Highlights
Epic Methods Corp., the nation’s dominant vendor of digital well being information, depends on fierce and uncompromising enterprise ways to drive adoption of its expertise merchandise by U.S. hospitals.
A STAT investigation discovered that Epic’s follow of selectively withholding entry to affected person information has deprived rival software program builders and put one firm answerable for figuring out who thrives and who withers out there for well being expertise innovation.
Epic says it supplies extra connections to its information than required by federal regulation and has received reward for its help of its many hospital clients. However executives at a few of these hospitals, together with app builders, mentioned Epic’s rising market energy is obstructing adoption of essentially the most helpful software program merchandise.
By most measures, Epic Methods Corp. is a runaway success. Its record-keeping techniques, invented on the daybreak of non-public computer systems in a Wisconsin basement, are actually ubiquitous contained in the nation’s largest hospitals. The corporate collects greater than $6.5 billion a yr in income, wins the lion’s share of recent contracts, and holds information on some 8 in 10 People. Nearly nothing occurs on this expertise universe with out Epic’s involvement — or approval.
However the firm’s rising dominance is pushed by fierce and uncompromising enterprise ways which have crushed opponents, thwarted innovation, and put a single, privately-held enterprise answerable for affected person information wanted to energy drugs’s subsequent era of expertise.
A STAT investigation discovered that Epic, the nation’s largest vendor of digital well being information, is selectively withholding entry to those information to the drawback of rival software program instruments, leaving its personal merchandise unchallenged. Executives of 12 corporations that Epic showcases on its app market for hospital clients advised STAT that the software program large has undercut their companies by denying entry to essential information interfaces and technical specs, spreading unfavorable rumors about their merchandise, or charging excessive charges for entry.
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