Microsoft wants more healthcare institutions to sign up for its Azure cloud service. One of the ways Microsoft plans too lure new healthcare organizations to its cloud services is a new set of AI-powered tools that are specifically designed for the healthcare industry.
Microsoft’s Healthcare NExT program (no relation to Steve Job’s former computer company) took center stage in a series of recent announcements bringing new artificial intelligence utilities to its Azure cloud platform.
New Healthcare Tools
One of these new offerings is the Microsoft Genomics service, available now. It’s a medicine/genomic-processing service that gives researchers and clinicians an accelerated cloud-powered platform for genomic processing. This service is released in partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Microsoft’s Azure Security and Compliance Blueprint for HIPAA/HITRUST is also generally available. It’s a guidance document that gives healthcare organizations information to help them move the cloud while maintaining strict compliance standards for things like patient records and medical data.
A new AI Network for Healthcare was also unveiled. The new network expands on Microsoft’s Intelligent Network for Eyecare to include a broader healthcare focus. It utilizes AI and was launched in partnership with India’s Apollo Hospitals.
A couple new projects including Project EmpowerMD and Project InnerEye were also announced. EmpowerMD is a research collaboration with UPMC. Its goal is to create a system that listens to and learns from doctors while they’re making their rounds. Its goal is to take detailed notes for physicians, saving them time and effort.
Project InnerEye creates new integrations with TeraRecon, a medical imaging company and Intuitive Surgical, makers of the da Vinci Surgical System which uses advanced robotics to aid surgeons in performing surgeries such as gallbladder removal.
Microsoft 365 is also getting an update targeted towards the healthcare world. Huddle Solution Templates are new developer templates that extend Microsoft Teams to cater to the needs of health teams as they collaborate on solutions for patient care.
HIMSS Conference
Microsoft’s latest announcements come ahead of the HIMSS conference taking place in Las Vegas, NV between March 5-9, 2018. It’s an annual conference that brings together an estimated 40,000+ healthcare professionals, including IT workers, executives, and clinicians.
As technology barrels forward in virtually every industry, none is so directly connected to the welfare of mankind as the healthcare industry. By providing care providers with tools that make their job easier utilizing artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies, Microsoft hopes to make itself the platform of choice for tomorrow’s healthcare cloud.
