COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of technology and communication in healthcare delivery. Virtual care has expanded, and providers' reliance on digital tools for the swift and effective exchange of information with patients and one another has increased.
Microsoft, one of the world's preeminent technology companies, has worked both globally in countries including Copenhagen and locally in communities around Washington state, to help hospitals and health systems meet the many challenges created by the pandemic. Microsoft's COVID-19 response and the tech giant's expanding footprint in healthcare was the topic of a Nov. 9 fireside chat with David Rhew, MD, CMO and vice president of healthcare for Microsoft.
The session with Dr. Rhew was part of Becker's CEO + CFO Virtual Event. Below is an excerpt from the conversation, edited for length and clarity. To view the full session on-demand, click here.
Question: Microsoft has deepened its presence in healthcare in recent years. Can you talk a little bit about Microsoft's evolution in the healthcare space?
Dr. David Rhew: At one point, our mission was heavily focused on technology — the mission was to get a computer on every desktop. But about a decade ago, we changed that. Now, our mission is to empower. In healthcare, we want to help patients by helping hospitals and care providers achieve more. By serving as a technology enabler, we can help providers across the globe achieve their goals.
This mission has allowed us to rethink our approaches to provide greater guidance and assistance. We are placing a greater focus on the concept of individualized or personalized care. We want to better understand how we can coordinate care between providers and individuals virtually. This involves pulling data together, applying artificial intelligence to derive insights, and then becoming much more proactive in our communications and interactions.
Q: Can you tell me about Microsoft's response to COVID-19? How has the pandemic influenced your organization's work with providers?
DR: Part of my background that is relevant to this conversation is I am also an infectious disease physician. I trained during the AIDS epidemic when we saw many patients who were suffering from a virus that we couldn't treat. We saw them die in the hospital. It was a tragic time, but it showed us what we need as a nation, as a global community, to address these types of crises. We need information sharing to be able to accelerate the pace of medication delivery. That's been our focus amid this pandemic.
Early on, call center volumes for some of our key provider partners were very high — people had a lot of questions about COVID-19. There was a lack of information out there and it was enabling the spread of the virus. What we did is take some of the AI-based chatbot technology that was previously developed for more consumer-oriented call center services and equipped it with the CDC's COVID-19 criteria. We saw about a 30 to 40 percent reduction in call volumes and a subsequent decrease in foot traffic to the emergency rooms and urgent care centers for our provider partners. This has helped us understand how technology can be applied to address urgent needs amid a pandemic.