Microsoft Unveils New Healthcare AI Tools

Microsoft rolls out new AI tools for healthcare, including a scheduling and imaging analysis agent that it hopes will enhance care and decrease clinician stress.

Microsoft has recently unveiled several artificial intelligence (AI) tools designed to enhance the operationalization of health systems, with special reference to the delivery of care, while also reducing the workload of clinicians. This was reported in a press briefing that took place on Thursday.

Among the new offerings is a service that enables healthcare organizations to create custom AI agents for tasks like appointment scheduling, clinical trial matching, and patient triage. This service is currently in public preview allowing organizations to provide feedback and tailor the tools to meet their needs.

Kees Hertogh, Vice President for Healthcare Product Marketing at Microsoft, reiterated the promise that Artificial Intelligence holds in AI powered patient-centric engagements and the automation of clinical processes. “AI breakthroughs are changing how we work and live,” he pointed out.

Beyond the aforementioned AI agents, Microsoft has also presented foundation models for medical imaging. Building on the work done with companies like Providence and Paige.ai, these models allow analysis of images, segmentation of tumors or even reporting of chest x-rays.

The tech company also introduced new features related to its healthcare data analysis environment Microsoft Fabric aimed at removing barriers to the healthy management and analysis of data, such as demographics and outcomes of patients.

In addition, Microsoft is working with Epic and various health systems to create an AI documentation solution for nurses and nursing practices. The solution targets the reduction of time spent by nurses in recording patients’ information by letting those record interactions with patients, with little or no typing.

These technologies represent a major advancement in the field of artificial intelligence in healthcare as they stand to improve efficiency of providers while enhancing experiences to patients.