Health systems have found that creating a good consumer experience not only helps their patients but also makes it easier for staff to provide consistent care across the patient journey. Microsoft is committed to innovating new and cutting-edge solutions which help make healthcare more personal, affordable, effective and their cutting-edge technology and focus on customer satisfaction makes them an ideal partner for hospitals and clinics of all sizes.
Microsoft is quickly becoming a leading service provider for the healthcare industry.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the ways Microsoft is helping to make healthcare more efficient and user-friendly. We’ll also take a look at some of their recent announcements and partnerships that have made them such a powerful player in this growing market.
Transforming healthcare through cloud services
Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare transforms the healthcare journey by providing trusted, integrated capabilities that make it easier to improve the entire healthcare experience. Microsoft has introduced a new, enhanced 360-degree view of patients’ journeys to help organizations better understand and elevate their experience. The system offers customizable views that fit an organization’s unique needs. It makes it easier than ever before to capture valuable insights with its improved patient insight tools which will help organizations improve clinical processes and care management experiences.
Empowering frontline healthcare workers
Frontline healthcare workers like the doctors, nurses, and care team members require the latest tools to stay engaged and empowered while providing care. As more healthcare workers are adopting technology, the monthly Microsoft Teams usage in this industry, saw over 560% growth between March 2020-November 2021.
Empowering patient support and healthcare frontline workers with technologies like the Azure Health Bot allows them to collect secure and compliant responses directly from patients. Microsoft has expanded its template catalog with new templates for self-reporting of quality-of-life measures and chronic condition management. AI-powered bots, virtual visits, or chatbots can allow them to assist patients remotely. This saves the team’s valuable time while ensuring that all patients still receive a consistent quality of care even in times where resources are limited!
With the adoption of virtual appointments skyrocketing during the pandemic, Microsoft is providing a seamless experience for virtual appointments with the announcement of new features in Microsoft Teams. Built on the momentum from the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, the new virtual appointment features will:
- Schedule on-demand appointments
- Collect information for virtual appointments
- Ensure devices of patients are working correctly for the appointment
- Send SMS appointment reminders
- See analytics from your virtual appointments
Microsoft has enhanced the ability of patients to request on-demand appointments. Organizations will be able to see and monitor requests in a queue view through the Bookings app in Teams. Viewing and monitoring on-demand appointment requests and getting real-time updates on missed or delayed virtual events are critical to understanding key business insights like lobby wait times as well! Authorized healthcare workers can view the details in the Microsoft Teams Admin Center for appointments scheduled through Microsoft Bookings and the Microsoft Teams EHR connector.
Assistance in data interoperability
The problem with data is that it’s usually unstructured and difficult to access. This not only wastes valuable time on processing but also means the information cannot be used for analysis or AI-based machine learning at scale – which makes managing our healthcare system more difficult! Fortunately, Microsoft will make new investments into cloud services to support healthcare organizations in their data interoperability. The Azure Health Data Services will help support health organizations in this regard.
Azure Health Data Services which is a new centralized suite of products and solutions for clinical, imaging, and MedTech data, consists of a set of healthcare APIs, health data connectors, and tools. These purpose-built tools organize data gathered from disparate sources while maintaining compliance boundaries and patient privacy.
Microsoft and Nuance join to transform the healthcare industry
Microsoft and Nuance together offer the AI solutions healthcare organizations need to drive better decision-making, improve customer and employee experiences, create more meaningful connections, and produce tangible results. Microsoft and Nuance will use their technology to improve patient experiences and support for clinicians with automated clinical documentation, and greater flexibility in telehealth applications. With Nuance’s deep domain expertise with the scale, security combined with the power of the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Microsoft can provide outcomes-focused AI solutions to health organizations. Microsoft and Nuance can together help drive better decision-making and create more personalized experiences for patients and providers.
To accomplish the aim of improving the patient, care team, and administrator experience, Microsoft’s advanced cloud and AI capabilities and Nuance’s industry-leading conversational AI, ambient clinical intelligence, and integration can be connected into the existing clinical workflows.
How Microsoft and Nuance will together promote patient-physician experiences:
- Deliver superior clinical documentation solutions, digital work experiences, and collaboration tools to combat clinician and radiologist burnout.
- Help understand the changing patient preferences and demands and utilize technology to meet them.
- Streamline workflows and help care providers to focus on patient outcomes.
- Bridge medical information silos to inform precision diagnostics and therapeutics.
- Master virtual health solutions and develop new best practices.
Microsoft partners are utilizing the strength of the Microsoft Cloud to serve customers by providing integrated healthcare solutions that leverage core Microsoft Cloud for healthcare capabilities. Technology companies have a chance to make real differences in people’s lives by partnering with healthcare providers and building deep relationships.
With the digital transformation, every solution, innovation and advancement Microsoft brings to the healthcare industry will help healthcare organizations deliver better experiences, insights, and care while empowering practitioners and administrators to adapt to the rapidly changing environment.
