UPMC and Microsoft Plan to Develop Innovations that Empower Patients, Clinicians
By: Wendy Zellner
UPMC and Microsoft announced today that they plan to create a strategic research partnership to develop transformative solutions and technologies that will empower people to live healthier lives.
By combining Microsoft’s expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), the cloud and business optimization tools with the clinical, research and product development expertise of UPMC, the two expect to solve some of the most perplexing challenges facing the health care industry — from disconnected information systems and regulatory uncertainty to physician burnout and poor communication with patients.
“Despite UPMC’s efforts to stay on the leading edge of technology, too often our clinicians and patients feel as though they’re serving the technology rather than the other way around. With Microsoft, we have a shared vision of empowering clinicians by reducing the burden of electronic ‘paperwork’ and allowing the doctor to focus on the sacred doctor-patient relationship,” said Dr. Steven D. Shapiro, chief medical and scientific officer of UPMC and president of UPMC Health Services Division. “Our planned partnership with Microsoft will help us transform the delivery of care and wellness in a way that was never possible before.”
“We are incredibly energized about the opportunities to make a difference in health care with a leading provider and payor like UPMC,” said Peter Lee, corporate vice president of Microsoft Research and leader of Microsoft’s New Experiences and Technologies (NExT) organization. “This will be the first significant partnership in a new initiative that Microsoft is calling Healthcare NExT, which will deeply integrate greenfield research and health technology product development. Through these collaborations between health care partners and Microsoft’s AI and Research organization, our goal is to enable a new wave of innovation and impact.”
The two organizations intend to focus on projects that will empower both physicians and consumers and advance ground-breaking immunology research by using Microsoft’s deep AI expertise and global-scale cloud. These new products are expected to be built with and piloted at UPMC, under the guidance of its innovation and commercialization arm, UPMC Enterprises, which already encompasses a broad portfolio of both homegrown and externally created technology companies.
“UPMC has a long history of applying technology ‘the right way’ and bringing innovations to market,” said Tal Heppenstall, president of UPMC Enterprises. “With Microsoft’s vision and technological ingenuity, our planned, multi-year collaboration has the potential to help us deliver vastly better care and a better patient experience at a lower cost—the ‘Triple Aim’ of health care.”
UPMC and Microsoft announced today that they plan to create a strategic research partnership to develop transformative solutions and technologies that will empower people to live healthier lives.
