Microsoft Recommits to Solving Healthcare Problems at HIMSS

Published: February 28, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft reiterated its commitment to solving some of the healthcare industry's most vexing problems this week at the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) conference, taking place this week in New Orleans, Louisiana. Grabbing headlines was Microsoft's acquisition of healthcare search engine software developer Medstory, its delivery of the Connected Health Framework Architecture and Design Blueprint, and a keynote address by CEO Steve Ballmer.

Healthcare is a tantalizing challenge for Microsoft, for several reasons. First and foremost, it's the single largest vertical market in the world, accounting for hundreds of billions of dollars--if not trillions--in spending every year. In addition to being very (very very) lucrative, it's also an industry that still largely relies on archaic processes that make communication difficult. In many cases, the business processes of the world's public medical establishments are in shambles and are begging for IT to come up with a solution to set it right. And that's why Microsoft and the rest of the IT industry were in the Big Easy this week--to see what can be done about it.

Ballmer outlined this in his keynote on Monday. "Healthcare is the single largest industry in the world. And yet we don't see quite the same level of standardization of software tools in the healthcare industry that we do, say, in the manufacturing industry," he says. "I think it's because the depth and level of understanding that people are seeking, the needs of the providers simply haven't been met. We need to continue to push the state of the art in information technology to allow robust but general purpose tools to allow healthcare providers to deal with this explosion of information."

The CEO suggested that software from Microsoft and adherence to XML-based Web services standards is the best way for the healthcare industry to move forward. "How do we give you an aggregated view of patients, so that you can not only look at an individual patient, but what the experience has been with groups of patients? How do we really get these unified records pulled together? How do we move data seamlessly from provider to provider, or department to department, from ambulatory to ER to the operating room? How is all that information really going to be woven together?" Ballmer asks rhetorically

The answer, of course, is" through these XML Web services for letting these systems work together," he says. "So-called service-oriented architecture is a new technology, and one that I think will be more important in this industry than in any other."

To that end, Microsoft unveiled its Connected Health Framework Architecture and Design Blueprint, which it says provides a vendor-agnostic approach for using SOA technologies to connect applications and address integration problems within healthcare organizations. The company also unveiled its Health Connection Engine, a set of Web services for deploying Web services in healthcare organizations.

Microsoft also used the HIMSS platform to announce plans to acquire Medstory, a privately held company based in Foster City, California, that develops Web search technology specifically for health information.

MedStory's software is designed to make it easier for users to find health-related information on the Internet. Peter Neupert, Microsoft corporate vice president for health strategy, likens MedStory to a vertical health search engine that can be layered on top of a general search engine to provide intelligent query refinement "guides." "Unlike most search engines that display results based on link popularity, MedStory's results use intuitive search technology that provides pre-qualified results. This approach helps users refine and better target their searches, and it delivers result that are better organized and more relevant," Neupert says in a PressPass Q&A on the Microsoft Web site.

RELATED STORY

Microsoft Buys Security and Healthcare Companies

                     Post this story to del.icio.us
               Post this story to Digg
    Post this story to Slashdot