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Epic released Care Everywhere Diagnostic Image Exchange, letting health systems on its EHR directly share full diagnostic-quality CT, X-ray and MRI images with each other, marking a significant expansion of interoperability capabilities through the new Epic Diagnostic Image Exchange tool.
The Interoperability Gap Behind Epic Diagnostic Image Exchange
The release targets a persistent interoperability gap: diagnostic-quality images live in imaging archiving systems outside the EHR, and until now, health systems lacked an open standard for exchanging them. Epic said in an Aug. 13 news release that the gap has forced clinicians into manual image retrieval and left millions of patients carrying scans between appointments on CDs.
How the Tool Closes This Gap
Diagnostic Image Exchange closes that gap by layering open image-exchange standards onto Epic’s existing Care Everywhere network, which for years has let organizations share written radiology reports and lower-resolution reference images. Clinicians used those reference images to identify which full-resolution scan they needed, then retrieved it manually; now they can pull it with one click.
Epic’s Push for Industry-Wide Standards Beyond Diagnostic Image Exchange
Matt Doyle, Epic’s director of interoperability, said Epic is the first vendor to adopt open image-sharing standards at scale and is pushing the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, the federally sponsored interoperability framework, to adopt the same standards so any U.S. health system can exchange diagnostic images, regardless of EHR vendor.
Why This Vendor-Agnostic Ambition Matters
Epic’s push for TEFCA to adopt the same open standards signals an intent to extend this capability beyond Epic’s own customer base, suggesting the company sees genuine value in solving the diagnostic image exchange problem industrywide rather than treating it purely as a competitive advantage confined to health systems already using Epic.
How This Tool Sharpens Epic’s Duplicate-Order Checks
The upgrade also sharpens Epic’s duplicate-order checks, which already flag when a patient has had imaging done elsewhere and prevent more than 21,000 repeat scans a year; clinicians can now retrieve the flagged image directly rather than reordering the scan.
Why Reducing Repeat Scans Matters for Patients and Costs
Allowing clinicians to retrieve a flagged prior scan directly, rather than reordering an entirely new one, could meaningfully reduce unnecessary radiation exposure, patient inconvenience, and healthcare costs tied to duplicate imaging, building directly on the value Epic’s existing duplicate-order detection system already provides.
Availability of Epic Diagnostic Image Exchange
Diagnostic Image Exchange is available across the Epic community immediately, meaning health systems already running Epic’s EHR platform can begin using the tool without a separate implementation timeline or rollout schedule.
What Immediate Availability Signals
Making this feature available immediately across the entire Epic community, rather than through a staged or limited rollout, suggests Epic views the underlying technology as sufficiently mature and ready for broad deployment, a notable contrast to how some vendors introduce major new interoperability features through smaller pilot programs first.
What This Epic Diagnostic Image Exchange Launch Means Going Forward
With immediate availability across the Epic community and Epic actively advocating for TEFCA to adopt the same open standards, this tool could meaningfully reduce the administrative burden and patient inconvenience tied to diagnostic image sharing between hospitals in the near term. Given the tool builds directly on Epic’s existing Care Everywhere network and duplicate-order detection system, health systems already using these features may see the fastest and most seamless integration of full-resolution image sharing into their existing clinical workflows.
What to Watch Going Forward
As health systems begin adopting Diagnostic Image Exchange, industry observers will likely watch whether TEFCA and other EHR vendors follow Epic’s lead in adopting open image-exchange standards, a development that could eventually enable true cross-vendor image sharing nationwide. Given the stated goal of reducing the more than 21,000 repeat scans Epic’s duplicate-order checks already flag annually, the Epic Diagnostic Image Exchange tool’s real-world impact on reducing redundant imaging and improving care coordination will likely become clearer as adoption spreads across the Epic community in the coming months.
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