Microsoft Competes With Google, Amazon In Healthcare

Microsoft showed just how seriously it takes its ambitions in the health sector when it announced its second most expensive purchase in history after LinkedIn – that of Nuance Communications. Nuance, which specializes in speech recognition, will enable Microsoft to develop technology that can process patient/doctor consultations and incorporate relevant information into a patient’s electronic health record, thus reducing the amount of time clinicians need to spend typing up reports and notes.

The Nuance engine is driven by artificial intelligence (AI), a technology Microsoft is keen to lead in the health space. Earlier this year, the company announced that it was moving its AI-powered Healthcare Bot to its cloud-computing platform, Azure, and said that over the last year...