Cloud Computing

Famous for its' general productivity software package like Windows, Microsoft Corp on Tuesday unveiled a package of cloud software designed for health care systems, to cater to the needs of healthcare organizations in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Known as "Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare," the package starts with a free trial period of six months. It includes tools for telemedicine and coordination of care using internet-based services, chat, and conferencing apps. It is Microsoft's first industry-specific cloud-based offering and a part of the company's annual Build conference for software developers. The tech giant believes that this cloud service will allow hospitals to maintain data during an interaction with a patient.

In an interview with Reuters, Deb Cupp, Microsoft's corporate vice president of enterprise and commercial industries, said, "We want to carry all that information through the health experience." While, Tom McGuinness, corporate vice president, Worldwide Health at Microsoft, expresses that there is an increasing necessity to be connected to create an individualized patient experience.

The package integrates Microsoft's Azure cloud service and Azure IoT for monitoring patients, along with Microsoft 365, Dynamics, and Power Platform. This can help healthcare bodies run programs and store and analyze data by using the Teams communication app and developer tools for creating applications. Although, it is not clear how pricing for the bundle shall vary from the standard fee for individual products in the package. Microsoft assured us to provide more details in the fall.

Dr. Greg Moore, corporate vice president, Microsoft Health, announced that the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare would empower healthcare organizations to interact in more proactive ways with their patients. It will also allow caregivers to improve the efficiency of their workflows and streamline interactions with Classified as Microsoft Confidential patients with more actionable results.

"By providing the right information at the right time, the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare will help hospitals and care providers better manage the needs of patients and staff and make resource deployments more efficient," Microsoft says in its press materials. "This solution also improves end-to-end security compliance and accessibility of data, driving better operational outcomes." This initiative is expected to compete with Amazon and Google for their provision of industry-specific cloud platforms.

Besides its tools, Microsoft is also working with its extensive partner ecosystem to provide healthcare providers with specialized services. These include the likes of Epic, Allscripts, GE Healthcare, Adaptive Biotechnologies, and Nuance.