Epic gives patients freedom to share medical data with every clinician

Epic states Share Everywhere is a big leap forward in interoperability. Share Everywhere will allow patients to grant access to their data to any providers who have internet access, even if they don’t have EHRs. Also, using Share Everywhere, a provider granted access can send a progress note back to the patient’s healthcare organization for improved continuity of care.

Easy share information with anyone

“Patients should be able to easily share their health information with anyone they choose, no matter where they are. Share Everywhere now makes this possible,” Janet Campbell, Epic Vice President of Patient Engagement, says in an Epic press release.  Share Everywhere is based upon the Epic interoperability technology Care Everywhere. Currently, organizations using Care Everywhere exchange two million patient records per day with Epic and non-Epic systems.

Epic claims to be the only major EHR vendor that has 100% of its health system customers interoperable with each other, other EHRs, government organizations and other national networks. Still, a challenge remained: how to send important patient information to clinicians who cannot interoperate, and how to do so in a way that protects patients’ privacy.

Patient privacy protected

Through Share Everywhere, patients will be able to use their smartphones to direct a view of their Epic chart in minutes to any clinician, anywhere in the world. Because the patient determines who gets access, the patient’s privacy is protected. In addition, Epic records all access.

Share Everywhere is ready for use now and will be available to the Epic community at no cost in the November update of Epic’s patient portal, MyChart.