Open Source Epic Systems Alternatives
Epic Systems is the leading enterprise EHR platform used by major hospitals and health networks for clinical care, patient engagement, and research data.
Epic Systems is a privately held healthcare software company headquartered in Verona, Wisconsin, founded in 1979 by Judith Faulkner. It is one of the largest electronic health record (EHR) vendors in the world, with its platform used by a large share of major U.S. hospital systems, academic medical centers, and health networks, as well as health systems internationally. Epic’s core product is a comprehensive EHR that spans clinical documentation, order entry, scheduling, and billing across inpatient, outpatient, and emergency care settings.
Beyond the core EHR, Epic’s platform includes MyChart, a widely used patient portal for viewing records, messaging clinicians, and attending telehealth visits; Care Everywhere, an interoperability network that lets participating organizations exchange patient records with each other and with outside EHR systems; and Cosmos, a de-identified, aggregated research dataset drawn from patient records across Epic health systems that supports large-scale clinical research. Epic also offers Community Connect, which lets smaller hospitals and independent clinics run on a larger health system’s hosted Epic instance instead of deploying their own, extending Epic’s footprint into smaller care settings.
Epic is sold and implemented through direct enterprise contracts negotiated individually with each health system rather than through self-serve pricing or public tiers, which is standard practice for large-scale hospital EHR software given the scope of implementation, regulatory requirements, and integration work involved. There is no public pricing page, and deployments are typically multi-year projects involving significant configuration, training, and change management for the adopting organization.
What Epic Systems Offers
Epic EHR
Core electronic health record system for clinical documentation, order entry, scheduling, and billing across inpatient and outpatient care
MyChart
Patient portal that lets patients view records and lab results, message clinicians, schedule appointments, and attend telehealth visits
Cosmos
De-identified, aggregated research dataset spanning millions of patient records across Epic health systems, used for population-level clinical research
Care Everywhere
Interoperability network that lets participating health systems exchange patient records with each other and with external EHRs
Community Connect
Program that lets smaller hospitals and clinics run on a larger health system's hosted Epic instance instead of buying their own
Healthy Planet
Population health management tools for care gap tracking, risk stratification, and value-based care programs
Tapestry
Payer-side platform supporting claims administration, reimbursement, and care management for health plans
Ambient AI documentation tools
AI-assisted tools that help clinicians draft notes and reduce administrative documentation burden
Common Use Cases
Large hospital systems
Multi-hospital health networks run Epic as their system-of-record EHR across inpatient, outpatient, and emergency care
Smaller clinics via Community Connect
Independent practices and critical-access hospitals adopt Epic hosted by a larger regional health system rather than deploying their own instance
Clinical researchers
Academic medical centers and research teams use the Cosmos dataset to study de-identified, aggregated patient outcomes at scale
Patients
Patients use MyChart to view lab results, message providers, refill prescriptions, and attend virtual visits
Health plans and payers
Insurers use Tapestry to manage claims, provider networks, and value-based care contracts
