What You Should Know:
– Nearly 1,000 experts gathered at the developer-focused Open@Epic conference to discuss the future of healthcare data sharing.
– During the event, Epic outlined its plans for expanding interoperability, simplifying patient-driven data connections, and enhancing support for app developers. In the past year alone, over 745 billion data exchanges took place using Epic’s publicly available APIs.
Easier Patient-Driven Data Connections
Epic’s new developments are largely focused on empowering patients to share and manage their health data more easily. Seth Hain, Epic’s SVP of R&D, highlighted the upcoming rollout of MyChart Central, which will simplify patient-driven app and device connections.
- Unified Record: MyChart Central will allow patients to have a single MyChart account that aggregates health data from multiple organizations.
- Simplified Sharing: Patients will soon be able to share their healthcare data from multiple organizations at once with just a few clicks.
- Device Connectivity: Epic’s support for the new Bluetooth Generic Health Sensor specification will make it easier for patients to connect home devices, such as blood pressure cuffs, to MyChart.
- Biometric Login: Built-in biometrics support will allow patients to log in without memorizing a username and password.
More Ways for App Developers to Connect
To foster innovation in AI, analytics, and population health, the Clarity data model is now available for app developers to license. This provides essential population-level data to support complex applications.
Epic also announced several upcoming features and APIs:
- Real-Time Wayfinding: “Blue dot” wayfinding in MyChart will help patients navigate facilities, slated for release in November 2025.
- Prior Authorization APIs: Additional APIs are planned to strengthen provider-payer communication, expected in February 2026.
- Staff Duress APIs: These will support location-aware alerts for nurses, providing assistance when their safety is jeopardized, set for release in February 2026. Midmark RTLS is one developer planning to connect to these Staff Duress APIs.
Looking ahead, Epic is preparing to support USCDI v5, which will improve the standardized exchange of information related to advanced directives, medication adherence, and diagnostic images.
Improvements to the App Developer Experience
Updates to the Open.Epic platform and Epic’s Vendor Services program are designed to streamline the developer experience:
- New Five-Step Guide: A roadmap for new developers, guiding them from app idea to collaborating with the Epic community.
- Developer Playbooks: Over 40 playbooks highlight recommended workflows and technology for common data exchange requests.
- Expanded Sandbox Testing: Developers gain self-service options for creating test data and reviewing API call results in test Epic patient records.
“Open@Epic shows what’s possible when the industry comes together with a shared purpose,” said HT Snowday at Midmark RTLS, a real-time locating system (RTLS) provider. “For us, it feels like the next chapter in a very collaborative relationship. With the Midmark CareFlow RTLS interface, we’ve already improved care team communication, productivity, and patient flow for our shared customers—and we’re even more excited about what’s to come.”
