Ways Microsoft wants to Change Health Care

Brought to my attention by Ryan Doherty, whose company Midmark, is always doing interesting things in the healthcare tech space.  Been following them for years.

The 4 big ways Microsoft wants to change health care
By Jackie Kimmell, Senior Analyst in Advisory.com

When you think of the Big Tech giants moving into health care, you probably think of Amazon, Google, Apple, and IBM—companies that have made clear they want to dramatically change the way America provides health care.

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But a sleeping tech giant may be waiting in the wings. After a few tentative, not-entirely-successful stabs at health care in past years, Microsoft is once again aiming to take on the industry, securing high-profile deals with the likes of Humana, Novartis, UCLA Health, and Providence St. Joseph.

But will Microsoft be successful in its new strategy? And, if so, what will it mean for health care? Let's dive into the company's four big health care bets to learn more.

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1. Microsoft wants to dethrone Amazon as health care's cloud provider of choice
As health systems face a need for increased data capacity and enhanced cybersecurity, they're increasingly moving their data storage off their premises and into the cloud. Health care companies are projected to spend $11.4 billion on cloud computing in 2019—making it extremely lucrative market for Big Tech to enter.

Amazon has dominated the cloud market since it first began offering services in 2006, and its platform, AWS, still owns a 48% share of the $32.4 billion market worldwide. With a 15.5% share, Microsoft's Azure cloud comes in a distant second, but it's been gaining ground—with more than 60% growth from 2017 through 2018. While Amazon still offers the greatest depth of cloud products, Microsoft has been rushing to introduce similarly cutting-edge offerings, including machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT) features, and server-less computing to their arsenal.

And health care-specific services have been a major component of Microsoft's strategy. Through its new Microsoft Healthcare team, the company is following a "blueprint" aimed at securely bringing more health data to the cloud and creating services to process that information in new ways, according to Peter Lee, head of Microsoft Healthcare....  "