Epic Systems is no stranger to the courtroom. The nation’s largest vendor of electronic health records has fought, and won, legal fights with rivals large and small for many decades.
But a new antitrust lawsuit filed this week by Particle Health, an upstart health data company, presents an especially direct threat to Epic’s dominance in the multibillion-dollar market surrounding patient data, legal and health policy experts told STAT.
“It represents what I predict will be a growth area for litigation: battles between the data ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots,’” said Michelle Mello, a professor of law and health policy at Stanford University. She said Epic’s control of patient data has allowed it to expand and create new product lines, but it has also enabled it to build a moat that rivals say is unfair and anti-competitive.
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