When experts worried some high blood pressure medications could harm people with COVID-19, researchers at Epic Systems Corp. mined data from 69,000 patients, which suggested the drugs were safe.
After the coronavirus shutdown in March caused many patients to avoid routine care, Verona-based Epic quantified the impact on cancer screening: Tests to detect breast, cervical and colon cancer dropped about 90%, which encouraged hospitals to boost screening again.
Those findings and many others have been published in the Epic Health Research Network, an online journal the company started this spring to rapidly share observational research gathered from its electronic medical records. The effort, discussed before COVID-19, was accelerated by the pandemic.
“Things are unfolding very quickly, and getting those learnings into the hands of the appropriate people is really important,” said Dr. Chris Mast, Epic’s vice president of clinical informatics. Read the full story here.
;
