Microsoft Envisions a Dynamic, Patient-Centric Health System

Microsoft's vision of the future of healthcare involves a radical transformation of not only the way in which physicians operate, but also when it comes down to how patients deal with their health information. Through the voice of Peter Neupert, corporate vice president, Microsoft Corporation’s Health Solutions Group, the Redmond company revealed its perspective over the evolution of the U.S. healthcare system, in a hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. In this regard, Microsoft indicated that information technology had to be an integral part of the healthcare reform.

“At Microsoft, we envision a dynamic, patient-centric health system that transforms the way physicians provide care and individuals manage their own health—a totally connected network that delivers predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine in an accessible, affordable, and accountable way,” Neupert stated. “It is a world where everyone in the health ecosystem has the right information at the right time with computer assisted decision support, enabling the seamless exchange and reuse of data. Health data is the asset that drives an efficient, high-quality, value-based, evidence-focused future for medicine.”

According to Microsoft, patients would become consumers, while physicians would be transformed into knowledge workers. At the same time, the software giant revealed that the level of interactions between the various members of the healthcare system had to be taken to the next level, while extending healthcare to the virtual world and introducing a learning system for monitoring and optimization.

In the end, the Redmond company is a supporter of building a scalable, patient-centric health IT system. As such, the software giant proposed that the focus should be on driving the right health outcomes and payments to incent innovation, connecting and sharing data among and between health entities and empowering consumers to be stewards of their own health data.

“Microsoft has learned a great deal over the past several years as we have worked to improve healthcare through information technology. We know that just spending more money on health IT will not solve the problems in today’s healthcare system. We believe the right investments are those that focus on the right outcomes. We believe that it is essential that data be connected and shared so that consumers and health enterprises can build their health data assets over time,” Neupert added.