EHR giant Epic is being sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who alleges the company blocks competition and restricts access to patient health data. The lawsuit adds to recent public and private sector signals that call for hospitals and patients to have better access to health data. While Paxton might have political motives outside of the health tech realm the lawsuit’s outcome could open the market to more Big Tech and digital health/AI players to create solutions that strengthen consumers’ and providers’ ability to access and share medical data across entities.

Oracle’s new AI portal, built on OpenAI’s technology, will let patients ask questions and get plain-language explanations about test results, diagnoses, and treatment options. Oracle understands patients are already using AI to interpret health records, so offering a safer, private way to do so is a smart move. Healthtech providers need to ensure AI tools for patients are highly accurate and offer clear guidance to users on how to use the tools, what the limits are, and when to seek human medical advice. Accuracy plus transparency is critical to building patient and provider trust.

The news: Epic rolled out new genAI tools for clinicians, including an AI scribe solution that transcribes doctors’ notes during patient visits. Epic will incorporate ambient technology from Microsoft to power its medical documentation technology. Our take: Epic’s AI scribe solution with Microsoft/Nuance as its development partner delivers a major blow to startups like Abridge and Ambience. These two companies are part of a booming ambient AI scribe space that has totaled nearly $1 billion in investment funding so far this year, per a July analysis from STAT. But Epic’s presence will make it much tougher for smaller players to stand out in the category, since doctors will be drawn in by the efficiency of using scribe tools from their EHR system.

Oracle unveils AI-powered EHR system: We think it could help the vendor capture market share from smaller players in the space because convincing Epic’s customers to switch platforms will be a tough sell.

Patients prefer AI-generated messages in their EHR: We unpack the results of new research that highlights AI’s ability to show empathy in patient communications.

The Epic, Particle Health saga unpacked: Particle’s recent filing of an antitrust lawsuit raises salient points on patient data privacy and anti-competitive behavior in healthcare.

Generative AI comes to EHRs: Microsoft’s strong AI position could bring the company more healthcare cloud customers since its integrated AI tech with Epic can only be accessed on Azure.

Consumer data is scattered across the healthcare ecosystem, hampering doctors’ ability to deliver the best possible care. Provider organizations and technology developers must now join forces to connect this data and unlock information trapped in health IT systems.

Google Cloud and Epic restart partnership: We examine if it’s enough to move Google up the healthcare cloud rankings.

Walgreens is helping its primary care partners reduce errors and speed up the reimbursement process as health execs plan to adopt RCM and billing tech.

Telehealth is here to stay. It’s time for providers, payers, and vendors to give consumers what they want and make telehealth services a competitive advantage—or risk being left behind.

Microsoft’s advanced interoperability features may be held back by healthcare entities lagging on the basics: We unpack how health apps and other players are still holding back widescale interoperability.

Cyberattacks on healthcare providers are surging, putting more pressure on them to protect their systems from breaches.

Nuance hooks deeper into the EHR space—but its AI voice tech alone won’t necessarily be enough to address the broad scope of clinicians’ administrative woes.