Microsoft to offer healthcare software

Microsoft plans to offer healthcare software that is designed to retrieve and quickly display patient information from many sources, The New York Times reported yesterday.

The software will replace other programs that compile patient information, but can’t share the data. Many hospitals and clinics have different kinds of patient information in electronic form, but their different computer systems and software cannot share the data, which is the problem Microsoft’s new system addresses.

Microsoft is buying a software system called Azyxxi that will do the job. The software was first used at the Washington Hospital Center, where patients are treated faster because of it. “We weren’t doctor-poor or bed-poor,” Dr. Craig Fried, who designed the software, said. “We were information-poor.” Patients had been waiting because doctors were unable to find patient records and treatment history.

Microsoft hopes to meet the needs of doctors and hospitals, who hope to save money and improve care by handling patient records and tracking treatments electronically. It will be competing with other established suppliers of clinical information technology systems, including Cerner, Epic, G.E. and Ecylpsis.