‘EpicParodyEMR’ Twitter account highlights physicians’ IT woes

“Myth: Our Epic design team stays up late at night thinking of ways to torture you and make your life harder,” reads one tweet. “Fact: They actually go to bed pretty early.”

That’s not the musings of a rogue social media intern. That’s a March 21 tweet from EpicParodyEMR, a satirical Twitter account run by a physician practicing in the Northeastern U.S.

“I created this account to make myself laugh and just blow off steam,” said the physician, who prefers to remain nameless to avoid potential backlash from his employer and what he called the “powerful people at Epic.”

“I shared (the account) with a handful of people I knew,” he continued. “Then, that weekend, it just exploded. Every time I checked there were 300 more followers.”

EpicParodyEMR—whose Twitter bio reads, “My goal is to create confusion for doctors. I will not rest until doctors do nothing but click buttons”—delivered its first tweet in early March. That arguably puts it a few steps ahead of the real Epic Systems Corp., which doesn’t have a corporate Twitter account.

“As far as I have seen, no healthcare worker has come on my Twitter feed to offer a robust defense of EMRs,” the mystery physician said.

EpicParodyEMR’s tweets on click fatigue, required wellness modules and late nights spent on clinical notes certainly seem to have struck a chord, reflecting physicians’ mounting frustrations with what they say are difficult-to-use IT systems that take away time from face-to-face patient care. In the past month, the account has racked up more than 10,000 Twitter followers. 

An Epic spokesperson declined to comment.