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Advanced analytics is a change agent

Microsoft team at the 2016 Microsoft Health Innovation Summit in Brussels

The 2016 Health Innovation Summit in Brussels Microsoft team includes (from left): Elena Bonfiglioli, Microsoft Health Leader for EMEA (Belgium), Dr. Hammad Al-Saaid, President of Webuild (Sweden), Dr. Jim Weinstein (United States) and Tom Lawry, Microsoft Director Worldwide Health (United States).

I just returned from the fifth annual Microsoft Health Innovation Summit in Brussels, and I’m excited about the innovative uses of data and advanced analytics solutions that are changing the face of healthcare.

The summit kicked off with a keynote by Dr. Jim Weinstein, who shared his views on new models of care delivery that they are pioneering through ImagineCare. Their creative use of wearables, IoT in the home, advanced analytics, and clinical guidelines shows how they are reinventing the way chronic care will be managed in the future.

Another great example of how analytics is being used to push the current boundaries of primary care is work being led by Dr. Hammad Al-Saaid and Webuild in Sweden. Through the use of predictive analytics and artificial intelligence, Dr. Al-Saaid outlined current work in Sweden that he sees leading to the eventual use of robotics to augment and improve the delivery of primary care.

And while there were many examples of analytics in action, I was especially impressed and moved by the work of Portugal-based partner MHii Solutions, which developed the HIV Situation Room for the United Nations. Utilizing Azure and SQL, the company recently launched this program in Kenya to monitor, measure, and manage HIV. This real-time advanced analytics solution will eventually be rolled out in 40 countries. Check out this three-minute video, which describes the impact analytics is having in Kenya. It speaks to the power of analytics in health today.

Driven by trends like the growth of the elderly population, chronic disease, inconsistencies in care delivery, and the increasing growth in health inequities worldwide, the use of Advanced Analytics holds the key to change. For two days, I saw the future in the work of health leaders from Europe who are harnessing the power of analytics to deliver on the promise of better health for all.

Special thanks to Elena Bonfiglioli for her leadership in creating and managing this non-commercial forum that brings together innovators that are using technology as an agent for change.

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