EMR in the News

New research finds ambient AI scribes — which listen to the visit and draft the note automatically — cut clinician documentation time by roughly 16 minutes per encounter and lowered total EHR time, helping ease burnout.

Roughly two-thirds of hospitals on Epic have adopted ambient AI documentation, with systems like Sharp HealthCare and MaineHealth reporting meaningful drops in after-hours charting.

Epic introduced a visual builder that lets health systems create their own AI agents, plus 'Curiosity' medical foundation models — alongside agents that draft notes, chase billing denials, and answer patient questions.

Oracle's rebuilt EHR favors voice commands over clicks and embeds AI agents across documentation, nursing, and revenue-cycle tasks.

The national interoperability framework scaled from ~10M records in early 2025 to nearly 500M, and the Social Security Administration now pulls records to speed benefit decisions. ONC also released draft USCDI v7 with 29 new data elements.

Ransomware remains healthcare's top cyber threat, with the average attack now costing about $10.2M. A 2026 breach at EHR vendor CareCloud is a reminder to confirm your vendor's MFA, encryption, and breach-response practices.

The 2026 rule streamlines the Medicare telehealth services list, permanently removes some visit-frequency limits, and sets the originating-site fee at $31.85 — changes your EMR's billing and telehealth setup should reflect.

Epic was the only EHR selected by large (10+ hospital) systems in 2025, adding 77 hospitals, while Oracle Health lost 56 — worth watching if you're weighing a vendor's long-term stability.