About Epieme

Built by a family that needed it.

Epieme began with one family's patient-safety fight in Maine. Today it follows 578 patient-safety bills in 38 states and DC, each linked to its official record, so the next family doesn't have to piece the record together by hand.

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Then: the record, in pieces

  1. 01Incident reports in one database
  2. 02Safety ratings in another
  3. 03The petition on Change.org
  4. 04The bill in committee calendars
  5. 05The coverage across a dozen news sites
Samson Cournane, Epieme's founder, speaking into a microphone

Samson Cournane, founder

Now: one record per bill

PAPennsylvania · HB 27

In licensing of health care facilities, providing for surgical smoke evacuation systems

PassedLast action Oct 22, 2026

Official record

Checked daily · Updated Nov 3, 2026

The record was public. It was also in pieces, and the deadlines didn't wait. Epieme keeps each patient-safety bill in one place, linked to its official record, while there's still time to act.

Origin

How it started

Patient safety was never an abstraction in Samson's house. His mom is a pediatric ICU doctor, the person families trust on the worst day of their lives.

Then he watched the system fail her up close.

Samson Cournane, founder · Johns Hopkins MSE graduate student · LinkedIn

  1. She raised concerns about safety at the Maine hospital where she worked. Not long after, she was forced out.

    Samson was fifteen. He wrote a petition about what happened. The hospital's answer was to threaten her with a defamation suit and claim she had written it for him.

  2. So he went looking for the record that proved what they already knew.

    It was all there, just scattered to pieces. Incident reports in one database, safety ratings in another, the petition on Change.org, the legislative fight buried in committee calendars, and the coverage spread across a dozen news sites that each told one slice of it.

  3. Every time, the deadline moved faster than he could assemble the picture.

    A hearing would pass. A comment window would close. By the time the story was clear, the chance to act was usually gone.

  4. He did that search by hand, over and over, because nothing existed to do it for him.

    The petition reached 22,000 signatures. FIRE took up the case. Maine passed LD 870, its anti-SLAPP law, partly because of what his family went through. The fight got won. The system that made it so hard to fight was still standing.

    FIRE's case page

  5. So he built the tool he had needed at seventeen.

    Epieme starts with the part of the record that decides what happens next: the bills moving through statehouses. It follows patient-safety bills in every state legislature, links each one to its official record, and emails people when the bills in their state move.

    How Epieme works

  6. Word got out.

    Advocates, patients and watchdogs in other states started asking for the same thing. What began as one family's fight to be heard is becoming the platform that helps people in every state catch the warning signs early and act while it still matters.

In the news

The Maine case, as it was reported.

Reporting, commentary and the FIRE case page on the founder's patient-safety case. Each opens on the outlet's site.

What we believe

A purpose, a vision and a mission, each shown in the live record.

Examples drawn from the record as of

  • Official history PA HB 27

    1. Signed in House
    2. Signed in Senate
    3. Presented to the Governor
    4. Approved by the Governor
    5. Act No. 59 of 2026

    Our purpose

    Make patient-safety bills visible while people still have time to act: every referral, hearing and vote, dated, as it happens.

  • Epieme alerts to youExample · Nov 3, 2026

    Pennsylvania: 2 patient-safety updates

    • HB 27Act No. 59 of 2026
    • HB 2842Referred to Judiciary

    Weekly or monthly · one-click unsubscribe

    Our vision

    Safety records that are easy to follow, check and share, arriving in your inbox instead of waiting to be found.

  • 51 legislatures checked

    Filled: 38 states and DC with a tracked bill

    Our mission

    Help patients, advocates and clinicians follow the bills in every statehouse, from the first referral to the final vote.

How we work

Proof should be one click away.

Four commitments, each with the page that holds us to it.

  • Source first

    Every record links to the bill's official page on LegiScan, so you can check it yourself before you rely on it.

    Where the data comes from

  • Independent

    Epieme doesn't endorse or oppose bills, doesn't lobby and carries no ads. No one can pay to suppress a record or change the method.

    How we stay accountable

  • Accessible

    Civic and health tools have to work for everyone. We publish the standard we aim for and how to tell us about a barrier.

    Accessibility statement

  • Open to correction

    Spotted a mistake in a record? Tell us the bill and what's wrong, and check it against the linked source in the meantime.

    Report a data error
A brick walkway through the Johns Hopkins University campus

Baltimore, Maryland

Partners

Started at Johns Hopkins, built in Baltimore.

Epieme is an independent project that started at Johns Hopkins University. University innovation partners help move it from an idea to something people use, and LegiScan supplies the legislative record.

  • JHU Pava CenterJohns Hopkins University
  • The Roux Institute, Northeastern University
  • LegiScanBill data, CC BY 4.0

About Epieme, briefly

Who runs it, how it's paid for, and what it is and isn't.

Sources, limits and method in How it works.

Who runs Epieme?

Samson Cournane founded Epieme and owns its methodology. It's an independent project that started at Johns Hopkins University. Hospitals, advertisers, funders and partners can't pay to suppress a record or change the method.

How is it paid for?

By gifts from the people who use it. Epieme is free, carries no ads and doesn't lobby. It isn't a registered charity, so gifts aren't tax-deductible. Support Epieme.

Where does the information come from?

From LegiScan, which collects bill text, status and history from every state legislature. Each Epieme record links to the bill's page on LegiScan, so you can check the source yourself. Epieme covers state legislation only, not Congress.

Who is it for?

Patients and families, patient-safety advocates, clinicians, and the policy staff and reporters who follow these bills. You don't need an account to browse; alerts need only an email address.

Is this medical or legal advice?

No. Epieme summarizes public legislative records for information only. It doesn't give clinical guidance, diagnosis or legal advice. Confirm a bill's current status with the state legislature before you rely on it.

Start with the bills already moving in your state.

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