May 4, 2022

Healthcare trends & key takeaways from HIMSS 2022

Healthcare worker burnout is a real concern that has the potential to impact all of us. It poses a potential risk to patients and healthcare organizations alike. It is costly, and it exposes critical healthcare organizations to increased security vulnerabilities which could lead to disaster.

As virtually every industry continues to build momentum around digital transformation, this momentum is especially critical in the healthcare industry where worker burnout is prevalent. The way we rely on and access care has changed rapidly over the past few years, with Microsoft stepping up from the beginning to support healthcare organizations and providers by utilizing our technology, partner network, and influence to help meet the urgent needs of communities around the world.

As frontline workers have been facing unprecedented burnout across the industry due to staggering workloads, chronic understaffing, and the physical toll, Microsoft has worked to maintain open channels with our healthcare customers and healthcare industry partners. This has allowed us to respond quickly to meet emerging needs in the field.

To relieve some of the pressure, Microsoft and our partners have applied AI and automation to reduce such essential and time-consuming work as transcribing patient records and provide virtual assistance – freeing up time for providers to focus on their core priorities where they can make the most impact and streamlining communication and patient care throughout the process.

This is really what gets us excited about what we do, and we brought this energy to the HIMSS conference last month!

Key takeaways from healthcare partner listening sessions at HIMSS

In March, Carlos de Torres, Vice President, Partner Management Industry & ISV here at Microsoft and I along with additional members of our Microsoft team had the pleasure of representing Microsoft at HIMSS, a global health conference attended by nearly 29,000 people in Orlando, Florida. We joined over 1,000 companies to demonstrate the future of health digital innovation, and how to reimagine health and wellness for everyone, everywhere.

Our booth was filled with Microsoft partners focused on the healthcare industry, and it was great to once again be able to meet with them face to face. I only wish I could have had more time to see all of their amazing demos! Our team participated in a range of speaking sessions, lunch-and-learn opportunities, partner engagements, customer meetings, and both in-person and virtual booth tours. I also had the chance to hold 1:1 meetings with seven of our partners: UST, EPAM, Teladoc, Hillrom, Innovaccer, Nuance, and Silk.

Looking back at these valuable interactions with partners and customers, my team and I identified four main takeaways:

1. The value of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is landing with customers and partners

At HIMSS, we had the opportunity to speak directly with customers and partners about Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, a consolidation of capabilities across Microsoft 365, Azure, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and the partner ecosystem that offers a full range of end-to-end healthcare solutions designed to meet the most pressing needs of our healthcare customers.

As more organizations make the shift from on-prem to cloud, Azure’s reputation for security, compliance, and trust has been a notable differentiator for helping partners answer the questions of healthcare organizations around HIPPA compliance, deidentifying patient data, and so forth.

We’re thrilled to hear how more partners are recognizing and sharing our excitement around leveraging this framework to deliver value faster, focus on tightly tailored solutions, and strengthen last-mile industry execution to transform the experience of care teams and patients alike.

Our vision for FY23 is to continue to leverage these strengths and momentum to build a robust portfolio of partner offerings that customer organizations will be able to seamlessly plug-and-play right out of the box, extending the value of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare for customers and providing scalability for partners.

Learn more about what you can do with Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.

2. Partner solutions for healthcare are finding resonance in other verticals

Several times over the course of the conference, we were approached by partners who had discovered exciting intersectionality between a solution they designed for a specific healthcare need and applications in other industries. Built on the versatile foundation of the Microsoft Cloud, they found that their IP played into multiple spaces, opening the door to growth into other markets.

For example, one partner who designed a virtual team collaboration solution to help alleviate caregiver burnout through customized and secure communication channels, streamlined case collaboration, and virtual visits, found that their solution can also be configured for public safety and justice use cases within the judicial system. In another case, a partner with a solution aimed at helping patients maintain their care plan by providing data-driven insights for coordinated care management was able to extend the same technology to help students stay engaged with their education by empowering digital counselors to predict and prescribe student success.

It’s exciting to see that whether a partner is innovating for the healthcare sector or an adjacent vertical, they continue to discover new opportunities for growth.

3. Partners are actively seeking out strategic partnerships within the ecosystem

In fact, another takeaway was the excitement around establishing partner-to-partner (P2P) relationships. This is something we’ve been encouraging for a long time, and it was really encouraging to have multiple partners approach us about getting introductions to other partners doing complementary work.

For example, a large, long-time SI partner asked for an introduction to two young, up-and-coming ISV partners as a pathway to moving beyond a services and advisory role. They recognized that working together presents opportunities to upsell current customers or partners, by offering a more comprehensive and stronger overall solution.

We’re thrilled by this trend since we see P2P as a key driver for sustainable partner growth and as a mechanism to bring the full power of the cloud to more customers going forward. It is important to note, however, that we observed that a partner’s enthusiasm for making these connections oftentimes didn’t consider the diligent planning and coordination required up-front to be successful.

Check out the Partner-to-Partner (P2P) – Channel Transformation video series for an idea of what to expect and best practices.

4. Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance is an incredible win for the ecosystem

As we saw at HIMSS, the digital transformation that we expected over the next 10 years is happening right now, with the application of AI transforming the healthcare industry. Leading the way is Nuance, which is providing a whole new range of outcome-focused AI solutions that scale easily on Microsoft’s secure global platform.

Partner enthusiasm grew as we had the opportunity to share the full impact that the Nuance acquisition will have on the ability for partners to deliver a reimagined patient-provider experience to customer healthcare organizations, and the ability to access a whole new customer base.

Learn more about Microsoft + Nuance.

Other exciting trends to watch for

The above takeaways are just the beginning. If you were at HIMSS or are a part of the ecosystem of partners supporting this industry, you know that there is a ton of buzz around the almost limitless opportunity to help healthcare organizations and their teams embrace digital transformation.

The trend toward the consumerism of healthcare, for example, will be the catalyst for necessary changes in how providers meet the needs of patients, whether it’s greater ownership over patient records, enabling transparency into healthcare costs, or imagining the broader applications for telehealth and telemedicine.

In fact, indicators such as 50% of Gen Z preferring to access health care at mini-clinics versus primary care providers demonstrates how providers will need to adjust in order to maintain relevance. We’re even seeing non-traditional companies like ride-hailing services and big box electronics stores recognizing how their unique capabilities can be extended to healthcare.

The depth and breadth of innovation in healthcare is truly unimaginable! But we – Microsoft and our partners – have the great privilege of being on the front lines of shaping and enabling the next generation of health. We hope you’ll join us in digging into the opportunities available within this exciting industry.