Epic Launches Care Everywhere Diagnostic Image Exchange to Reduce Reliance on CDs

Built on open image exchange standards, the new capability enables clinicians to identify previous imaging studies, retrieve the required scans with a single click, and automatically import them into their local PACS for review using existing clinical workflows.

Epic, a US-based EHR software company, has launched a new diagnostic image exchange capability within its Care Everywhere interoperability platform, enabling healthcare providers to access and share diagnostic-quality medical images across participating health systems.

The feature is designed to replace manual CD-based image transfers, improve clinical workflows, and help reduce unnecessary repeat imaging.

Built on open image exchange standards, the new capability enables clinicians to identify previous imaging studies, retrieve the required scans with a single click, and automatically import them into their local PACS for review using existing clinical workflows.

"The goal is that when a patient is coming in for a visit, that might be for a specialist consult, it might be for a second opinion, it might be follow-up on a cancer diagnosis, we need to make sure that the imaging studies done in the past are available to the provider for prep leading up to the visit, and then for use during the visit with the patient," said Matt Doyle, Epic's Director of Interoperability.

"This is using the same workflows that we've created before, where providers can really choose what they need to see. They can retrieve it in real-time to access as part of their care with the patient and really making sure that the provider is in the driver's seat to get that information, so that they can focus on what's most important, the patient sitting there in front of them who needs their medical judgment and expertise," Doyle added.

Care Everywhere, introduced in 2008, currently facilitates the exchange of around 30 million patient charts each day, with roughly half shared across non-Epic platforms.

Epic said the network exchanged a record 914 million health records in June alone.

By extending the platform to diagnostic imaging, the company aims to eliminate manual image transfers while making prior studies more readily available during patient care.

The initiative also aligns with broader efforts to improve nationwide health information exchange.

Epic is advocating for the use of open imaging standards within the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), a federally supported interoperability framework intended to simplify secure health data sharing across the United States.

The announcement also comes as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) advances its "ditch the disk" initiative through a dedicated diagnostic imaging acceleration workgroup focused on enabling seamless electronic image exchange.

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