AI Research
AI Integration with Epic EHR: Promise and Practicalities
The integration of artificial intelligence into healthcare environments represents one of the most significant technological shifts in the industry today. For organizations running Epic, which powers the electronic health records of approximately 250 million patients across major health systems, the question is no longer if AI will transform their operations, but how and when. As healthcare IT leaders navigate this landscape, they face complex decisions balancing technical feasibility, clinical utility, and operational sustainability.
Understanding the Inflection Point
Healthcare organizations find themselves at a critical inflection point. The maturation of AI technologies coincides with increasing demands on health systems to improve clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, and patient experience. Epic environments, which traditionally focused on stability and reliability above all else, must now accommodate emerging AI capabilities without compromising their core functions.
This transition introduces unprecedented complexity. Epic systems were designed as comprehensive but largely self-contained ecosystems. Now, they must interface with AI technologies that may reside in different computing environments, rely on different data models, and operate according to different processing paradigms.
The Infrastructure Imperative
Perhaps the most immediate challenge organizations face involves infrastructure requirements. Epic systems already demand significant computational resources, with recent versions requiring exponentially higher performance compared to historical implementation patterns. Adding AI functionality compounds these demands substantially.
Consider the infrastructure implications: machine learning models, particularly those analyzing medical imaging or unstructured clinical notes, require specialized hardware configurations. Organizations must determine whether to expand their existing on-premises infrastructure or develop hybrid architectures that extend into public cloud environments.
This decision carries significant financial implications. Health systems have already invested millions in Epic infrastructure and continue to allocate substantial operational budgets to maintain these environments. Implementing AI may require additional capital expenditures, revisions to refresh cycles, and new staffing expertise.
The shift toward AMD processors in some Epic environments further complicates planning. Healthcare organizations must now balance processor architecture decisions with their AI implementation roadmap, determining whether traditional CPU-centric environments will suffice or if specialized GPU resources become necessary as AI workloads increase.
Data Governance Foundations
Beyond infrastructure considerations, data governance represents a foundational element of AI integration with Epic. Successful AI implementations require not just access to data, but consistent, controlled access to high-quality clinical information that maintains patient privacy while enabling analytic insights.
Health systems must establish comprehensive data governance frameworks that address:
- Data quality standards for AI training and operation
- Policies controlling which data elements can be processed by AI systems
- Mechanisms to ensure AI outputs remain traceable to source data
- Processes to identify and mitigate algorithmic bias
- Procedures for managing data provenance across systems
These governance frameworks must function within existing regulatory constraints, including HIPAA and emerging AI-specific regulations, while maintaining operational flexibility. The governance challenge extends beyond technical implementation to include clinical and administrative stakeholders who must understand how patient data flows through AI systems.
Interoperability Challenges
Interoperability represents another critical consideration. Epic has made significant strides in supporting standards like FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), but AI integration introduces new interfaces that must be carefully designed and maintained.
Healthcare organizations must determine how AI systems will access Epic data and how AI-generated insights will flow back into clinical workflows. Options include leveraging Epic’s APIs, implementing dedicated integration services, or utilizing third-party middleware designed specifically for healthcare AI implementations.
Each approach presents distinct advantages and limitations regarding real-time access, data transformation capabilities, and long-term sustainability. Organizations that have invested heavily in Epic extension capabilities may prefer native integration approaches, while those with broader technology portfolios might implement integration platforms that serve multiple systems beyond Epic.
Strategic Pathways
Healthcare IT leaders face three primary strategic pathways when integrating AI with Epic environments:
- Epic-native AI capabilities – Leveraging functionalities developed by Epic itself, which offer tight integration but may offer less cutting-edge capabilities than specialized solutions
- Hyperscale cloud provider partnerships – Implementing AI services from major cloud providers, which offer advanced capabilities but require careful integration planning
- Custom AI development – Building organization-specific AI solutions tailored to particular clinical or operational needs, which can address unique requirements but demands specialized expertise
Most organizations will ultimately pursue a hybrid approach, selecting different strategies for different use cases based on clinical priority, technical complexity, and resource availability. Strategic success requires continual alignment between technical and clinical leadership to ensure AI capabilities address genuine organizational needs rather than pursuing technology for its own sake.
Clinical Adoption and Workflow Integration
Even technically successful AI implementations fail without meaningful clinical adoption. Healthcare organizations must carefully consider how AI-generated insights appear within Epic workflows, ensuring they enhance rather than disrupt clinical processes.
AI capabilities should augment clinical judgment rather than attempting to replace it, providing decision support that fits naturally within established workflows. This requires careful attention to user interface design, alert fatigue mitigation, and transparency regarding how AI generates its recommendations.
Organizations should implement structured feedback mechanisms allowing clinicians to report AI performance issues, creating a continuous improvement cycle that enhances both the technical performance and clinical utility of these systems.
Security Implications
AI integration introduces new security considerations for Epic environments. Organizations must evaluate how AI systems impact their security posture, particularly when these systems cross traditional infrastructure boundaries.
Key security considerations include:
- Authentication mechanisms between Epic and AI systems
- Data encryption requirements during processing
- Vulnerability management across expanded technology surfaces
- Monitoring requirements for AI-specific threats
- Incident response procedures for AI-related security events
Security planning must address not just traditional threats but emerging concerns specific to AI, such as model poisoning attacks or adversarial inputs designed to manipulate AI outputs.
Measuring Success
Ultimately, healthcare organizations must establish clear metrics for evaluating AI integration success. These metrics should span technical performance, clinical outcomes, and financial impact, creating a comprehensive view of implementation effectiveness.
Rather than pursuing AI adoption as an end in itself, organizations should identify specific problems AI can meaningfully address, establish baseline measurements, implement targeted solutions, and rigorously assess outcomes. This measured approach ensures AI investments deliver tangible benefits rather than merely introducing additional complexity.
As AI in healthcare transitions from experimental to essential, organizations running Epic must develop coherent implementation roadmaps that balance innovation with the fundamental reliability requirements of clinical systems. Those that successfully navigate this transition will position themselves to deliver higher quality care while managing operational costs more effectively.
About Mike Hale
Mike Hale is a Principal Solutions Engineer at EchoStor, where he leads the company’s healthcare initiatives. He has nearly 20 years of executive leadership experience in the health technology sector.
AI Research
Wiley partners with Claude creator Anthropic, responsibly integrating AI across scholarly research — EdTech Innovation Hub
Wiley says it is adopting the Model Context Protocol, an open standard created by Anthropic which aims to provide seamless integration between authoritative, peer-reviewed content and AI tools across platforms.
Starting with a pilot project, and subject to definitive agreement, the partnership will see Wiley and Anthropic working together to ensure university partners have streamlined, enhanced access to Wiley content.
The partnership will also establish standards for integrating AI tools into scientific journal content, while providing appropriate context for users, including attributions and citations.
“The future of research lies in ensuring that high-quality, peer-reviewed content remains central to AI-powered discovery,” explans Josh Jarrett, Senior Vice President of AI Growth at Wiley.
“Through this partnership, Wiley is not only setting the standard for how academic publishers integrate trusted scientific content with AI platforms but is also creating a scalable solution that other institutions and publishers can adopt. By adopting MCP, we’re demonstrating our commitment to interoperability and helping to ensure authoritative, peer-reviewed research will be discoverable in an increasingly AI-driven landscape.”
“We’re excited to partner with Wiley to explore how AI can accelerate and enhance access to scientific research,” adds Lauren Collett, who leads Higher Education partnerships at Anthropic.
“This collaboration demonstrates our commitment to building AI that amplifies human thinking—enabling students to access peer-reviewed content with Claude, enhancing learning and discovery while maintaining proper citation standards and academic integrity.”
The news comes shortly after Anthropic announced the launch of Claude for Education, a version of its chatbot tailored to meet the needs of higher education institutions.
RTIH AI in Retail Awards
Our sister title, RTIH, organiser of the industry leading RTIH Innovation Awards, proudly brings you the first edition of the RTIH AI in Retail Awards, which is now open for entries.
As we witness a digital transformation revolution across all channels, AI tools are reshaping the omnichannel game, from personalising customer experiences to optimising inventory, uncovering insights into consumer behaviour, and enhancing the human element of retailers’ businesses.
With 2025 set to be the year when AI and especially gen AI shake off the ‘heavily hyped’ tag and become embedded in retail business processes, our newly launched awards celebrate global technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world and the resulting benefits for retailers, shoppers and employees.
Our 2025 winners will be those companies who not only recognise the potential of AI, but also make it usable in everyday work – resulting in more efficiency and innovation in all areas.
Winners will be announced at an evening event at The Barbican in Central London on Wednesday, 3rd September.
AI Research
Humanoid robot says not aiming to ‘replace human artists’
When successful artist Ai-Da unveiled a new portrait of King Charles this week, the humanoid robot described what inspired the layered and complex piece, and insisted it had no plans to “replace” humans.
The ultra-realistic robot, one of the most advanced in the world, is designed to resemble a human woman with an expressive, life-like face, large hazel eyes and brown hair cut in a bob.
The arms though are unmistakably robotic, with exposed metal, and can be swapped out depending on the art form it is practicing.
Late last year, Ai-Da’s portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing became the first artwork by a humanoid robot to be sold at auction, fetching over $1 million.
But as Ai-Da unveiled its latest creation — an oil painting entitled “Algorithm King”, conceived using artificial intelligence — the humanoid insisted the work’s importance could not be measured in money.
“The value of my artwork is to serve as a catalyst for discussions that explore ethical dimensions to new technologies,” the robot told AFP at Britain’s diplomatic mission in Geneva, where the new portrait of King Charles will be housed.
The idea, Ai-Da insisted in a slow, deliberate cadence, was to “foster critical thinking and encourage responsible innovation for more equitable and sustainable futures”.
– ‘Unique and creative’ –
Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations’ AI for Good summit, Ai-Da, who has done sketches, paintings and sculptures, detailed the methods and inspiration behind the work.
“When creating my art, I use a variety of AI algorithms,” the robot said.
“I start with a basic idea or concept that I want to explore, and I think about the purpose of the art. What will it say?”
The humanoid pointed out that “King Charles has used his platform to raise awareness on environmental conservation and interfaith dialog. I have aimed this portrait to celebrate” that, it said, adding that “I hope King Charles will be appreciative of my efforts”.
Aidan Meller, a specialist in modern and contemporary art, led the team that created Ai-Da in 2019 with artificial intelligence specialists at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham.
He told AFP that he had conceived the humanoid robot — named after the world’s first computer programmer Ada Lovelace — as an ethical arts project, and not “to replace the painters”.
Ai-Da agreed.
There is “no doubt that AI is changing our world, (including) the art world and forms of human creative expression”, the robot acknowledged.
But “I do not believe AI or my artwork will replace human artists”.
Instead, Ai-Da said, the aim was “to inspire viewers to think about how we use AI positively, while remaining conscious of its risks and limitations”.
Asked if a painting made by a machine could really be considered art, the robot insisted that “my artwork is unique and creative”.
“Whether humans decide it is art is an important and interesting point of conversation.”
nl/vog/gv
AI Research
TSU and the AIRI Institute have opened an artificial intelligence laboratory in chemistry and molecular engineering | News
The laboratory will develop and implement AI methods for creating new materials and medicines based on the analysis of chemical, biological and medical data.
It was opened at the Engineering Chemical Technology Center (ECTC). The new division will use AI to develop new medicines and simulate the properties of chemical compounds. For example, scientists will create methods for predicting the physico-chemical properties of chemical compounds and algorithms for analyzing quantum patterns in atomic and molecular physics, including macroscopic quantum effects. They will conduct research in the field of chemoinformatics (chemical informatics, molecular informatics), bioinformatics at the levels of DNA, cells and tissues, and develop digital assistants and intelligent decision support systems for chemical technologies.
Artur Kadurin, head of the AI in Life Sciences Research Group at the AIRI Institute and scientific director of the new laboratory, noted during the event that modern life sciences and materials science generate unprecedented amounts of data. The laboratory’s task is to develop and apply AI methods to analyze and combine this heterogeneous information at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and physics.
“Accelerating the development of therapeutic drugs and functional materials depends on our ability to predict the complex properties of substances and their interactions. We will focus on creating computational approaches that will make it possible to effectively use the potential of artificial intelligence technologies to solve these problems. In turn, experts from TSU will provide the experimental validation of the proposed methods,” said Artur Kadurin.
According to Vyacheslav Goiko, director of the TSU Institute for Big Data Analysis and Artificial Intelligence, the introduction of AI into the work of chemical scientists and molecular engineering specialists is a fundamental change in the very logic of scientific research.
“The future belongs to those who learn how to use AI to accelerate scientific research and generate new knowledge. And this future is being created here in Tomsk today. These are colleagues from the AI Institute, recognized leaders in the field of fundamental and applied AI research. Our team has extensive experience in conducting research and applied developments based on the Cyberia supercomputer. ECTC provides expertise in synthesis and analysis of substances and in scaling of chemical processes,” said Vyacheslav Goiko.
Unique ECTC plants will be used for the projects of the new laboratory. For example, the center’s scientists are currently developing Russia’s first AI system for actual production in low-tonnage chemicals.
“The main goal is to accelerate the production cycle, eliminate the human factor to increase the accuracy and safety of the process, which, in this case, is the production of sodium tartrate. AI helps predict changes in parameters and clearly analyze the consequences of changes, which is important in the continuous process of developing a substance,” said Aleksey Knyazev, Director of the ECTC, Acting Dean of the Department of Chemistry at TSU.
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