Microsoft has continued its push into healthcare by pursuing strategic partnerships to improve the nation's COVID-19 vaccine rollout, conduct clinical research and help hospitals manage their data.
Below is a timeline outlining key moves Microsoft has recently made with other organizations:
Oct. 7, 2020: Microsoft Azure teamed up with University of California San Francisco, Intel and Fortanix to establish a confidential computing platform that will accelerate the development and validation of clinical algorithms.
Oct. 15, 2020: Microsoft partnered with Children's Mercy Kansas City and biotechnology company Pacific Biosciences of California on a genomic research and tech development project to combat rare diseases.
Dec. 1, 2020: Microsoft and a team of Durham, N.C.-based Duke University researchers developed a ventilator splitting system to help COVID-19 patients in the wake of hospital surges and supply shortages.
Dec. 16, 2020: Allscripts launched its updated EHR platform Sunrise 20.0, which runs on Microsoft's cloud software Azure.
Jan. 6, 2021: The Washington State Department of Health partnered with Microsoft to launch a COVID-19 vaccine dashboard featuring data on vaccine ordering and administration broken down by county and demographics.
Jan. 7, 2021: The Oklahoma State Department of Health teamed up with Microsoft to release an app that informs people when they are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine and helps them sign up for an appointment.
Jan. 11, 2021: Google sister company Verily inked an agreement with Microsoft to run its biomedical research platform on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.
Jan. 14, 2021: Microsoft teamed up with other big tech companies and major hospitals — including Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, Epic, Cerner, Salesforce, Change Healthcare and Oracle — to form the Vaccination Credential Initiative, a collective working to create a digital, interoperable vaccination record system.
Feb. 3, 2021: Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente partnered with Microsoft and IT services company Accenture to transition to Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.
Kirkland, Wash.-based EvergreenHealth and Bellevue, Wash.-based Overlake Medical Center & Clinics also partnered with Microsoft to move their COVID-19 vaccine operations to the tech giant's Redmond, Wash., campus.
Feb. 17, 2021: Humana began piloting a new chronic condition care management program that uses Microsoft's Azure and Power BI cloud technologies to run analytics and data integration.
Feb. 24, 2021: Microsoft said the first update for its Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare will include Epic EHR integration.
Feb. 25, 2021: Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University teamed up with Microsoft and Amazon to develop a machine learning tool to be used in clinical forecasting.
April 1, 2021: Microsoft and a team of researchers from the Seattle-based University of Washington teamed up to create a platform that captures patient vitals via smartphone camera.