Epic Systems, the dominant force in electronic health records (EHR), recently hosted Open@Epic — a dedicated conference bringing together nearly 1,000 healthcare app developers, standards experts, and health IT professionals. The event spotlighted Epic’s expanding interoperability ecosystem and its commitment to making data exchange faster, safer, and more accessible for all stakeholders.
What Is Open@Epic?
A Developer-First Conference for Healthcare Innovation
Open@Epic is a focused, developer-driven conference designed for anyone building healthcare apps or services that connect with Epic software. Unlike broader health IT conferences, this event zeroes in on practical tools, free resources, and technical pathways that help developers integrate with Epic’s EHR platform.
Seth Hain, Epic’s Senior Vice President of R&D, opened the event by stressing the value of collaboration and “two-way learning.” He described these as foundational principles for creating data exchange that is both thoughtful and efficient. “The goal here is to make it easy for everyone — from a health system onboarding a new physician to a payer to an app developer — to have a shared understanding of relationships between providers, payers, and other entities,” Hain said.
A Record-Breaking Year for Data Exchange
745 Billion Exchanges and Counting
The scale of Epic’s interoperability reach is staggering. In the past year alone, more than 745 billion data exchanges took place through Epic’s publicly available APIs. Furthermore, more than 800 data exchange technologies are now available to developers, powering over 2.04 billion patient data transactions every single day.
These numbers reflect a healthcare ecosystem increasingly dependent on open, standards-based connectivity. Consequently, Epic’s platform has become the backbone of a growing network of third-party apps and digital health solutions.
Simplifying Patient Access with MyChart Central
One ID, One Account, All Your Health Data
One of the most significant announcements at Open@Epic was the nationwide rollout of MyChart Central. This feature allows patients to consolidate health data from multiple healthcare organizations into a single account using one Epic-issued ID.
Additionally, Epic previewed real-time “blue dot” wayfinding in MyChart — a feature that will help patients navigate to the right provider location when they arrive at a facility. This update is scheduled for release in November. Moreover, new Bluetooth Generic Health Sensor specifications will let patients connect home monitoring devices, such as blood pressure cuffs, directly to their MyChart records. These improvements collectively make it easier for patients to build a rich, continuous health history that doctors can actually use.
New Tools Empowering App Developers
Playbooks, Sandboxes, and the Showroom Marketplace
Epic also rolled out a suite of tools to streamline developer onboarding and reduce friction during app development. A new five-step guide and over 40 developer playbooks now help developers avoid common pitfalls during integration. The playbooks outline the exact sequence of APIs and interfaces needed for specific data exchange workflows.
Additionally, an expanded self-service API catalog includes enhanced sandbox testing capabilities. The “Try It” button on each API page lets developers immediately test inputs and understand outputs without needing Epic’s direct involvement. This vendor-neutral approach means developers can build, test, and deploy apps independently.
Meanwhile, the Epic Showroom marketplace now lists over 1,000 apps that connect with Epic — a clear indicator of the platform’s growing developer ecosystem. Apps with the Toolbox designation, which signals use of Epic-recommended integration approaches, now cover new categories including Collaborative Care Plans, ECG Management, and Nursing Quality Metrics.
Safety and Prior Authorization APIs
Solving Healthcare’s Biggest Administrative Hurdles
Two major API releases are on the horizon. First, Epic is releasing over 50 new APIs to improve provider-payer communication and speed up prior authorization approvals — one of the most persistent administrative burdens in American healthcare. Second, a new set of Staff Duress APIs will deliver location-aware alerts that help clinical staff call for help when their safety is threatened. Several developers are already building connected apps to support these use cases.
Also forthcoming is broader support for the Clarity Data Model, giving developers access to population-level data for AI, analytics, and population health applications. Together, these additions address both safety and efficiency challenges that health systems face daily.
What’s Next: Open@Epic 2026
Bigger, Broader, and Back in Verona
Following the success of the first conference in September 2025, Epic has confirmed that Open@Epic will return on October 21–22, 2026, in Verona, Wisconsin. Registration opens July 16. Since the first event, patient-directed data exchanges using Epic APIs have grown from approximately 3.1 billion per month to 3.7 billion — a clear sign that the conference is already translating ideas into action.
“Open@Epic 2025 was an energizing event, and many of the ideas discussed there are now reality,” said Seth Howard, Epic’s Executive Vice President of R&D. “We’re looking forward to bringing everyone together again to keep building on that momentum.”
