New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is collaborating with Microsoft and other tech companies on a telemedicine platform that has delivered more than 200,000 appointments since launching in August 2021.
"There was an incredible need for us to make changes in our technology during the early days of the pandemic, so our DigITs team worked tirelessly to develop MSK Telemedicine," Memorial Sloan Kettering CIO Atefeh Riazi said in a Sept. 26 news release from the cancer center. "MSK Telemedicine was designed to give our patients more options to receive care, and it will remain an important tool for us to bring exceptional care and expertise to our patients, when and where they need us."
The platform is integrated with Microsoft Teams and hosted by the Microsoft Azure cloud program. Patients can check in, sign forms, complete surveys and meet with clinical team members, interpreters and family and friends virtually.
Memorial Sloan Kettering is also working on the project with IT consultant Accenture and cloud company Avanade, a joint venture of Accenture and Microsoft.
In 2021, Memorial Sloan Kettering published findings showing that most telemedicine patients were highly satisfied with their care, understood their treatment plans and were confident in their treatment. In August, the institution received a grant from the National Cancer Institute, part of the Cancer Moonshot, to start a Telehealth Research Center.