Microsoft Takes Another Crack at Health Care, This Time With Cloud, AI and Chatbots

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is trying again in health care, betting its prowess in cloud services and artificial-intelligence can help it expand in a market that’s been notoriously hard for technology companies. A new initiative called Healthcare NExT will combine work from existing industry players and Microsoft’s Research and AI units to help doctors reduce data entry tasks, triage sick patients more efficiently and ease outpatient care.
As quoted in the press release:

“I want to bring our research capabilities and our hyper-scale cloud to bear so our partners can have huge success in the health-care world,” said Peter Lee, a Microsoft Research vice president who heads Healthcare NExT.
Microsoft has tried to expand in health care before, with mixed results. It had a Health Solutions Group for many years, but combined that into a joint venture with General Electric Co. Last year, it sold its stake to GE.

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