicker than the traditional process. This can play a vital role in efficiently improving the patient experience and associated health outcomes.

Additional Epic Partnerships

On June 23, 2022, Myriad Genetics announced a partnership with Epic to streamline access to Myriad’s full line of genetic tests; physicians can also find results in Epic’s EHR. Healthcare providers can leverage the genetic insights they receive to improve health outcomes.

On April 4, 2022, Epic announced a partnership with Guardant Health, Inc. to streamline the ability of clinicians to order from a broad portfolio of cancer tests and then directly access results. This ease of use can help to make Guardant Health blood tests a routine part of clinical care, including Guardant SHIELD™—which indicates early signs of colorectal cancer.

Other tests available include Guardant360® CDx and Guardant360 Response™, both of which can guide medical professionals to treat patients with advanced cancer. On the other end of the spectrum, physicians have access to Guardant Reveal™ to help identify patients with early-stage cancer, detecting residual cancer and signs of recurrences. Because all of the patient’s records are within the Epic EHR, all of the person’s healthcare providers can have access to relevant, real-time information from one single source.

In each of these cases, patients can access information from Epic’s patient portal, empowering them as they gain more information about their health.

Evolving Epic EHR

As these three examples show, Epic continually adds crucial new enhancements through collaborative partnerships. Epic Systems also keeps developing new modules in response to needs, including:

  • Epic Cheers: This new CRM system comes with robust capabilities for patients who are seeking care by streamlining the intake process and facilitating both direct care and patient-provider connections when the patient is not at a medical facility.
  • Epic Garden Plot: Independent medical groups that can’t use Epic’s Community Connect can create and use holistic patient records. This is a ready-to-use software that offers benefits of Epic to small medical groups.
  • Epic Best Care for My Patient: This is expected to go live in early 2023, allowing healthcare providers to use real-world data to help their patients. Providers can leverage best practices as they use big data analytics to shape individual patient care.

Epic EHR Implementation

Epic is the largest EHR system, serving the needs of big healthcare organizations. Plus, Epic Garden Plot and Community Connect open up applications to smaller medical practices. If your healthcare facilities are interested in EHR consulting and implementation, please contact us.

Benefits of Epic Implementation

As new partnerships and modules indicate, Epic doesn’t rest on its laurels. The company continues to enhance its system. Plus, this solution is highly customizable to dovetail with your healthcare organization’s unique workflows with efficient results leading to increased productivity and faster ROI. Your organization can tailor workflows for diverse end users, too: for example, workflows for physicians, insurance specialists, and so forth.

Epic Systems also pioneered the concept of interoperability in EHR systems, allowing professionals to share information among organizations. This allows physicians, specialists, and more to provide continuity of care through this single source of medical record information. Thanks to the emerging Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), the electronic exchange of healthcare data will become even more seamless—and Epic is sure to continue to be at the forefront of incorporating technologies into their system.

Epic Implementation Consultants

Our Epic EHR consultants can assist your in-house healthcare IT team by helping to set goals, tasks, timelines, and deadlines—and recommendations can be made after gaining a clear understanding of your scope and budget as well as your current system. Epic implementation professionals can also identify and work around possible pitfalls to optimize the application and integrate it into your healthcare organization’s overall technology.

Epic consultants are also available in our professional network in other crucial ways, including:

  • Training: Epic EHR trainers design unique, interactive programs to engage and teach end users. Methods used will depend upon your specific needs and preferences with each structure focused on educating your teams to use the application with confidence when it’s live.
  • Process documentation: Closely related to training, experts capture unique processes based on the specifics of your Epic EHR implementation. This information can be included in training manuals among other uses.
  • Go-live and post-live support: Before cutting over to the Epic system, niche professionals will test your system to ensure that all is set up properly. They will verify that training sessions are completed and otherwise check key items off the final punch list. Epic consultants can also serve as a resource after the application goes live.
  • Data cleaning and migration: To maximize the power of your Epic application, you’ll want clean quality data. Consultants in our network can create and execute a plan to make that happen.