The CEO of Epic Systems, one of the leading providers of electronic health software, laid out the company's goals for the future during the company’s annual users group meeting this week.

Judy Faulkner’s vision for the future of the company — and health care records in general — includes improving the resources available to providers, expanding the data included in a patient’s record, integrating more closely with benefits providers, and increasing the patient’s involvement in care.

In 2018, the company plans to implement cognitive computing in the software portal used by providers to help identify trends and patterns that could signal drug-abuse risk or predict chronic conditions such as diabetes. It will also add integration with benefit provider Surescripts to give physicians greater transparency into the patient’s expected medical costs.