Microsoft and Epic Partner to Leverage Generative AI in Electronic Health Records

Microsoft and Epic, two major players in the healthcare industry, are joining forces to improve the accuracy and efficiency of electronic health records (EHRs) through the power of generative artificial intelligence (AI). EHRs are essential tools for healthcare providers, but they can be time-consuming, prone to errors, and even burdensome at times. By using AI algorithms to automatically fill in missing information, EHRs can become more complete, accurate, and easier to use, freeing up clinicians to focus on patient care.

What is Generative AI and How Can It Improve EHRs?

Generative AI uses machine learning to generate new content, such as text, images, and even entire websites. In the context of EHRs, generative AI can be used to automatically fill in missing information, suggest diagnoses, and even predict future health outcomes based on historical data. Microsoft and Epic’s partnership aims to accelerate the adoption of generative AI in healthcare and improve patient outcomes.

The partnership will integrate the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service with Epic’s EHR platform, extending natural language queries and interactive data analysis to Epic’s self-service reporting tool, SlicerDicer. UC San Diego Health, UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin, and Stanford Health Care are among the health systems already deploying the integrated systems, leveraging Epic’s new capabilities to automatically draft message responses.

Benefits and Risks of Generative AI in Healthcare

The potential benefits of generative AI for healthcare are significant. By automating tedious and error-prone tasks, clinicians can spend more time with patients, and EHRs can become a valuable source of insights that can help improve care quality and reduce costs. However, there are also potential risks associated with the use of generative AI in healthcare, such as bias if the algorithms are trained on incomplete or biased datasets.

How Microsoft and Epic are Developing Ethical AI Solutions for Healthcare

To mitigate these risks, Microsoft and Epic are committed to developing transparent and ethical AI solutions that are rigorously tested and validated. Eric Boyd, corporate vice president, AI platform, for Microsoft, argued that the challenges facing healthcare systems and their providers demand an integrated approach. “Our expanded partnership builds on a long history of collaboration between Microsoft, Nuance, and Epic, including our work to help healthcare organizations migrate their Epic environments to Azure,” he said in a statement.

Healthcare Providers Adopting Generative AI to Improve EHRs

By leveraging the power of generative AI, healthcare providers aim to improve the accuracy and efficiency of EHRs, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes. Generative AI is increasingly viewed as a potential co-pilot for multiple players in the healthcare space and is a key topic at this year’s HIMSS conference, where potential use cases applied to business and clinical challenges – like clinician burnout and achieving interoperability – are being explored.

“Our exploration of OpenAI’s GPT-4 has shown the potential to increase the power and accessibility of self-service reporting through SlicerDicer, making it easier for healthcare organizations to identify operational improvements, including ways to reduce costs and to find answers to questions locally and in a broader context,” said Seth Hain, senior vice president of research and development at Epic, in a statement.

In conclusion, Microsoft and Epic’s partnership to harness the power of generative AI to improve EHRs is an important step towards improving patient outcomes. By automating tedious and error-prone tasks, clinicians can spend more time with patients, and EHRs can become a valuable source of insights that can help improve care quality and reduce costs. With the potential benefits of generative AI for healthcare, it is crucial to develop transparent and ethical AI solutions that are rigorously tested and validated to mitigate the potential risks.