ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS

Epic hosts annual user group meeting

More than 4,000 people from around the U.S. and as far as the Netherlands and Dubai have converged on Verona, where Epic Systems Corp. is holding its annual user group meeting this week.

Events began Monday night with a reception for Epic's clients and will run through Thursday.

Epic, one of the fastest-growing companies in the Madison area, develops health-care records systems and now has 3,250 employees, up from 2,500 a year ago.

Founder Judith Faulkner addressed the conference Tuesday dressed as Portia, from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," in keeping with the event's theme, Much Ado About Health Care.

Epic officials said one of the company's major efforts this year involves Lucy, a personal health records system for patients of Epic's hospital and clinic clients.

BRIEFLY

FED: Showing a tough love stance for now, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues decided to keep a key interest rate steady Tuesday. They acknowledged stresses in financial markets have grown, though, and hinted they stood ready to lower rates if needed. The Fed left its key rate at 2 percent for the third straight meeting. The prime lending rate for consumers and businesses stayed at 5 percent.

LEHMAN: Barclays PLC will unveil a plan to acquire all or part of Lehman Brothers Holdings' investment banking and trading operations, a person close to the talks said Tuesday. The deal could throw a lifeline to more than 9,000 Lehman employees whose future was uncertain after Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. Lehman collapsed from massive exposure to risky real estate holdings. The third-biggest British bank had withdrawn from weekend talks with Lehman Brothers about a possible outright acquisition.

AIG: Its future in the balance, American International Group huddled Tuesday with Federal Reserve officials to find the cash the huge insurer needs to stay in business and avoid igniting more global financial turmoil. Meetings at the New York Fed, which is the Fed's point bank on financial crises, were carrying on into the late afternoon. AIG shares closed down $1.01, or 21.2 percent, at $3.75.

— State Journal staff, wires