NEW YORK – Guardant Health said on Monday that it has formed a partnership with electronic health records firm Epic, which will integrate the company’s portfolio of cancer tests into the Epic system.
Going forward, clinicians will be able to order Guardant's tests, including Guardant360 CDx, Guardant360 Response, and Guardant Shield, electronically within the Epic EHR.
Guardant said it believes this will make it easier for health systems, community healthcare providers, and retail health clinics to make its blood tests part of routine clinical care, "giving them more time to focus on their patients," co-CEO Helmy Eltoukhy said in a statement.
He noted that the integration, expected to be completed in the third quarter, will include the Guardant Shield colorectal cancer blood screening assay, which is scheduled to launch later this year. In a note to investors, SVB Leerink Analyst Puneet Souda said that the Epic integration comes "right in time for Guardant's move into cancer screening/early detection" and at a time of a shift in customers from academic centers to the community setting.
"Community oncologists and [primary care providers] are more affected by ease of use and simplified workflows [versus] academic peers," Souda wrote.