New Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare to Tackle COVID-19 Challenges

May 22, 2020 - Microsoft recently announced its first industry-specific cloud offering that allows organizations to engage in more proactive ways with their patients and gives caregivers the tools to improve workflow efficiency and streamline interactions.

The offering, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, brings together deep data analytics for both structured and unstructured data and enables customers to turn insight into action.

Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare brings together trusted integrated capabilities that extend the value of the platform with additional solutions to address the most pressing challenges the healthcare industry is facing today. 

The offering will enrich patient engagement and connect health teams to improve collaboration, decision-making, and operational efficiencies. It is now available in public preview and through a free six-month trial. 

The capabilities Microsoft focused on are some of the most vital needs for healthcare organizations, including:

• Enhancing patient engagement
• Empowering health team collaboration
• Improving operational and clinical data insights
• Improving interoperability, security, and trust
• Creating an extensible healthcare partner ecosystem

For example, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is allowing patients to tap into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and Azure IoT for virtual visits, chatbot assessments, and remote health monitoring, the health IT giant said. 

Microsoft Healthcare Bot Services have positively benefited more than 31 million people across 23 countries, Microsoft reported. The CDC and various healthcare systems are leveraging this service to create COVID-19 assessment tools and decrease stress on frontline workers. Since March, more than 1,600 instances of COVID-19 bots based on the Microsoft service have gone live.

Through enhanced patient engagement portals, patients are able to easily access their self-service portal where they can make appointments and pay bills. Physicians and care teams can also create referrals, search for other providers, and understand physician spend, satisfaction, and enhanced analytics on referral categories through different patient outreach approaches, Microsoft stated.

Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is also aiming to empower health team collaboration by building capabilities inMicrosoft 365 and Microsoft Teams to streamline care workflows and provide a secure platform for connected care coordination. The services to boost workflows include chat, voice, and video meetings, and recording and transcription features.

“As we’ve seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians also need greater flexibility and convenience in how they are able to connect with patients. Today we are announcing general availability of the Bookings app in Teams, which enables healthcare providers to schedule, manage, and conduct provider-to-patient virtual visits within Teams,” Microsoft said. 

Healthcare providers including St. Luke’s University Health Network, Stony Brook Medicine, and Calderdale  & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust in the UK have been using teams to conduct virtual patient visits and provide continuity of care while protecting providers and patients. 

Finally, Microsoft explained how its latest cloud offering specifically for healthcare providers can improve clinical and operational data insights and enable secure data interoperability.

Organizations including Swedish Health Services and Rush Hospital are already leveraging Power Apps and FHIR technology within Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare to carry out key functions during the pandemic, including tracking supplies and bringing  together clinical, lab and capacity data analysis in just a few days. 

Capabilities such as FHIR are also helping healthcare organizations organize their health data in the cloud and enable remote work, a necessity for many organizations during the pandemic.