This software is the epitome of a roach motel, or Hotel California - data enters, but can never leave. Epic software is so proprietary and customized for each customers that two hospitals using it can't even exchange records, or have the same interaction methodology (source: I have family that worked at two large hospitals, both with Epic).

People had a fit over Windows in the 90's and 2000's being proprietary lock in, but it was never the OS that was the problem, it was MS Office format lock-in that caused all the issues, which is still a problem.

Open, simple, interoperable formats are the way out. We need more of these, especially in the health care sector.

It really is. And it's not good software. The UI looks decidedly amateur, and some of the modules are absolute garbage amateur hour (one I see a lot in my job is the ED track board, which captures information from the ED charge nurse about incoming ambulances, bed holds and cleaning needs, and gives a picture on what the ED might look like in the next hour or so).

It looks like a VB app from the 90s. Text layout is poor, often overflowing boxes, it's not customizable.

Epic is where it is because hospitals are so fucking locked in.

I’m rooting for something like this in the long term: https://github.com/openemr/openemr