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Kaiser Permanente will spend $1.8 billion over the next three years to implement electronic medical records software enterprisewide. The Oakland, Calif.-based payer and provider organization, serving 8.5 million members, has selected Epic Systems Corp., Madison, Wis., as the vendor. Kaiser will implement a full electronic medical records, physician order entry and clinical decision support system, as well as scheduling and billing software, for all inpatient and outpatient settings. It also will implement a Web portal enabling patients to create and maintain personal health pages containing official medical records, appointment calendars and secure messaging capability with Kaiser personnel. Epic products being implemented throughout Kaiser include the EpicCare electronic medical records system, Cadence scheduling and Resolute billing modules, and the MyChart Web portal. Kaiser expects the project to create the largest patient database in the world. "We believe an automated medical records system is the single most important tool available today to enhance patient care," says George Halvorson, CEO and chairman of Kaiser.