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I live in Madison, where Epic is stationed. I run into a lot of people that work there. They hold the records of over 50% of the US. It's pretty scary when you

I live in Madison, where Epic is stationed. I run into a lot of people that work there. They hold the records of over 50% of the US. It's pretty scary when you think about it.

officialchicken 11y ago
I just don't think that's true, but I'd love to be wrong. Any given time 1/3rd of the user-base is dead... and it's growing because the data has to remain in the system for 60 months (HIPAA). It's not scary because it's B.S... No single or group of health provider in the world is close to having access to 125 million active patient-users on an annual basis. Until Epic disclose any numbers in their 10Q/10K, realize that they're probably taking about "rows" in a db table or nonesuch, not actual patients or anything that will get them in trouble with the SEC/FDA. I'd guess the reality is Nike is much closer in having shoes on half of the US pedestrian population than Epic having HL7/PII data.
- tgokh 11y ago
  I have no idea what the actual number is, but I remember reading that Epic is in about 20% of hospitals. and in many/most academic centers. Given the number of people who've been seen in an academic center at least once (whether for their own birth, a consultation at some point in life, ER visit, etc), Epic systems likely have entries on a substantial portion of the population, though the amount of people they have complete medical records for is likely much smaller
- nickysielicki 11y ago
  > Health care groups using Epic electronic health records serve 54 percent of patients in the U.S. and 2.5 percent of patients worldwide, CEO Judy Faulkner said at Epic’s users group meeting in September. Source: http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/epic-systems-draws-on-literature-greats-for-its-next-expansion/article_4d1cf67c-2abf-5cfd-8ce1-2da60ed84194.html http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/epic-sy... You're probably right though. It's still scary to think that it's possible for them to be centralized to that degree at all.
drumdance 11y ago
A friend of mine used to work there but he left last year. When I asked him why he said "because I want to make software that people actually enjoy using."
- vln 11y ago
  I did some time at a healthcare IT startup and had to suffer through some Epic training. It's terrible. But so is most health software.
kendallpark 11y ago
I have friends that worked there. Note the past tense. Just check out their Glassdoor reviews and you'll see how they treat their devs. Anecdotally, I find it hard to believe they can build truly cohesive software with an insane amount of developer turnover.
- encoderer 11y ago
  Anybody familiar with Conway's Law can probably identify a solid "revolving door pattern" -- somehow Gang of Four left that one out.

I live in Madison, where Epic is stationed. I run into a lot of people that work there. They hold the records of over 50% of the US. It's pretty scary when you think about it.

officialchicken 11y ago

I just don't think that's true, but I'd love to be wrong. Any given time 1/3rd of the user-base is dead... and it's growing because the data has to remain in the system for 60 months (HIPAA). It's not scary because it's B.S... No single or group of health provider in the world is close to having access to 125 million active patient-users on an annual basis. Until Epic disclose any numbers in their 10Q/10K, realize that they're probably taking about "rows" in a db table or nonesuch, not actual patients or anything that will get them in trouble with the SEC/FDA. I'd guess the reality is Nike is much closer in having shoes on half of the US pedestrian population than Epic having HL7/PII data.

tgokh 11y ago
I have no idea what the actual number is, but I remember reading that Epic is in about 20% of hospitals. and in many/most academic centers. Given the number of people who've been seen in an academic center at least once (whether for their own birth, a consultation at some point in life, ER visit, etc), Epic systems likely have entries on a substantial portion of the population, though the amount of people they have complete medical records for is likely much smaller
nickysielicki 11y ago
> Health care groups using Epic electronic health records serve 54 percent of patients in the U.S. and 2.5 percent of patients worldwide, CEO Judy Faulkner said at Epic’s users group meeting in September. Source: http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/epic-systems-draws-on-literature-greats-for-its-next-expansion/article_4d1cf67c-2abf-5cfd-8ce1-2da60ed84194.html http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/epic-sy... You're probably right though. It's still scary to think that it's possible for them to be centralized to that degree at all.

drumdance 11y ago

A friend of mine used to work there but he left last year. When I asked him why he said "because I want to make software that people actually enjoy using."

vln 11y ago
I did some time at a healthcare IT startup and had to suffer through some Epic training. It's terrible. But so is most health software.

kendallpark 11y ago

I have friends that worked there. Note the past tense. Just check out their Glassdoor reviews and you'll see how they treat their devs. Anecdotally, I find it hard to believe they can build truly cohesive software with an insane amount of developer turnover.

encoderer 11y ago
Anybody familiar with Conway's Law can probably identify a solid "revolving door pattern" -- somehow Gang of Four left that one out.