SPI Premium Insight: Connecting the Dots on Epic’s App Store Strategy
Published: February 21, 2023
With minimal fanfare, Epic pulled the shutters down on its app store in December. At the time, the EHR giant provided little in the way of rationale for the move, but the subsequent launch of its replacement Connection Hub store this month offered more of a glimpse into its reasoning.
The Signify View
By all accounts, App Orchard was successful, with 550-plus third-party apps listed offering Epic’s customers access to an array of healthcare IT functionality beyond that provided by its EHR solution. But, with new regulations in the US demanding greater software interoperability, App Orchard’s days were always numbered. Epic has not always been the most accommodating partner for third-party app developers, its relatively ‘closed book’ approach to integration contrasting with the more open path taken by some rival EHR vendors. Partly cajoled into this new spirit of openness (rather than purely off its own back), Epic nonetheless says Connection Hub is ‘an easy way for developers to let the world know that they connect to Epic software’.