Why We Do What We Do: Promoting Wellness for Clinicians and Patients

Understanding the realities faced by clinicians is essential to creating user-friendly software. Dr. Jackie Gerhart, one of the physicians on Epic’s clinical informatics team, uses her experience to impact development, improve usability for clinicians, and drive better patient outcomes.

“Having physicians on staff at Epic allows for our software to be clinically driven—with the patient at the heart of everything we do,” Jackie said.

Jackie knew from early on that she wanted a life in service. That goal took her to medical school and eventually to family practice, where she was drawn to the opportunity to provide care across a patient’s lifespan. She loved her practice—in fact, she’s still a practicing physician—but she wanted to have an even broader impact. This led her to Epic.

“To solve the world’s healthcare problems and disparities, we need to work on collaborative teams and focus on innovation,” Jackie said. “We want clinicians to be empowered to provide excellent care in their communities. To do this we need software that helps clinicians make evidence-based decisions and that allows them to work at the top of their license.”

To this end, Jackie guides strategies for programs to improve clinician wellbeing, such as “Home for Dinner” programs. She also worked with clinician leadership from the Epic community to develop a strategy handbook that compiles best practices for clinician efficiency and wellness.

Epic community members can learn more about these strategies on the UserWeb.