Ep 42 | From Charting to Cosmos | Jackie Gerhart MD | VP of Clinical Informatics & CMO | Epic

🎧 Overall Summary:

In this episode, Dr. Jackie Gerhart, VP of Clinical Informatics and Chief Medical Officer at Epic, joins Adam and Dale to discuss how Epic is transforming healthcare through generative AI, interoperability, and data-driven tools like Cosmos. She shares her journey from family medicine into health tech and offers an inside look at how Epic is using technology to reduce clinician burden, personalize care, and shape future healthcare policy.

🔹 The Person – Dr. Jackie Gerhart’s Journey to Epic (00:00–09:50)

Jackie shares her path from biomedical engineering into medicine, driven by a passion for solving problems with people rather than machines. She practiced full-scope family medicine for 7–8 years before transitioning into informatics at Epic to make broader system-level impact. She continues to practice urgent care to stay grounded in real-world clinical needs.

🔹 The Company/Product – Epic’s Physician Role, Mission, and Evolution (09:51–21:15)

Jackie outlines how Epic physicians evolved from demoing software to becoming strategic partners and informaticists influencing product development, R&D, and customer support. She emphasizes Epic’s commitment to usability, patient-centered design, and building tools that are meaningful, efficient, and clinically impactful.

🔹 Under the Hood – GenAI, Ambient Tech, and Smart Integration (21:16–35:55)

Jackie dives into how Epic is using generative AI across the healthcare stack. Applications include AI-powered ambient charting, inbasket automation, clinical summarization, and decision support. She emphasizes the need to match tech with organizational problems and to avoid jumping on “shiny object” solutions without a clear use case.

🔹 The Data Behind the Product – Cosmos and Precision Care (35:56–48:50)

Cosmos, Epic’s collaborative dataset of 293 million patient records, is now powering decision support at the point of care. Tools like Best Care Choices for My Patient and Lookalikes allow providers to tailor treatment plans or diagnose rare conditions by comparing patient-specific data to nationwide trends. Future aspirations include patient-facing tools to promote shared decision-making and personalized guidance.

🔹 Policy, Interoperability & TEFCA (48:51–56:50)

Jackie shares Epic’s historical commitment to interoperability, sparked by a tragic story that led to the creation of Care Everywhere. She explains Epic’s leadership role in TEFCA, which aims to establish common data standards across EHR systems, and how this framework will bring long-tail providers and digital health vendors into the fold.

🔹 The Future of Healthcare & What Excites Jackie (56:51–59:30)

Jackie envisions a world where empowered patients and AI-informed clinicians collaborate with precision data to make truly personalized medical decisions. She wants medical education to reflect this dynamic and constantly updated reality.

🔹 Lightning Round – Nerd Alert (59:31–End)

Jackie shares:

* Favorite productivity hack: Using ChatGPT and Copilot; clinically, she loves chart search and Epic’s secure messaging.

* Last book/podcast: Good to Great, Brotopia, and a STAT podcast on JPM 2024.

* Comfort food: Popcorn, pasta, matzo ball soup, and nostalgia for Blue Moon ice cream.

* Surprising fact: She was once bitten by a penguin in South Africa!

* Must-have tech (non-phone): Podcasts and online learning platforms—critical for lifelong learning in medicine.

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