Microsoft to drive 'intelligent health' with new AI, cloud computing projects

Microsoft has announced a slew of projects aimed at helping global healthcare providers harness the power of artificial intelligence and the cloud. The computing company said it wanted to help speed up innovation in the healthcare sector by providing clinicians with "intelligent health" tools that drive interoperability, while allowing for more face-to-face time with patients. Amongst the announcements is the launch of new collaboration tools for health workers within Microsoft 365 and the development of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven clinical platform that listens to and transcribes doctor-patient interactions. Called Project EmpowerMD, developed in collaboration with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), the platform leverages Microsoft's speech-to-text and natural language engines to record speech data, the primary aim of which is to enable hands-free note taking. According to the project's information page, Microsoft's ambition is to develop "a learning system that incorporates data from longitudinal medical records, medical devices, genomics, population health, research papers, and more."