Dr. Jackie Gerhart is a family physician, clinical informaticist, and Chief Medical Officer at Epic — the company whose software powers much of American healthcare. From ambient documentation and AI scribes to patient-facing AI assistants like Emmy, Epic is now redefining how data, technology, and the human touch coexist in clinical care.
Few physicians have seen this evolution from the inside and even fewer have helped shape it.
In this episode of How I Doctor, host Dr. Graham Walker talks with Jackie about Epic’s internal culture, its push to make the EHR invisible, and the company’s next wave of physician-centric innovation. Jackie also opens up about Epic’s development philosophy, the company’s obsessive customer-focus, and why she believes we’re entering the most exciting era in modern medicine, but only if physicians can stay engaged in shaping what comes next.
This episode pulls back the curtain on one of healthcare’s most influential companies and offers a grounded look at how Epic envisions the future of practice for the doctors who depend on it every day.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- How Epic’s “software-factory” model enables faster innovation across healthcare.
- Where many EHR frustrations stem from and how Epic considers what to address.
- How Epic’s new AI tools, Art and Emmy, aim to reduce friction for both doctors and patients.
- What “the office visit of the future” could look like – powered by ambient AI with no typing and no mouse.
- How Epic thinks about collaboration vs. competition with startups like Abridge and partners like Microsoft.
- Why Dr. Gerhart believes this is the most exciting time to practice medicine in decades.
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Mentioned in this episode:
We're releasing a Physicians AI Whitepaper and need your help!
Calling all MDs: Help us shape the future of what AI looks like in medicine.
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This Episode is Sponsored by Abridge
Abridge is the leading AI platform that drafts structured, clinically useful notes at the point of conversation
Abridge Sponsor
