Epic Systems has forged a deal with Geisinger Health System spinoff xG Health Solutions to embed Geisinger-developed care management content into Epic EHRs and Healthy Planet, Epic’s population health management platform.

“The unique thing that Geisinger did was that the hard work of codifying medical knowledge in a way the computer could understand it,” Epic President Carl Dvorak told Healthcare IT News. “We’re really excited to work with them on opportunities to share across the community, which is why we’re working with xG, making some of their offerings standard options that people can get with their Epic system and create a community of learning that will funnel feedback and further knowledge into the process.”

The content will be available for use by Epic clients later this year, and according to xG, Epic is slated to demonstrate how it works with Healthy Planet at HIMSS17.

The clinical content is based on nationally-recognized practice guidelines and standards of care. It includes assessments and care plans for 60 conditions most commonly addressed in care management programs.

The content also includes evidence-based comprehensive and condition-specific assessments, as well as rules that are applied to assessment responses to produce a patient-specific care plan. The plan includes goals and interventions on an automated basis.

Dvorak noted that some of the work Geisinger does in Pennsylvania is also applicable in Denmark, the UK and the Netherlands and many other places around the world.

“The true benefit that’s being done right now is we’re able to encode it in such a way that it can be shared across systems, across the world,” Dvorak added.

xG Health Solutions CEO Earl Steinberg, MD, said that the agreement enables Epic customers to tap into evidence-based clinical protocols and workflows and do so in a manner integrated with their EMR.

Geisinger spun off xG started a little more than a year ago and has also licensed the content to Cerner.

xG executives realized that each EHR maker would use the content in different ways, Steinberg said, while xG focuses on keeping the content up to date.

Financial terms of the deal with Epic were not released.

HIMSS17 runs from Feb. 19-23, 2017 at the Orange County Convention Center.

This article is part of our ongoing coverage of HIMSS17. Visit Destination HIMSS17 for previews, reporting live from the show floor and after the conference.

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