Session Information
This year’s Open@Epic sessions ranged from practical guidelines for building, launching and scaling applications to technical discussions FHIR, APIs, Security, and connected care. Those in attendance learned from real-world implementations, explored standards and policies, as well as found ways they could shape the future of interoperability. Our presenters for 2026 included Epic experts, healthcare leaders, vendors, and government partners.
Click the titles below to view the entire presentation.
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Build, Launch, and Grow
OEC01 Welcome and General Session
Presenters: Seth Howard and Antonia Papajani, Epic
The opening session reviewed major opportunities in healthcare, Epic’s latest connectivity work, the role of industry standards, and ways vendors could collaborate with Epic and standards organizations.
OEC03 Showing Up in Showroom: Epic Ecosystem Programs Step-by-Step
Presenter: Zach Klein, Epic
The session mapped the app journey from an initial idea through connectivity and Showroom listing, outlining Epic resources, API options, and program paths for both new and established vendors.
OEC04 CampFHIR Build-Along
Presenters: Matt Sargent and Seth Hickman, Epic
Epic demonstrated how developers could use the public Epic on FHIR site to turn an idea into a developed, tested, and customer-ready application.
OEC05 Configure This Out Together
Presenters: Dena Iadanza, Oregon Health & Science University, and Carter Jacobs, Epic
The session identified the information and Epic resources vendors could use to help health systems implement third-party integrations faster and with less demand on local IT teams.
OEC06 Getting Started with Open.Epic
Presenter: Justin Hewitt, Epic
The session walked through Epic’s Developer Guide, covering API selection, repeatable connectivity, simulator testing, and successful customer implementation.
OEC08 Data Exchange Design Principles and Guidance
Presenters: Sebastian Zhang and Stephen Fedewa, Epic
Presenters reviewed Open.Epic’s self-service playbooks, implementation guidance, developer documentation, and other resources for designing and supporting common data-exchange workflows.
OEC09 Spreading the Word: Tips & Tools for Marketing
Presenters: Emily Klein and Justin Hewitt, Epic
Presenters explained how vendors could describe their Epic connections accurately and use Showroom to improve product discoverability.
OEC13 How to Meet Customer Needs: Advice for Startups
Presenter: Joshua Liu, MD, SeamlessMD
SeamlessMD’s founder shared lessons from moving beyond an unsuccessful pilot, balancing clinical value with customer business needs, and adapting a digital health company as the market changed.
OEC19 Navigating App Governance: A Provider’s Perspective
Presenter: Brian Derr, Mass General Brigham
Mass General Brigham shared how health systems evaluated applications, what information vendors needed for an efficient implementation, and how vendors could prepare for long-term product support.
OEC20 Panel: Building Productive Relationships for Successful Implementations
Panelists: Christopher Catallo, Fullscript; Suzanne Wogelius, Hyphen; Chad Darling, Midmark Corporation; Katie Blando, Surescripts; and Cameron Szychlinski, Epic
Vendor leaders discussed how they used customer feedback to strengthen their products, navigated Epic customer implementations, and built relationships that supported better outcomes.
FHIR, APIs, and Technical Implementation
OEC02 FHIR Roadmap
Presenters: Brian Swinkels and Casey Fitzgerald, Epic
Presenters reviewed the direction of FHIR across Epic and the broader industry, including development priorities, standards activity, regulatory changes, and work to make exchange more scalable, flexible, and secure.
OEC10 Going the Distance with API Performance
Presenters: Danny Pocklington and Jeff Minnerly, Epic
Presenters shared techniques for monitoring and improving API performance to deliver faster queries, better user experiences, and more efficient use of infrastructure.
OEC11 OAuth2 in Healthcare
Presenter: Michael Briggs, Epic
The session examined how OAuth 2.0 supported secure, patient- and user-mediated data exchange with Epic while addressing healthcare privacy and HIPAA considerations.
OEC14 Speed, Safety, and Standards: Engineering Your Connection
Presenter: Ben Garstecki, Epic
The session explained how vendors could select connectivity technologies based on workflow, performance, security, and patient privacy, and why Epic prioritized industry standards over proprietary approaches.
OEC15 Casting a Wide Net: FHIRcast and Context Synchronization
Presenters: Fredrik Hult, Sectra AB, and Dave Danaher, Epic
Presenters reviewed the development of FHIRcast and explained how the standard enabled synchronized applications and more connected clinical workflows across vendors.
OEC16 From Pilot to Production: Shipping a SMART on FHIR App
Presenters: Anbumalar Singaravelu and Jeritt Thayer, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Using a clinical decision-support app as an example, presenters examined the technical, security, governance, workflow, and organizational requirements for moving a SMART on FHIR application from pilot to scalable production use.
OEC17 Bulk FHIR: Lessons Learned
Presenter: Elizabeth Sprouse, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health
The session shared practical lessons from healthcare and public health implementations of Bulk FHIR, with a focus on designing and scaling group-level data exports.
OEC21 FHIRstarting (Without Burning Anything Down)
Presenter: Emma Miller, Epic
The session introduced FHIR’s capabilities, Epic’s supported resources, appropriate use cases, and practical guidance for connecting through FHIR-based technologies.
OEC22 Bulking Up Your Data Extracts for Populations and Analytics
Presenters: Emily Williams and Sam Northcott, Epic
Presenters compared Bulk FHIR, Kit, and Clarity and explained how vendors could choose the most appropriate option for population data, analytics, and reporting needs.
OEC25 FHIR Prior Authorization (CMS-0057)
Presenters: Kyle Gleason and Mason Beaker, Epic
Presenters reviewed Epic’s work with health plans and health systems to implement Da Vinci prior-authorization standards and shared lessons for integrating CRD, DTR, and PAS APIs.
OEC27 CDS Hooks: Clinical Decision Support at Point of Care
Presenters: Howard Strasberg, MD, MS, FAMIA, FACMI, First Databank, and Isaac Vetter, Epic
Epic and First Databank reviewed the development and value of CDS Hooks and shared implementation experience using the standard to deliver real-time clinical decision support.
OEC29 How Industry Standards Can Solve Real-World Challenges
Presenters: John Stamm and Natan Shpringman, Epic
The session used challenges such as death-data reporting to show how collaborative standards were created and how vendors could bring forward use cases and participate in ongoing standards work.
OEC31 Connecting the Dots: Introduction to Patient Matching
Presenters: Luke Breyer and Max Lauster, Epic
Presenters explained Epic’s approach to patient matching, the clinical and operational consequences of incorrect matches, and the practices required for high-quality results.
Patient Access and Connected Care
OEC07 Staying in the Loop: 360x Closed-Loop Referral Exchange
Presenters: Claire Aviles, athenahealth; Farah Saeed, eClinicalWorks; and Jack Hathway, Epic
Representatives from athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, and Epic shared lessons from implementing and scaling standardized closed-loop referral exchange across EHR platforms.
OEC12 Panel: Designing in Partnership with Nurses
Panelists: Mary Jagim, MS, RN, CEN, FAEN, CenTrak, Inc.; Elissa Baker, BSN, RN, Nesa; Rikki Jennings, BSN, RN, CPN, Zebra Technologies; and Gregg Springan, MSN, RN, Epic
Healthcare technology leaders shared how direct collaboration with nurses influenced product decisions, exposed practical tradeoffs, and produced solutions that worked better at the bedside.
OEC18 Connecting with MyChart
Presenters: John Darnell and Mike Espe, Epic
Presenters reviewed MyChart’s data-exchange capabilities and shared recommended practices for building patient-facing applications that connected effectively with MyChart.
OEC24 Paperless, Please: Streamlining Patient Authentication
Presenters: Christopher Tan, Apple, and Ben Young, Epic
Apple and Epic presented planned support for mobile driver’s licenses and passport-derived digital IDs in MyChart signup and explained how vendors could apply standards-based digital identity verification in their own solutions.
OEC28 Works with Epic MyChart: Native Bluetooth Device Support
Presenters: Michael Jeong, Bluetooth SIG; Bryan Potter, Greater Goods; and Lauren Majors, IBCLC, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Presenters explained how evolving Bluetooth standards allowed patients to share information from supported medical devices with their care teams through Epic and MyChart.
OEC33 Empowering Patients to Improve Drug Affordability, Access, and Safety
Presenters: Tanvi Patel, Amazon Pharmacy; Ricky Li, Costco Pharmacy; Jennifer Mazur, Eli Lilly; and Chris Soverns, Joel Jones, PharmD, and Nick Zoretic, Epic
Leaders from Amazon Pharmacy, Costco Pharmacy, Eli Lilly, and Epic discussed industry efforts to improve prescription pricing transparency, medication availability, fulfillment options, adherence, and patient safety.
OEC34 Panel: Faster Veteran Access to Specialty Care
Panelists: Andrew Beck, Deaconess Health System; Laura Gilmore, MSN, RN, Marion VAMC; Stacey Swanson and Howard Manuel, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; and Chris Faraji, WellHive
Representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs, healthcare organizations, and technology companies discussed how Epic scheduling APIs helped connect veterans with specialty care and close care gaps.
Policy and Security
OEC26 US Government-Backed Connectivity Initiatives
Presenter: Harry Freedman, Epic
The session reviewed how TEFCA, Individual Access Services, the CMS Health Technology Ecosystem, and digital identity initiatives were creating new connectivity opportunities for third-party applications.
OEC30 Cybersecurity and Risk Intelligence
Presenter: Daniel Sergile, Unit42
Unit42 examined the growing threats facing healthcare data, including risks accelerated by AI, and shared strategies for meeting health systems’ security requirements.
Wrap-Up
OEC32 Wrap-Up: Putting It All Together
Presenters: Antonia Papajani, Chris Cameron, Danielle Friend, Harry Freedman, and Isaac Vetter, Epic
Epic presenters summarized the conference’s major themes, answered attendee and industry questions, and reinforced the key actions participants could take after the event.