In this article, Microsoft announced new health-care data and artificial intelligence tools on Thursday. These tools include a collection of medical imaging models, a health-care agent service, and an automated documentation solution for nurses. The aim of these tools is to assist health-care organizations in developing AI applications more efficiently and saving clinicians time on administrative tasks, which are a significant cause of industry burnout. According to a report from the Office of the Surgeon General, nurses spend up to 41% of their time on documentation.
Mary Varghese Presti, vice president of portfolio evolution and incubation at Microsoft Health and Life Sciences, stated in a prerecorded briefing with reporters that integrating AI into health care is intended to reduce the strain on medical staff, promote collaboration within the health team, and enhance the overall efficiency of healthcare systems nationwide.
These new tools are part of Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to establish itself as a leader in health-care AI. Last October, the company introduced a series of health features on its Azure cloud and Fabric analytics platform. Microsoft also acquired Nuance Communications, a provider of speech-to-text AI solutions for health care and other sectors, in a $16 billion deal in 2021.
Many of the solutions announced by Microsoft are still in the early stages of development or available only in preview. Health-care organizations will test and validate them before they are more widely rolled out. Microsoft has not disclosed the cost of these new tools.
Approximately 80% of hospital and health system visits involve an imaging exam because doctors often rely on images to aid in patient treatment. Microsoft is launching a collection of open-source multimodal AI models that can analyze various data types, including medical images, clinical records, and genomic data. These models enable health-care organizations to create new applications and tools.
For instance, Microsoft and Providence Health & Services collaborated to develop a whole-slide model for pathology that enhances mutation prediction and cancer subtyping. This model, available in the model catalog within Azure AI Studio, allows health systems to further develop and customize it to suit their requirements.
Microsoft also introduced a new method for health systems to create AI agents through Microsoft Copilot Studio. These agents can assist users in answering questions, automating processes, and performing specific tasks. Health-care organizations can equip these agents with safeguards specific to the health-care industry, such as displaying the source of clinical evidence in answers and flagging fabrications and omissions.
Microsoft’s health-care agent service, which can help patients and doctors with various tasks, is available in a preview capacity starting Thursday. In August, Microsoft announced plans to collaborate with Epic Systems to develop an AI-powered documentation tool for nurses, building on their existing partnership.
Epic Systems, a health-care software vendor with electronic health records for over 280 million people in the U.S., has a longstanding relationship with Microsoft. Microsoft’s Nuance already offers an automated documentation tool for doctors called DAX Copilot, which automatically transforms recorded visits into clinical notes and summaries.
To cater to nurses, Microsoft is developing a similar tool optimized for their workflow. This tool aims to integrate seamlessly with how nurses work, following extensive observation of nurses’ tasks and identifying areas of friction in their daily routines. Microsoft is collaborating with organizations like Stanford Health Care, Northwestern Medicine, and Tampa General Hospital to develop this tool.
