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According to a recent Frost & Sullivan report, \u201cDigital Investments in Healthcare Through COVID-19 and Beyond,\u201d most healthcare organizations are in some stage of digital transformation,\u00a0either\u00a0on their\u00a0accord or spurred by the immense changes in healthcare delivery during the pandemic. Additionally,\u00a0<\/span>Rock Health<\/span><\/a>\u00a0notes that\u00a0at\u00a0the end of June 2021, funding for health tech startups\u00a0surpassed\u00a0<\/span>all<\/span><\/i> of 2020. Putting these two mega trends together generates significant opportunities for innovators and early-stage companies to respond with new and sometimes, groundbreaking solutions.\u00a0<\/span>As an innovator, learn more<\/span>\u00a0about\u00a0<\/span>how we help\u00a0<\/span>B2B startups grow<\/span>\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>scale<\/span>\u00a0through the\u00a0<\/span>Microsoft for Startups<\/span><\/a> program<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n Increasingly, health tech startups are aligning themselves with Microsoft, bringing innovation, diverse perspectives, and digital transformation to the healthcare industry. These early-stage companies are eager to solve problems, fill existing gaps and improve access and quality of healthcare. Healthcare startups are choosing to build their solutions on Azure for a variety of reasons, including being able to accelerate development of their solutions by leveraging Microsoft\u2019s investments throughout the healthcare ecosystem\u2014payor, provider, and life sciences. From the launch of the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare<\/a> to the planned acquisition of Nuance<\/a>, to the continued commitment to interoperability<\/a>, startups are taking note. More and more they are selecting Microsoft as their platform and Microsoft for Startups program<\/a> as their path to accelerated growth and scale. Additionally, startups and their enterprise customers value Microsoft cloud services and the security framework that encompasses industry best practices and standards, including the ISO 27000 family of standards, NIST 800, HIPSS, HITRUST, and others. Innovators value our comprehensive\u202fcompliance offerings<\/a>, and regular independent audits that are performed by qualified third-party accredited assessors.<\/p>\n Oncospace<\/a>, a Baltimore-based startup combining radiation oncology with the power of big data, is helping doctors personalize each patient\u2019s radiation treatment. Their AI-based platform enables personalization of each patient\u2019s treatment<\/strong>, with the goal of minimizing side effects and maintaining a high quality of life. \u201cWe deploy products on the Azure Cloud to securely and efficiently distribute our software to cancer treatment centers worldwide,\u201d noted Praveen Sinha, co-founder and CEO of Oncospace. Additionally, Praveen\u2019s team also has Microsoft\u2019s InnerEye SDK<\/a>, an open source medical imaging deep learning library developed by Microsoft Research<\/a>, on their product roadmap, where it will train and deploy models on Azure Machine Learning and Azure Stack.<\/p>\n Using\u00a0<\/span>Microsoft Computer Vision cognitive services\u00a0and AI<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/span>Vastmindz<\/span><\/a> is changing how vital signs are taken.\u202fCurrently in use for health and wellness triage, this UK-based company has developed an app that uses your cell phone camera or webcam to take biometrics such as heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygenation, blood pressure and stress level, without contact.\u202fThe technology analyzes subtle color changes in an individual\u2019s skin to extract a rich physiological signal using proprietary software. The team at Vastmindz has built an easy-to-use SDK that enable businesses to integrate this feature within existing applications seamlessly and they plan to blaze a trail that will include distributing their technology with other health technology and medical devices.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hyro<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>an early-stage company based in the U.S. and Israel, as well as a Microsoft Partner of the Year for Business Excellence for 2021, is automating key interactions for enterprises with their Adaptive Communications Platform. Beyond traditional conversational AI, Hyro uses <\/span>natural language and computational linguistics<\/strong> to turn complex content into simple dialogue. Developed as a plug and play platform, Hyro automatically stands up voice assistants, chat solutions, and virtual agents that help companies, including Weill Cornell Medicine, Carroll Property Management and Mercy Health, create stellar customer and patient journeys, grow bottom-line revenue, and reduce support costs by simplifying digital interactions. But innovation isn\u2019t always just about the technology. \u201cIt\u2019s mind blowing to me how such a huge player like Microsoft can partner, collaborate and advance startups in such a meaningful way, especially in a domain like healthcare,\u201d commented, Israel Krush, CEO and co-founder of Hyro.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Liz O\u2019Day, PhD,\u00a0founded\u00a0<\/span>Olaris<\/span><\/a>, a Boston-based startup shortly after completing her PhD at Harvard. Building on the research that she conducted during her studies, she and her team are building a platform that\u00a0<\/span>uses metabolomics and machine learning<\/strong> to identify \u201cbiomarkers of response,\u201d and change how diseases are diagnosed and treated. The algorithms are designed to differentiate drug responders (R) from non-responders (NR). Dr. O\u2019Day\u2019s company are tackling cancer, neurodegenerative disease, immune response and more. While she builds her company, tapping into the Microsoft for Startups program for both technical and business development support, she noted, \u201cI\u2019m a first time, female scientist and youngish CEO, having the Microsoft stamp of approval has been invaluable.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Warrior Centric Health<\/span><\/a>\u202f(WCH) provides US veterans with better and more equitable care.\u202fThis startup, based in the Baltimore, MD area and established by Ronald Steptoe and Dr. Evelyn Lewis, ensures that providers understand the unique experiences and health histories of military veterans and can more effectively deliver care to former and current service members and their families.\u202fWhile many seek care through the established US Veteran\u2019s Administration and Department of Defense healthcare systems, a vast majority of the Warrior Community use traditional, commercial providers. This is where WCH comes in. Through <\/span>learning management systems, analytics<\/strong> and other technologies, Ron and his team are deeply invested in improving the responsiveness of health systems to those that have served the US.\u202fRon is an 8th generation military veteran whose family legacy of service to the US dates back to the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. As a high-tech founder who is a former innovations leader at Pfizer, a soldier, a graduate of West Point, and a person of color, Ron has drawn upon his diverse life experience and family legacy to envision WCH having a lasting impact on the nation<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lunit<\/span><\/a>, based in South Korea, gets its name from an abbreviation of, \u201clearning unit.\u201d\u202fWith AI, Lunit is devoted to\u202fdeveloping <\/span>advanced medical image analytics and novel imaging biomarkers<\/span><\/b> using deep learning technology. The company\u2019s goal is to solve some of the most critical issues in cancer care, reduce medical costs and improve patient outcomes. Using the cloud computing power of Microsoft Azure, Lunit\u2019s technology generates location information of detected lesions in the form of heatmaps. It also makes abnormality scores that reflect the probability that the detected lesion is abnormal and needs further investigation by a radiologist. When COVID-19 spanned across the globe, the Lunit team went to work. Because their algorithms had been trained to read x-rays and originally could detect 10 major chest diseases\u202fincluding pneumonia\u202fwith 97-99 percent accuracy, the Lunit team quickly adapted those algorithms to scan for signs of COVID-19.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Another organization that is transforming imaging technology in healthcare is, Ultromics<\/a>. Building on a decade of imaging research conducted at Oxford University and in partnership with the NHS, this company specializes in using AI to analyze echocardiograms<\/strong>. Their solution, called EchoGo, provides cloud-based artificial intelligence services to support cardiac imaging diagnosis without variability or need to touch software.\u202fEarlier this year, EchoGo Pro, was cleared by the FDA and is now available to clinicians across the U.S. EchoGo Pro<\/a> was trialed and validated with the Mayo Clinic, improving the diagnostic accuracy of clinicians for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), the most common form of heart disease and a leading cause of death in the US. More recently, Ultromics has CE Marked EchoGo Core. The clearance came shortly after the company\u2019s endorsement by the NHSx, who recently awarded Ultromics with a grant to fast track its technology across the UK, to improve care delivery of services.<\/p>\n Now more than ever, the healthcare industry needs innovative, diverse, and transformative solutions to democratize high-quality healthcare delivery, provide better patient outcomes, and extend both with global scale and cost effectiveness. We are honored that so many of the new generation of innovators trust Microsoft to be their platform partner.<\/span><\/p>\n Are you an innovator ready to continue the transformation of health and life sciences? Learn more about the <\/span>Microsoft for Startups<\/span><\/a> program and how we help B2B startups grow and scale. Delve into learning resources to power your startup with Microsoft<\/a> and visit Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare<\/a> to explore the capabilities and learn more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" According to a recent Frost & Sullivan report, \u201cDigital Investments in Healthcare Through COVID-19 and Beyond,\u201d most healthcare organizations are in some stage of digital transformation,\u00a0either\u00a0on their\u00a0accord or spurred by the immense changes in healthcare delivery during the pandemic. Additionally,\u00a0Rock Health\u00a0notes that\u00a0at\u00a0the end of June 2021, funding for health tech startups\u00a0surpassed\u00a0all of 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":582,"featured_media":63027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ms_queue_id":[],"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1507,4260],"post_tag":[4466],"content-type":[1492],"coauthors":[2727],"class_list":["post-62937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare","category-life-sciences","tag-imaging","content-type-news-and-announcements"],"yoast_head":"\nInnovating with\u00a0Microsoft for\u00a0Startups<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
Diverse perspectives<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
Digital transformation<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
Ready to innovate<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n