What if we told you that the most important company in US healthcare was run from a farm in rural Wisconsin? And that farm contained the world’s largest subterranean auditorium, as well as Disneyland—style replicas of Hogwarts and the Emerald City? What if we told you that the person who started, runs and owns this establishment has legally ensured that it will never be sold, never go public and never acquire another company? And that this person, Judy Faulkner, is also likely the wealthiest and most successful self-made woman in history?
Welcome to the story of Epic Systems, the software company that underpins the majority of the American healthcare system today. Epic isn’t “just” an electronic medical record (the category it’s usually lumped into), or an online patient portal (which is how most of the US population interacts with it via its MyChart application). It’s more akin to a central nervous system for hospitals and health clinics. Almost *everything* in a hospital — from patient interactions to billing, staffing, scheduling, prescriptions and even research — happens on Epic’s platform, and over 90% of American medical schools’ graduating doctors, nurses and health administrative staff are trained on it during their educations. Tune in as we dive into the almost-unbelievable story of how this epic company came to be!
Sponsors:
Many thanks to our fantastic Spring ‘25 Season partners:
J.P. Morgan Payments
https://bit.ly/acquiredJPMPepicyt
Fundrise
https://bit.ly/acquiredfundrise25
ServiceNow
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Crusoe
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Links:
Save the date, July 15 in NYC!
http://acquired.fm/nyc
Epic’s Verona campus
https://www.epic.com/visiting/
Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Epic Systems Study
https://worldlypartners.com/businesshistory
Episode sources
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uuw2GygyesM-0nM4ZHVL95XQYhntAnXqRLiHNx8v7RU/edit?usp=sharing
Carve Outs:
Ken Block in San Francisco
https://youtu.be/LuDN2bCIyus?si=rHU8CjPAoeHck0uK
Nintendo Switch 2
https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/?srsltid=AfmBOoq-kZTYsNm0_if1ONE-8GV0k1x77Nv41aWbkSpgrqSU9zcyQAog
Knives Out
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8946378/
Brat by Charli xcx
https://open.spotify.com/album/2lIZef4lzdvZkiiCzvPKj7?si=bdGrTidgRIKMMBNvjHzbWQ
Music To Refine To: A Remix Companion to Severance by ODESZA
https://open.spotify.com/album/7bNj7hUkbRbZzn36MdyvUk?si=tL7uLI15QVasFLXuRaKkZQ
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