![]() ![]() And third, it's a large and diverse technology environment, with plenty of room for consolidation, orchestration, and digital transformation.įor both healthcare providers and their IT suppliers, COVID-19 could also prove a transition point. Second, it's an industry driven by data, with lots of different formats – text, images, scan results, voice – and from lots of different sources. First, it's a huge industry and traditionally recession-proof (it accounts for almost a fifth of the US economy). SEE: Cloud computing: Microsoft sets out new data storage options for European customersĪnd Microsoft is just one of a number of big tech players stepping up their focus on healthcare, an industry which has proved an appealing target for IT companies for a number of reasons. ![]() A health records tool, HealthVault, meant for use by individuals and health professionals, was shuttered in 2019. It released a couple of iterations of a fitness wearable but stopped the line in 2016. Just prior to setting up Healthcare NeXT, it sold its share of a joint healthcare initiative, that it set up with GE in 2012, back to its partner.Īs well as enterprise efforts, Microsoft has a history in consumer health products. In 2017, it set up a unit called Healthcare NeXT, part of its AI and Research division, to work on research, product development, and partnering with healthcare organisations. Microsoft's recent focus on healthcare isn't the first time its launched initiatives aimed at helping the company make a bigger splash in the healthcare IT market. A more automated approach can help offload the administrative burden, and return the focus back to the patient, he says. The collaboration, focused on DAX, aims to "improve efficiency and engagement" for doctors and their patients, McGuinness says, noting how a physician can often end up in a consultation with their back to patient as they to type their clinical notes. Microsoft is backing the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FIHR) standard for securely sharing private information between healthcare systems, which aims to make it easier for systems to take in and process health data for users including AI analytics and machine learning.Īside from the acquisition, the pair have been partnering on healthcare products since 2019, including an industrystack that included speech recognition and processing, clinical documentation, decision support, and Azure AI and natural language tools. Interoperability among medical systems and sources of data has long been a problem. ![]() Other telehealth-focused features in Cloud for Healthcare involve collaboration between members of medical teams, whether they're on site or working remotely, while other functionality is aimed at presenting physicians with a picture of a patient's history and medical status by drawing in different sources of information into a single overview from virtual and in person visits – not always easy given the disparate types and origins of medical information. Meanwhile, the Healthcare Bot can help triage patients - COVID-19-specific bots are used for self-assessment in a number of countries - as well as connect them to human operators, who can arrange medical appointments where needed. ![]() The Bookings app in Teams, for example, debuted in Cloud for Healthcare and can be used by clinicians to schedule, manage, and carry out telehealth consultations in Teams. "Some of the more interesting questions that we're working with our partners and customers to help solve are, how do you now make virtual care, as a point-of-care engagement, better connected to the physical care? We know that patients want a more connected experience, and we know they don't want to have to have the same discussion in multiple settings," says McGuinness. But the pandemic has intensified another emerging disconnect: between virtual care and face-to-face care. SEE: Guide to Becoming a Digital Transformation Champion (TechRepublic Premium)Ĭomplaints about different parts of the healthcare world not being joined up – a separation between health and social care, or between primary care and hospital medicine and so on – isn't new. "Some of the longest-standing challenges are around disconnectedness of data, disconnectedness of care teams, and frankly disconnectedness of patients to their own care," says Tom McGuinness, corporate VP of global healthcare & life sciences at Microsoft. These watches provide more data, offer customizable options, track performance, and inspire improvement. ![]()
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