What You Should Know:

– In a move aimed at alleviating Arizona’s critical shortage of healthcare providers, Spectrum Healthcare, one of the state’s largest non-profit healthcare providers, has joined forces with NextGen Healthcare, a provider of cloud-based technology solutions.

– This strategic partnership marks a significant step towards improving access to integrated mind-body care for Arizonans, particularly in underserved communities.

A Growing Need for Whole-Person Care

Arizona faces a stark reality: 82 areas in the state lack adequate medical resources, and over 2.8 million residents live in communities struggling with a dearth of mental health professionals. Spectrum Healthcare, dedicated to serving these very communities for nearly six decades, understands the urgency of the situation.

“We are committed to providing accessible, whole-person care to all Arizonans,” says April Rhodes, CEO of Spectrum Healthcare. “Partnering with NextGen Healthcare allows us to leverage innovative technology solutions to elevate our care delivery and address the critical shortage of healthcare providers.”

Technology as the Bridge

NextGen Healthcare’s suite of cloud-based solutions, including the NextGen® Enterprise electronic health record (EHR), practice management (PM), and Population Health Solutions, will equip Spectrum Healthcare with powerful tools to streamline operations, improve interoperability, and optimize clinical and financial performance. This, in turn, translates into better resource utilization and the potential to reach more patients, particularly in underserved areas.

“Spectrum Healthcare’s dedication to serving their communities aligns perfectly with our mission to empower healthcare providers through innovative technology,” says Srinivas (Sri) Velamoor, President and Chief Operating Officer of NextGen Healthcare. “Together, we are confident in making a lasting impact throughout Arizona by creating greater access to care.”

Beyond Technology: A Holistic Approach

Spectrum Healthcare’s commitment to whole-person care extends beyond technology. In addition to its seven brick-and-mortar locations across Arizona, the organization offers telehealth and in-home services, operates mobile crisis teams, and partners with local schools to provide on-campus student care. This comprehensive approach ensures that vulnerable populations have access to the full spectrum of healthcare services they need, regardless of their location or circumstances.

What You Should Know:

• DeepScribe, the leading enterprise-grade AI medical scribe, today announced key updates to its integration with Epic Systems’ electronic health record (EHR).
• DeepScribe’s recently launched Customization Studio, which allows users to build custom models to support unique specialty and organizational needs, is now fully integrated with Epic’s SmartData elements. This makes DeepScribe the first solution to harmonize an extensive suite of customization options with Epic’s interface and establishes a new benchmark for ambient solutions on their platform. 

Revolutionizing Clinical Documentation: DeepScribe’s Enhanced Integration with Epic Transforms Charting Efficiency

In collaboration with Epic and Covenant HealthCare, DeepScribe has refined its integration based on feedback from clinicians, technical experts, and organizational stakeholders. This user-centric approach enables DeepScribe to seamlessly incorporate highly personalized documentation into a patient’s chart fields, resulting in a remarkable reduction of up to 75 percent in after-hours documentation for Covenant clinicians. 

Furthermore, this partnership has laid the groundwork for SmartData compatibility on the Epic platform, offering improved back-end communication and unlocking the full potential of DeepScribe’s Customization Studio across various Epic instances. This advancement not only enhances the user experience but also sets the stage for other ambient solutions to adopt similar innovations.

“We worked tirelessly with DeepScribe developers to enhance the integration in a way that meets clinical needs more holistically,” said Frank Fear, CIO of Covenant HealthCare. “The primary objective for us was to help DeepScribe establish compatibility with Epic’s SmartData elements. With that functionality built out, we can now properly leverage all of DeepScribe’s unique features in a really cohesive manner. That seamlessness between platforms is empowering us to streamline workflows and improve the clinician-patient experience.”

What You Should Know:

– The Department of Veterans Affairs’ ambitious effort to modernize its electronic health record system (EHR) has hit the brakes, riddled with delays, cost overruns, and safety concerns, Nextgov reports.

– While the Oracle Cerner system promises seamless interoperability with the Department of Defense’s EHR, its rocky implementation at five facilities has sparked outrage and calls for accountability.

A History of Hiccups

2020 launch: The system debuts at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center, marking the beginning of a tumultuous journey.

Technical woes and safety scares: Glitches, outages, and usability issues plague the system, with a critical 2022 report revealing potentially fatal consequences for some veterans.

Program reset: In April 2023, the VA pauses further rollouts to prioritize fixes at existing sites, facing strong bipartisan criticism and calls for a contract renegotiation with Oracle Cerner.

Facing the Pressures

Lawmakers demand accountability: Senators and Representatives introduce legislation demanding stricter performance metrics and oversight before any new deployments.

VA defends its course: The department insists on moving forward with the program, arguing “rewriting VistA from scratch” is the only viable alternative.

Bipartisan consensus: Modernization, yes, but with caution: Both sides agree on the need for an updated system, but emphasize stringent protocols and improved oversight to ensure patient safety.

A Glimmer of Hope?

System improvements during reset: The VA and Oracle Cerner report progress, citing 185 outage-free days and system upgrades.

Planned joint deployment with DOD: A cautiously optimistic step, with the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center earmarked for the next rollout.

Future rollouts hinge on performance: The VA sets clear criteria for resuming deployments, emphasizing clinician and veteran experience, system reliability, and improved productivity.

The Road Ahead

The VA’s EHR saga remains an ongoing story. While the department’s commitment to modernization is apparent, the path forward is shrouded in uncertainty. Success hinges on delivering tangible improvements and demonstrating unwavering dedication to patient safety. Only then can the VA regain trust and truly fulfill its promise of better healthcare for veterans.

What You Should Know:

– CoxHealth, a healthcare system in southwest Missouri announced it will implement Epic enterprise EHR across its health system, replacing its long-time Cerner EHR system.

– This strategic move signifies a commitment to delivering the highest standard of care while embracing cutting-edge technology to empower both patients and healthcare professionals.

Unifying Workflows, Streamlining Care

The move to Epic wasn’t taken lightly. Following an extensive selection process involving hundreds of staff and providers, CoxHealth recognized Epic’s potential to:

• Unify disparate workflows: Streamlining processes across various departments, leading to improved efficiency and collaboration.
• Provide seamless patient care: Ensuring smooth information flow across the health system, resulting in better-coordinated and more effective care.
• Bolster patient engagement: Empowering patients through MyChart, Epic’s industry-leading patient portal, with features like appointment scheduling, health information access, and educational resources.

Empowering Patients, Enhancing Outcomes

MyChart’s capabilities extend beyond mere information access. It facilitates seamless communication, simplifies appointment scheduling, and integrates patient records across various healthcare institutions, ensuring holistic care delivery.

Max Buetow, CoxHealth President and CEO, emphasizes the importance of equipping their team with the best tools: “We have incredible people, and Epic provides them with best-practice tools to achieve remarkable things.” He envisions exciting future possibilities for leveraging Epic’s platform to constantly improve patient safety, quality of care, and operational efficiency.

Epic Enterprise EHR Implementation Timeline

With a projected completion by early 2026, CoxHealth’s Epic EHR implementation marks a significant milestone in its journey to provide exceptional healthcare. This strategic investment positions the health system for continued success in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, where technology plays an increasingly crucial role in delivering personalized, efficient, and patient-centric care.

Data is a crucial pillar of healthcare. But more than just the data itself, the flow of data between all stakeholders is what enables everything from care coordination to quality measurement, payment efficiencies, risk management, and other key goals. Yet, the healthcare industry has historically struggled with data exchange due to the lack of aligned interests caused by a third-party payer system and the predominance of proprietary technology.  Additionally, data privacy, which all would argue is necessary, has created a significant cultural opposition to data democratization. As a result, our current system creates an unnatural boundary between health and care that is more focused on treating illnesses than supporting broad scale health and wellness. 

Though interoperability and the benefits it brings have long been intangible, there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel, and we are starting to move toward it as an industry. That light is burning bright due to the development and support of the FHIR standard, which is opening up how data and technology can be used to shift healthcare into a more aligned and connected system that will ultimately support keeping people healthy while keeping risk and costs down. 

The advent of FHIR

While today’s medical records have mostly evolved from paper to servers, they are still more static than free flowing, and their value is locked up in the systems that they are stored in. The good news, though, is that it is widely recognized that making health data more available will move the industry in the right direction.  And as has been the case with progress during the tech revolution of the past 30 years, standards have set the foundation for improved operations and innovations previously unattainable. The FHIR data standard is in the class of tech enablement tools and because it was designed specifically for healthcare it is an accelerator that will enable the collection, aggregation, and analysis of information on individuals and populations to give providers, health plans, pharma organizations, and other stakeholders more ways to support patients at a lower cost, with better quality and lower risk.

Healthcare’s data revolution is now officially underway thanks to regulations like the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Rule and related rulings involving FHIR. In late 2022, the 21^st Century CURES Act mandated medical records be accessible to patients via FHIR, and by the beginning of 2023 all providers were required to use FHIR. Though FHIR adoption has been slowed due to political, technical, and cultural obstacles – there has been progress as more and more organizations make the shift and start uncovering what FHIR is capable of.

With the FHIR infrastructure in place and regulations guiding the way, the stage is set for innovation to come. Similar disruption has occurred in other spaces, enabling processes to be faster and more efficient. For example, digital payment apps, like Venmo and Cash App, are driving the fintech revolution and providing an alternative to traditional banking with instant transactions and secure payments. Now is healthcare’s time to undergo the same transformation, and FHIR is making it possible.

FHIR today, FHIR tomorrow

Now that organizations are starting to use FHIR, they are quickly seeing the benefits that this standard can bring in the short term – and even catching glimpses of what it will enable in the coming years. With FHIR, some health plans are using the combination of claims and clinical data to find gaps in care and improved care planning options.  The comprehensive nature of the combined data set truly allows for a new and deeper level of actionable insight, and as a result, better business performance. 

FHIR is poised to unlock next-level capabilities and business models. Think of any modern consumer experience – it’s digital, intuitive, and makes it easy to save your information (possibly even pulling from other sources to better tailor the experience). It is exciting to think that this could be healthcare’s future.  A world where providers, payers, and everyone involved are working to deliver better care for all. FHIR-enabled data would make it possible to create detailed profiles on each patient to paint a comprehensive picture of overall health. These profiles could contain medical data plus lifestyle and behavioral data pulled from health monitoring devices, social media, exercise and health apps, public records, and so on – helping to inform more holistic approaches to support health outcomes while reducing risk and costs. 

Modernized, consumer-friendly healthcare experiences would also encourage individuals to participate more in their own journeys, which is a critical element of effective preventative care. For example, plans could use FHIR to access real-time data from wearables/remote monitoring devices and offer members discounts for healthy habits when staying in target range on key health metrics. Just like the devices that car insurance companies use to discount drivers for safe practices, FHIR could help healthcare organizations design new programs that give patients real-time, measurable ways to get involved in their own health outcomes.

Fanning the flames

Many other industries have embraced open-source technology in the name of improving efficiencies and consumer convenience, but healthcare has long been on the sidelines. Now, skyrocketing costs and increasing demands for a better system are shifting the tides whereby healthcare will transition from closed, inefficient systems to open, cloud-based infrastructure.

Large volumes of high-quality data can kick off a self-feeding cycle; the more the data gets used, the more in demand it becomes. That is why it’s crucial for more healthcare organizations to start using FHIR and generate more momentum for this much-needed data revolution. Universal FHIR adoption, along with APIs and open technology, will optimize data exchange across diverse platforms to enable capabilities that healthcare has never seen. Leveraging modern cloud tools allows for reliable, cost-effective infrastructure management for all stakeholders. FHIR, combined with lower barriers to innovation, entrepreneurship, and collaboration around creating richer data sets, will enable a new healthcare model empowering all to achieve their maximum health and wellness potential. 

About Joe Gagnon

Joe Gagnon is currently CEO of 1upHealth a cloud-based data interoperability platform that unlocks healthcare data to improve outcomes. He is also an avid blogger, co-host of the Chasing Tomorrow podcast, and a serious endurance athlete.

What You Should Know:

– KeyCare, the leading Epic-based virtual care provider, announces a partnership with Phelps Health to deliver high-quality virtual care to patients across Missouri.

– This strategic partnership aims to empower patients to receive convenient and timely care from licensed virtualists, anytime, anywhere in the US.

Seamless, Consistent Care

Patients can now access urgent care through virtual visits on the Phelps Health MyChart patient portal. This partnership provides a seamless and consistent care journey for patients, with virtual providers having complete access to their Epic-based medical records.

Enhanced Access and Efficiency

KeyCare’s platform integrates seamlessly with Epic, allowing Phelps Health to optimize capacity and widen their digital front door by leveraging a nationwide network of virtual care providers. This ensures efficient, high-quality care for patients, as virtual care workflows streamline access and data sharing between Epic-based providers.

“By offering virtual urgent care through MyChart with virtual providers who have complete access to patients’ Epic-based medical records, we are also providing patients with a seamless, consistent care journey,” said Jason Shenefield, President and CEO of Phelps Health.

Virtual Care Benefits for Patients

– Convenience: Patients can access virtual care from anywhere, anytime, eliminating the need for travel or in-person appointments.

– Timely care: Virtual urgent care provides patients with quick access to care for non-emergent conditions, reducing wait times and improving health outcomes.

– Cost-effectiveness: Virtual care is often more affordable than traditional in-person visits, making it an accessible option for patients.

– Improved care coordination: Integration with Epic enables seamless data sharing between virtual and in-person providers, ensuring coordinated and consistent care.

What You Should Know:

– Darena Solutions, Leidos, and SLI Compliance join forces to launch a first-of-its-kind verification program for AI applications in healthcare. This healthcare AI app verification program aims to bridge the gap between the growing demand for AI and the challenges of integrating it seamlessly with Electronic Health Records (EHRs).

– This initiative represents the first time two ONC-approved test labs have collaborated on such a program. Darena Solutions brings its MeldRx platform, streamlining AI app development and deployment. Leidos, with over 20 years of experience in security and healthcare product certification, offers its AT&E expertise. SLI Compliance, an ONC-ATL and ONC-ACB, contributes its expertise in health IT testing and certification.

Challenges in AI Integration with EHRs

The healthcare industry is witnessing a surge in AI innovation, but its integration with EHRs remains a critical challenge. This new initiative bridges this gap by providing a robust verification process tailored for AI applications built using SMART on FHIR. This approach ensures interoperability across diverse EHR systems, promotes trust, and enhances patient care through seamless data access. Darena Solutions’ MeldRx platform will simplify the development, testing, and deployment of verified AI applications.

Key Objectives of the Initiative

– Vetting AI Apps: Rigorously evaluating AI applications for alignment with clinical, technical, and ethical standards.

– Seamless Integration with EHRs: Facilitating interoperability across various EHR systems for improved data access and patient care.

– Promoting Trust: Providing healthcare professionals and patients with confidence in AI applications through a thorough verification process.

This initiative represents a major leap forward in the seamless and trustworthy integration of AI into healthcare. As Pawan Jindal, MD, Founder and CEO of Darena Solutions, stated: “This collaboration marks a significant step toward ensuring that these solutions not only integrate seamlessly but are also trustworthy and clinically beneficial.”

What You Should Know:

– As chronic disease rates rise across the U.S., researchers are exploring how electronic health records (EHRs) can be used to improve public health surveillance and intervention efforts. While 90% of healthcare providers in the U.S. utilize EHRs, sharing this data with public health departments is currently limited due to legal, political, and organizational barriers.

– A new study from the Regenstrief Institute provides practical guidance for implementing governance frameworks that enable data sharing for chronic disease surveillance, drawing on the experience of the Multi-State EHR-Based Network for Disease Surveillance.

Leveraging EHR data for chronic disease surveillance offers several advantages:

– Real-time data: Unlike traditional surveys, which have a two-year lag, EHR data provides immediate insights into disease incidence and prevalence.

– Clinical accuracy: Data is based on clinical observations and diagnoses rather than self-reported information.

– Targeted interventions: By identifying specific populations and geographic areas with high disease burdens, public health departments can tailor interventions and resource allocation.

The study highlights key challenges and solutions for data sharing:

– Building trust: Robust governance policies and procedures are essential to establishing trust between healthcare systems and public health agencies.

– Data aggregation: Health information exchanges and other data sharing platforms are needed to facilitate the secure exchange of EHR data.

– Legal and policy considerations: Addressing privacy concerns and ensuring compliance with data regulations is crucial.

The Multi-State EHR-Based Network for Disease Surveillance demonstrates the potential of this approach. The network’s transparent governance framework, which emphasizes accountability, collaboration, and data security, has fostered trust and facilitated successful data exchange.

The study concludes that implementing effective governance frameworks is key to unlocking the potential of EHR data for chronic disease surveillance. This will require collaboration among policymakers, public health leaders, and healthcare providers to create a sustainable and ethical approach to data sharing.

What You Should Know:

– Fraser Health Authority, a healthcare organization in Canada, is set to become one of the first health systems worldwide to deploy generative AI for clinical documentation.

– This innovative initiative utilizes Google Cloud’s Vertex AI and large language models (LLMs) to automatically generate initial drafts of hospital course narratives at the time of discharge, significantly reducing the time burden on clinicians and improving the efficiency of discharge workflows.

Generative AI Benefits

Traditional discharge summaries can be time-consuming to compose, requiring clinicians to manually input and summarize a patient’s entire hospital stay. This process can be tedious and detract from valuable patient care time. Generative AI offers a promising solution by automatically generating draft summaries, freeing up clinicians’ time to focus on other critical tasks and provide better care to their patients. This pilot project marks a significant step forward in utilizing AI technology to improve healthcare delivery and optimize workflow efficiency.

Collaboration Details

Fraser Health Authority partnered with MEDITECH and Google Cloud to implement this innovative solution within the Expanse EHR platform. The collaboration leverages MEDITECH’s expertise in EHR technology and Google Cloud’s cutting-edge AI capabilities to deliver a practical and safe solution for healthcare professionals.

Looking Ahead

The success of this pilot project has the potential to significantly impact the way healthcare providers document patient information. As AI technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative use cases emerge, ultimately leading to a more efficient and effective healthcare system for all.

What You Should Know:

– Qualtrics, the pioneer of experience management, and Epic, the leader in comprehensive health record (CHR) technology, have joined forces to revolutionize patient experience.

– The EHR integration will seamlessly weave patients’ experience data from Qualtrics into their health information in Epic, empowering providers to deliver a more personalized and empathetic healthcare journey.

Uniting Patient Experience Data with Health Information

This EHR integration will enable healthcare providers to access a holistic view of each patient’s journey, encompassing both clinical data and patient-reported experiences. This comprehensive understanding will empower providers to deliver more personalized, empathetic, and effective care.

Key Benefits of the Qualtrics-Epic Collaboration

– Personalized Care: Providers can tailor their approach to each patient’s unique needs and preferences, leading to more satisfying and effective interactions.

– Proactive Issue Resolution: Patient feedback is analyzed and flagged for relevant teams, enabling timely intervention and resolution of potential concerns.

– Streamlined Regulatory Reporting: The integration streamlines the exchange of data required for regulatory reporting, such as HCAHPS.

– Enhanced Patient-Provider Relationships: Deeper understanding of patient experiences fosters stronger connections and trust between providers and patients.

By integrating patient experience data with health information, providers can gain a deeper understanding of each patient’s needs and deliver truly personalized, empathetic care. Qualtrics and Epic has the potential to transform the healthcare landscape, improving patient satisfaction, outcomes, and overall well-being.

“With deep experience across consumer industries, Qualtrics brings a broad perspective to healthcare,” said Alan Hutchison, vice president at Epic. “We create software that connects healthcare to improve outcomes, and Qualtrics provides insights that improve the patient experience. Together, our collaboration will help members of the Epic community exceed patients’ evolving expectations.”

What You Should Know:

– athenahealth, a leading provider of network-enabled software and services for medical groups and health systems nationwide, announced a range of new traditional and generative AI-driven capabilities across the company’s solutions.

– These features, available through athenaOne®, athenahealth’s integrated, cloud-based suite of electronic health record (EHR), revenue cycle management, and patient engagement solutions, enable organizations to deliver exceptional patient care, reduce administrative burdens, and optimize revenue.

Key AI-Powered Enhancements

athenahealth’s AI-driven capabilities span across various aspects of healthcare operations, including:

– Reduced Administrative Burdens: Automated insurance selection eliminates manual data entry, improving accuracy and efficiency for front-desk staff.

– Simplified Patient Record Keeping and Mobile App Navigation: Voice navigation of the athenaOne mobile app enhances texting, photo capture, ordering, and documentation access.

– Clinical Support: Automated classification of inbound clinical documents ensures providers have relevant information at their fingertips. The athenaOne app predicts the most likely next action for a provider and suggests it as a one-click action.

Generative AI for Advanced Functionality

athenahealth is also deploying multiple generative AI-powered capabilities, including:

– Patient Case Response Drafting: Pre-drafted responses for patient cases enhance productivity without replacing provider judgment.

– Patient Record Sharing Document Summarization: Intelligently summarized labels on clinical documents facilitate quick and easy retrieval of relevant information.

– Identification of Missing Prior Authorization Information: Proactive identification of missing or incorrect prior authorization information saves time and reduces costs for practices.

– Care Plan Summarization: AI-generated “Huddle Reports” streamline conversations between care managers and physicians, enabling personalized care across the healthcare continuum.

“For nearly a decade we have leveraged machine learning to continuously enhance athenaOne to deliver value to our customers and their patients, automating routine tasks, streamlining critical workflows, and removing administrative burdens,” said Paul Brient, chief product officer at athenahealth. “Expanding generative AI capabilities across our services and solutions to complement our existing machine learning expertise will accelerate that time to value even further.”

What You Should Know:

– Nabla, an Ambient AI assistant for practitioners, today announced that its technology powers NextGen® Ambient Assist, a fully automated ambient listening solution that helps providers streamline clinical documentation and improve patient care.

– This strategic partnership, which began in September 2023, enables NextGen® Ambient Assist to leverage Nabla Copilot’s advanced AI capabilities to generate real-time clinical notes directly into NextGen Mobile, NextGen’s EHR.

Addressing the Burden of EHR Documentation

Managing and navigating today’s EHR systems, which provide a digital version of a patient’s paper chart, creates extensive administrative work, contributing to clinicians’ growing burnout. Physicians who spend more than six hours per week on EHR tasks outside of standard clinic hours are nearly 3x more likely to report burnout. The EHR is also regularly regarded by physicians as the most important stressor in patient care.

Nabla Copilot: Harnessing Ambient AI for Streamlined Documentation

Nabla Copilot utilizes proprietary large language models (LLMs) to seamlessly and automatically capture all relevant medical information during consultations. These powerful LLMs extract, structure, and summarize information, enabling Nabla Copilot to generate accurate and concise clinical notes.

NextGen® Ambient Assist Powered by Nabla Copilot

NextGen® Ambient Assist, available to nearly 5,000 users of the NextGen® Mobile application, leverages Nabla Copilot’s technology to quickly capture subjective, objective, assessment, and plan (SOAP) notes. The technology filters for relevant details to create concise documentation with over 90% accuracy. Providers then review each note and make any necessary edits before it’s included in the patient’s record.

Benefits of Ambient AI-Powered Clinical Documentation

By automating clinical documentation, Nabla Copilot and NextGen® Ambient Assist offer several benefits to providers:

– Reduced documentation time: Providers can save as much as two hours of documentation per day, allowing them to focus more on patient care.

– Improved patient-provider communication: With less time spent on documentation, providers can engage in more meaningful conversations with patients.

– Enhanced data accuracy: LLMs can extract and summarize information with high accuracy, ensuring that patient records are accurate and complete.

“EHR providers are looking for solutions that streamline workflows while also prioritizing privacy, accuracy, and speed, which is what Nabla Copilot is designed to deliver,” said Alex Lebrun, co-founder and CEO of Nabla. “Nabla is the growing AI assistant of choice for innovators like NextGen, truly allowing providers to focus their time and attention on improving patient care rather than clinical documentation.”

What You Should Know:

– Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest information technology services company, has been ordered to pay $140M in punitive damages to Epic Systems Corporation in a long-running legal dispute over intellectual property, Business Standard reports.

– The decision by the Supreme Court of the United States upholds a lower court’s ruling and will have a significant impact on TCS’s financial results for the third quarter of 2023.

Epic Systems Corporation vs. Tata Consultancy Services

The legal battle between TCS and Epic Systems dates back to 2014 when Epic accused TCS of stealing its trade secrets while working on a project for the healthcare software company. TCS denied the allegations, but a US jury in Wisconsin found the company liable and awarded Epic $940M in damages in 2016.

In 2017, a Wisconsin court reduced the penalty amount to $420M to comply with caps on punitive damages. TCS appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which upheld the lower court’s ruling. However, the appeals court asked the trial court to reconsider the punitive damages award. Last year, the Wisconsin court further reduced the penalty amount to $140M. TCS appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, but the nation’s highest court declined to hear the case, effectively upholding the lower court’s ruling.

Impact on TCS’s Financial Results

The Supreme Court’s decision means that TCS will be required to pay Epic $140M in punitive damages. This will have a significant impact on the company’s financial results for the third quarter of 2023. TCS has stated that it will take a $125M provision in its third-quarter financial statements to account for the legal settlement.

The long-running legal dispute with Epic Systems has been a cloud over TCS for several years. With the Supreme Court’s decision, the company can finally put this matter behind it and focus on its core business of providing IT services to its clients.

What You Should Know:

– John Muir Health (JMH) and Ambience Healthcare have announced a collaboration to launch a generative AI platform that is fully integrated with Epic’s electronic health record (EHR).

– The integration will enable Ambience’s AI medical scribe and suite of generative AI products to read from and write information directly to Epic on behalf of and under the oversight of JMH clinicians.

AI Integration with Epic for Enhanced Clinician Experience

Clinicians at JMH can view Epic schedules in the Ambience app, record visits with Ambience AutoScribe, and edit AI-generated documentation directly inside Epic. The collaboration aims to revolutionize the patient and clinician experience at JMH by leveraging AI to reduce documentation burden.

Impact on Clinicians

Ambience’s operating system has been rapidly deployed at JMH, with a median time between onboarding and full adoption of less than one shift for clinicians. Full-time clinicians at JMH are saving 1-2 hours per day on EHR documentation, resulting in a reduction of “pajama time” and improved documentation quality.

Positive Feedback

Clinicians at JMH have provided positive feedback on the impact of Ambience’s AI system, expressing optimism for the future of practicing medicine. The system allows providers to focus on patient needs without the burden of typing notes into the EHR during visits.

“Our team rigorously evaluated, and pressure tested a variety of solutions on the market,” said Dr. Patel, Chief Medical Information Officer at JMH. “We decided to launch a collaboration with Ambience because they were the only vendor who could robustly navigate all of our clinical specialties, from primary care to pediatrics to oncology, and also execute on a seamless, end-to-end integration with Epic. Working closely with Ambience and our colleagues at Epic, we’re already seeing the technology revolutionize the patient and clinician experience at John Muir Health.”