Epic is introducing a new capability that will allow its software, including its AI assistants, to retrieve information and complete tasks in third-party applications, potentially reducing the need for patients and healthcare workers to move between systems.
The Verona, Wis.-based EHR vendor is releasing a capability for app developers to build Connectors, which will link external applications to Epic and allow information and tasks to move between them, according to an Oct. 21 news release.
For example, a Connector could pull an ambulance’s estimated arrival time from an external application into Epic, allowing an emergency department to prepare for the patient’s arrival.
The technology could also allow patients to complete tasks through Epic’s AI tools. A hospitalized patient could ask Emmie, Epic’s patient-facing AI assistant, to order a meal, which the assistant could then place through the hospital’s dietary management application.
“Emmie could use a Connector to bring hospital wayfinding instructions to the patient,” Johnston Thayer, vice president of health informatics at Epic, said in the news release. “For the surgical team, Epic could check a medical equipment app to find information about assistive device availability, and help the care team bring together the devices needed for the patient’s recovery.”
Connectors will work with Epic’s three AI assistants: Emmie for patients, Art for clinicians, and Penny for revenue cycle and operational teams. They will also support custom AI applications that healthcare organizations develop through Epic’s Agent Factory.
Derek De Young, who leads Epic’s Agent Factory development, said Connectors open up “a whole new range of ways we can save people from ‘swivel-chair’ work,” which he described as switching from one app to another.
The company said healthcare organizations will be able to discover developer-created Connectors through Epic Showroom beginning in March 2027. Before enabling a Connector, organizations will be able to review its capabilities, including what information it can read and what changes it can make.
Executives from app developers Availity, Gozio Health and VPL described potential uses in the release, including insurance coverage, prior authorization, claims management, patient wayfinding and medication delivery tracking.
The announcement did not specify which Connectors would be available at launch or provide results from healthcare organizations using the capability.
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