Epic Systems AI failures

Epic's sepsis prediction model missed two-thirds of cases with 88% false alarms, a study found

The Epic Sepsis Model, a proprietary sepsis prediction algorithm embedded in Epic's electronic health record platform and deployed at hundreds of US hospitals, was found to miss 67% of sepsis cases while generating 88% false alarms in an independent external validation published in JAMA Internal Medicine in June 2021. The model's discrimination (AUC 0.63) was substantially worse than Epic's claimed performance (AUC 0.76 to 0.83). Epic subsequently overhauled the model in 2022, changing its sepsis definition, reducing reliance on antibiotic orders, and recommending site-specific training before clinical use.

Confidence

High (multi-source, primary)