03:50 PM
Epic this past week released statistics showing that health systems using its interoperability platform Care Everywhere had shared more than 221 million patient records in a one-month period this fall.
The jump, said the electronic health records giant, represents a nearly 40% increase from the same period the year before.
Dave Fuhrmann, senior vice president of interoperability at Epic, said the growth reflects the desire for mobility and increasing demand for healthcare services amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. With COVID-19, we got to see some of the value of that [interoperability] work at Epic, he said. Particularly as patients sought telehealth treatment, providers having the ability to access records made treatment more seamless and efficient.