Beaker is the laboratory information system built into Epic, for both clinical pathology (CP) and anatomic pathology (AP): orders, specimen collection and tracking, processing, results and lab billing, in the same record clinicians use. Going live on Beaker is the start. The value comes from what connects to it: instruments, label printers and scanners, digital pathology, the network and storage under all of it, and now Epic's AI. That is where we work, alongside your Epic analysts.
Last reviewed October 2026. Features, availability and timelines are set by Epic and can change; several AI features announced in 2026 are still rolling out. We confirm what your Epic version and license include before any project.
A scan at every hand-off, from collection to block, slide and archive, so nothing goes missing between steps.
Beaker stays the system of record while slide images, viewers and AI work from the same case.
Art, Emmie, Penny and Agent Factory: where Epic's AI helps laboratory and pathology teams, and how to govern it.
Beaker CP covers the clinical lab: orders, collection, specimen tracking, instrument results and verification. Beaker AP covers anatomic pathology: accessioning, grossing, histology (blocks and slides), case assignment, sign-out and reporting. Both live inside Epic, so results and reports reach clinicians and patients without a separate system.
What we do: workflow analysis before and after go-live, instrument and device connectivity, label printer and barcode scanner setup on the clinical network, and support for your Epic team through testing, cutover and optimization.
In a digital pathology workflow, Beaker sends patient, case and slide information to the image management system and receives notice when slide images are ready, so pathologists can open a case from Beaker and review whole slide images and AI results without re-entering anything. Image management systems connect to Beaker over standard HL7 interfaces, and labs increasingly expect DICOM for slide images.
What we do: design the network and storage that whole slide imaging needs (scanners produce very large files, all day), connect scanners and viewers, test the Beaker interfaces end to end, and plan the move from glass to digital sign-out.
Lost or mislabeled specimens are a patient-safety event. Beaker tracks a specimen inside the lab, but the weak points are the hand-offs: operating room to pathology, grossing to histology, histology to the scanner, slides to the pathologist and to the archive. We are designing this kind of chain-of-custody solution for the anatomic pathology department of an academic medical center.
What we do: map every hand-off, define the scan points and the devices at each one, connect them to Beaker, and give the lab a live view of where every specimen and slide is, with alerts when something stops moving.
Epic's AI now spans the organization: Art for clinicians (chart summaries and AI charting), Emmie for patients in MyChart, and Penny for revenue cycle (coding and appeal letters), with autonomous coding expanding specialty by specialty. Agent Factory lets health systems build their own AI agents on Epic data, and Cosmos, Epic's de-identified data set, powers new predictive models.
What we do: pick the lab and pathology use cases worth turning on first (result follow-up, case summaries, coding of pathology services, patient questions about results), set up governance and validation, and measure turnaround time and workload before and after.
UPDATED OCTOBER 2026
What laboratory and pathology leaders are asking about this fall, from Epic's 2026 announcements and the digital pathology community.
Epic's 2026 user group meeting centered on AI agents and Agent Factory, a no-code builder for health systems' own agents. Labs should define their use cases now.
Standard DICOM whole slide imaging makes scanners, viewers and AI tools interchangeable, and avoids lock-in to one image format.
CPT Category III codes for digital pathology and the Digital Pathology Association's AI validation work are shaping how labs build the business case.
Barcode scans at every hand-off and live tracking dashboards, so a missing specimen is found in minutes, not days.
Scanner networks, storage tiers and image retention plans sized for digital pathology before scanners arrive, not after.
How we work with Beaker labs
Epic, Beaker, MyChart and Cosmos are trademarks of Epic Systems Corporation; other names are trademarks of their respective owners. CarolinaEMR is an independent consulting firm and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Epic Systems Corporation.
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