Even before the global health crisis of 2020, many organizations around the world were focused on digital transformation. They were working with trusted technology providers to develop new business models, create new experiences, new products, and new services for customers. The pandemic changed everything, stalling the efforts of some organizations, and forcing others to accelerate their journey to the cloud.
The pandemic fostered new use cases that drove rapid innovation from both Microsoft and partners building on our platforms. For example, healthcare organizations asked us for assistance with tracking the number of available hospital beds and ventilators, and for better and easier ways to support patients with new systems. We co-developed solutions to enable customers to address large volumes of anxious patients with higher efficiency, offering access to a portal with information about COVID-19, a self-assessment tool, and workflow to book an appointment to be tested. During that time, it became more apparent than ever that Microsoft could help customers reach their digital aspirations with our software, and do so faster. In that spirit, we announced our first industry-specific cloud offering, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, which we are launching today.
Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare brings together trusted capabilities to customers and partners that enhance patient engagement, empower health team collaboration, and improve clinical and operational insights, and makes it faster and easier to provide more efficient care and helps ensure the end-to-end security, compliance, and interoperability of health data. It unlocks the power of Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and our ecosystem of partner healthcare solutions to create trusted end-to-end cloud-based solutions.
Optimize patient experiences with data insights
Our engineering team focuses on creating Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions to make the company’s full vision a reality. Besides developing point-in-time solutions for organizations based on Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, such as our return to workplace solution, launched in August 2020, we are also now delivering robust solutions included in Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.
The Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare capabilities showcase the many ways we can innovate when Electronic Medical Record (EMR) patient data is accessed and used by patients and caregivers in modern, integrated, intuitive, and collaborative workflows. With the Azure API for FHIR connecting to Common Data Service, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare makes possible the electronic access, exchange, and use of electronic health information by and between patients, healthcare providers, and health plans. It brings together transactional, observational, and behavioral patient data insights, optimizes and coordinates the patient experience, and enables collaborative care management across both digital- and human-assisted channels, anywhere, anytime.
We enable healthcare organizations to enhance patient engagement through:
Personalized care
- Patient outreach: Equipping leaders with new ways to identify patient segments and launch campaigns that engage patients with relevant information and offers. Based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Voice, and Power Platform – Microsoft Power Apps, Microsoft Power Automate.
- Patient access: Providing patients with self-service capabilities to schedule appointments, view their medical history and communications, interact with bots, get routed to live agents as necessary, and read relevant educational materials curated for them. Based on Power Platform – Power Apps, Power Automate.
Patient insights
- Patient view: Having one, comprehensive, foundational view of the patient for all the healthcare provider scenarios, leveraged across all the solutions. Based on Power Platform – Power Apps, Power Automate, Microsoft Power BI.
- Patient service center: Enabling agents to answer patient inquiries, providing them with a comprehensive view into each patient’s medical history. Additionally, managers view service center insights to continuously improve the service center. Based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Power Platform – Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI.
With our solutions, healthcare organizations will empower health team collaboration, through:
Care coordination
- Care Management: Giving care team members, including home health teams, full visibility into each patient’s care plans and goals, medical history, and preferences. Every customer running Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare has access to Care Management. Care Management, and the core Patient View, become even more powerful when healthcare organizations leverage the other capabilities. Based on Power Platform – Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI.
- Home health manager: Delivering personalized, quality health care at patients’ homes, leaving physical buildings for patients that need it the most. Optimize mobile healthcare teams’ schedules and routes, and provides resources for each home care team member to prepare for the visits. Based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service and Power Platform – Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI.
Learn more
Watch this executive-to-executive video from Matthew Kull, MBA, CHCIO, and CIO of Cleveland Clinic and Tom McGuinness, CVP Global Healthcare for thoughts on the #digitaltransformation of #healthcare in the time of COVID-19. As a preview customer of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Cleveland Clinic’s input has been tremendously helpful.
Today’s launch is just the beginning. Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare will release regular updates aligned to October and April. Our ecosystem of Microsoft partners will build and extend cloud capabilities across all healthcare verticals of payor, provider and biopharma, offer services to deploy Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, and customize it for each customer’s needs to provide patients better experiences, better insights, and better care.
By looking left-to-right across our product portfolio and building a healthy partner ecosystem, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare makes the collective power of Azure, Microsoft 365, and the business applications portfolio more effective at unlocking the best in every organization, and aligning to our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
You can learn more about Microsoft’s commitments to data protection and privacy and the Microsoft Healthcare Add-on by visiting our Trust Center.
