Epic’s data model is highly complex, with Cache-based Chronicles offering 95K+ data elements, it’s Clarity Reporting suite housing 12k+ tables and 125K+ columns, and Cogito BI & Analytical Reporting Data Warehouse consisting of 19 fact tables and 76 dimensions. Epic’s PHM initiative, Healthy Planet, includes Cogito – a comprehensive approach to supporting the needs of analytics users. Its data model encompasses transactional data (Chronicles), an operational data store, and an EDW (Caboodle). It uses these data sources to supply reporting and analytics to a wide range to a variety of user types. Functional Medicine Associates also has an integral care management application that relies on Cogito data. For non-Hyperspace users, Epic provides much of the same data and functionality via its EpicCare Link (Healthy Planet Link) clinician portal. Cogito is broader than PHM since Epic customers use it to improve clinical, financial, administrative, and operational workflows and processes in other contexts as well.
Epic Enterprise Intelligence Suite
Cogito is Epic’s enterprise intelligence suite, which includes everything related to Epic reporting and analytics (Clarity, Radar, Reporting Workbench, data warehouse, Analytics). The trade name is from the Latin phrase “cogito ergo sum” – “I think, therefore I am.”
The Cogito Data Warehouse can help report more easily on a variety of topics from allergies and procedure orders to billing transactions and hospital admissions. The data warehouse is meant to bring together Epic and external data to allow users to create reports to meet their own needs.
Leveraging the Cogito Data Warehouse enables the integration and aggregation of Epic data with external data, for use in reporting and analysis including inclusion/exclusion rules and the population metrics. Furthermore, data stored in Cogito can be integrated back into Epic Chronicles and is available and actionable at the point of care. The data can also be leveraged and made available in the disease and wellness registries, and reported on within care management or via Epic Radar reports.
Epic Cogito DW Overview
An analytical database combining Epic and Non-Epic Data
- Pre-defined healthcare data model
- Seamless flow of Epic data from Clarity database
- Extensible to include non-Epic data
- Common data model across Epic Customers
- Facilitates collaboration with other Epic customers
- Target Markets
- Academic Medical Centers, Health Systems, Clinics
- Pricing Model
- Included for Epic EHR customers with data feed fees and PMPY to include non-Epic EHR lives.
- Uses
- Research
- Sophisticated cohort selection (RDB)
- Quality and clinical research
- Population Health
- Combining clinical data with external clinical, claims and patient satisfaction data
- Performance Improvement
- Monitoring clinical and operational metrics for Epic and non-Epic data
- Streamlined reporting for Epic data
- Highly simplified version of Clarity
- Research
In mid-2016, Epic renamed the data warehouse portion of the suite “Caboodle” and CEO Judy Faulkner is now working on Kit – as in Kit & Caboodle. “Kit is making everything very open,” Faulkner said. For more intensive data needs, users with Epic’s Caboodle enterprise data warehouse can now use Kit, a companion tool, to authorize access to approved entities for research, population health management, or clinical decision making. “Kit is a veneer over Caboodle that takes all the data entered into Caboodle and lets authorized users access it that way instead of having to do those interfaces, CCDAs, and APIs,” Faulkner said. “All the data is there. They can just go at it. So an organization such as Health Catalyst or Watson can go into the data and do what they’re best at doing with it.”
Epic’s Healthcare Analytics Market Analysis
As part of their recently publicly shared 2017 Healthcare Analytics Market Trends Report, Chilmark Research evaluated Epic’ analytics suite in the scope of the broader market:
Among their findings:
- 1/3rd of Epic customers currently use predictive analytics models, which are shared across the Epic community.
- Healthy Planet PHM initiative includes Cogito & its data model encompasses transactional data (Chronicles), an operational data store, and an EDW (Caboodle).
- Cogito is broader than PHM since Epic customers use it to improve clinical, financial, administrative, and operational workflows and processes in other contexts as well.
- Caboodle consists of an LPR populated by clinical, claims, and other local and remote data sources. It use Epic Care Everywhere to ingest Epic and non-Epic data from participating provider organizations.
- Epic provides visibility into the status and performance of customer data feeds with a product called Stargate.
Healthcare Analytics Strategies & Options
As Epic customers weigh analytics data warehouse options, or consider ways to improve or optimize existing data warehouse and clinical intelligence capabilities, it’s important to consult a definitive evaluation matrix Health Catalyst published to the right. In all, Epic Cogito supports the analytics functions needed in the various elements of Healthy Planet, but it is also a general-purpose data warehouse and is being used more widely to support important clinical programs and financial goals that may not directly relate to value-based healthcare.