Azure for healthcare mission-critical workloads, including EHRs and more.
Digital transformation is now essential in the fast-changing healthcare industry. This change relies heavily on the Electronic health record (EHR) system, which is vital to healthcare operations and service delivery.
To overcome major obstacles like high capital expenditure, costly hardware refresh cycles, antiquated security protocols, and above all managing the data web of siloed systems, organizations are actively looking into alternatives to their traditional on-premises infrastructures. Providers may further deploy data-driven AI breakthroughs and unlock the full potential of their data by utilising cloud-based connected EHR solutions.
Azure for mission-critical workloads
Healthcare organizations can benefit from a strong platform for mission-critical workloads by migrating their EHR systems to Microsoft Azure. This platform offers improved security features like AI-powered threat detection and automated compliance monitoring, as well as optimized performance, quick data access, and integrated disaster recovery. Additionally, Azure makes the most of cloud investments by providing fresh opportunities to use data to drive AI advancements.
The foundation of healthcare is data. Every year, hospitals generate about 50 petabytes of data from over ten separate systems. Up to 97% of healthcare data is wasted, indicating a huge lost opportunity for operational excellence and improved patient insights as the sector struggles to manage enormous volumes of unstructured data and a labour crisis. One The ability to combine healthcare data solutions in Microsoft Fabric, which enable users to ingest, store, and analyze data from several sources and modalities, with Azure’s multi-modal healthcare data for analytics and AI, is one of the largest advantages for healthcare customers.
Microsoft Purview provides the data governance solution that assists you in classifying the data throughout your data estate, including identifying sensitive data, while Fabric unites your data. Healthcare organizations can confidently manage their data by integrating Microsoft Purview with Fabric’s healthcare data solutions, which not only improves security but also helps you maintain compliance. One of the many reasons the healthcare clients rely on Azure for mission-critical workloads is that they have a keen understanding of the industry standards for the use of this technology.
Customers can use their connected data on a variety of AI capabilities to keep delivering data advancements. Azure AI enables healthcare organizations to leverage Microsoft healthcare AI models in Azure AI Foundry and GitHub, a collection of state-of-the-art multi-modal generative AI models that enhance imaging and radiology workflows, automate clinical tasks, and enhance patient interactions through ambient AI solutions like DAX Copilot (directly embedded in EHR systems).
Enhanced support for mission-critical
Workloads that are mission-critical require all-encompassing support. Through its Mission Critical Offerings, Microsoft Unified improved its support for healthcare mission-critical workloads in 2024. Through frequent evaluations, direction, and optimization suggestions, this program offers proactive assistance to enhance the resilience, performance, and overall health of healthcare systems while guaranteeing business continuity and tackling particular healthcare issues.
Collaborating for technology excellence: A strategic partnership that stands out
Collaborations with top EHR providers like Epic demonstrate their commitment to mission-critical. An optimised solution for Epic on Azure has resulted from this more than two-decade-old partnership, providing a strong, purpose-built platform supported by joint-reference architecture. Microsoft recently revealed that Azure’s scalability for healthcare organisations has been expanded. Specifically, it can now operate Epic’s Chronicles Operational Database (ODB) with a capacity of 65 million global references per second (GRefs/s), which is a 171% increase over 2023 on the new Mbv3 VM series.
The partnership with Epic encompasses a number of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare products and features in addition to the cloud infrastructure. In order to incorporate cutting-edge AI technologies like Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and the DAX Copilot into Epic’s EHR system, the two companies have extended their partnership. With capabilities like note summarization and automated coding suggestions, the integration serves to improve clinician efficiency, expedite administrative procedures, and deliver AI-powered clinical insights.
Delivering value beyond infrastructure: The Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare promise
Azure is the cloud of choice for many of the health care clients for a variety of reasons, including Microsoft’s comprehensive alliance with Epic.
Moving mission-critical workloads to the cloud is frequently a decision that involves more than just infrastructure. Azure was selected by clients like Mercy in order to both update its infrastructure and derive value from massive data archives. Mercy was able to connect previously isolated data and leverage several Microsoft services, including Azure Data Lake, as a result of its digital transformation on Azure, which produced favorable business results.
Mercy, for instance, has been able to drastically cut down on patient stay times by providing care teams with intelligent dashboards and insights into the variables that affect patient discharge. Mercy uses Azure AI Document Intelligence to automatically update patients’ EHR records by scanning and identifying information on their insurance cards.
To understand that clients want a full cloud-based digital transformation that goes beyond all tiers of the stack, and Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare enables us to fulfil that commitment. It encompasses a wide range of cutting-edge data and AI breakthroughs from Microsoft specifically designed for the healthcare sector, allowing customers to more quickly and easily accomplish their cloud-first objectives.
Microsoft recently revealed a number of portfolio innovations, including as new healthcare AI models in Azure AI Foundry, Microsoft Fabric’s healthcare data solution capabilities, Copilot Studio’s healthcare agent service, and an AI-powered nursing workflow solution.
Azure is becoming more and more popular for mission-critical workloads as clients see the benefits of concentrating their IT investments under one vendor. Azure for mission-critical expands a customer’s return on cloud expenditures by delivering value and connecting with ease across all stack tiers.
Clients like St. Luke’s University Health System are benefiting from their Epic on Azure migration by utilising a number of Microsoft portfolio synergies, including as Microsoft Teams’ compatibility with Epic. With Microsoft Defender for end-point detection and response, clients like Jefferson Health move their Epic environments to Azure with great confidence because security is crucial when working with patient records.
Next actions
As are helping partners and customers build connected experiences at every point of care, empower their healthcare staff, and unleash the value from their data all while maintaining uncompromising privacy and security as they continue to revolutionize mission-critical workloads in the cloud. Healthcare organizations are being assisted by Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare at every stage in their quest to create a healthier future.
