admin Microsoft is presenting a dedicated cloud service for healthcare organisations, with the goal of providing ‘better connectedness’ for healthcare firms and their patients.
Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, introducing on 30 October, comprises managed services like Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and partner solutions to support healthcare firms.
These solutions will make ‘trusted’ end0to-end cloud-based solutions that provide additional insights into health data.
“Healthcare organizations can engage in more proactive ways with patients and give caregivers tools to improve data interoperability, workflow efficiency, and streamline interactions,” said Microsoft’s worldwide health corporate vice president Tom McGuiness.
He opines to a major need for digital health solutions, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare providers are increasingly using technology to communicate with their patients, however, this is now without challenges.
Healthcare providers and systems must be able to securely access patient information and knowledge that enhance their practice, supported by a high-performance and sustainable health system, McGuinness records.
Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare will also comprise capabilities like personalised patient outreach programs, more options for patient-directed healthcare (such as care reminders, self-scheduling appointments, and virtual health bots), home health support, and care management.
“At this time in history, it’s so important to have a cloud environment that endeavours to improve patient care, improve experiences for patients and the healthcare providers, and better engage patients all the way around,” notes IDC’s group VP for IDC Public sector, Lynne Dunbrack.
“With interoperability of healthcare data being so important and a willingness to adopt digital health experiences, this is the perfect time for Microsoft to deliver their Cloud for Healthcare.”
Microsoft has also introducd a preview of Microsoft Teams EHR connector, which will allow clinicians and patients to use Teams in the EPIC patient and provider portals.
Moreover, Nuance team up with Microsoft to create a way in which Teams can integrate patient data with additional information in an electronic health record. This allows clinicians to auto-populate clinical notes directly within a patient’s medical records.
The rapid integration of Nuance DAX with Microsoft Teams for telehealth illustrates the ongoing importance of combining health technologies, says Diana Nole, Nuance executive vice president and general manager of healthcare.
Finally, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare includes the Azure IoT Connector for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR). This integrates data from several medical devices, apps, and remote monitoring environments into Azure.
Furthermore, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare contains the open-source offering Medical Imaging Server for DICOM. This allows healthcare companies to ingest and persist medical imaging files in the cloud, and integrate imaging metadata with clinical data in a FHIR format.
Magazine 
