Microsoft has announced the expansion of its partnership with Epic Systems – one of the US’s leading health care record software companies – in a move that will see GPT-4 relieve some of the pressures faced by medical professionals today.
The large language model (LLM) behind the popular ChatGPT chatbot will bring various generative AI remedies to some of the more tedious, time-consuming tasks, in a hope that workers’ times will be more free for focusing on what matters.
The two companies hope to see positive knock-on effects such as improved patient care and better cost-optimization in a world where budgets are constantly being reviewed.
GPT-4 in healthcare
Already being used by a handful of establishments is a tool designed to draft message responses to help save on administration time.
Also on the cards is a natural language query tool for professionals to explore Epic’s self-service reporting tool, SlicerDicer, to help make the process more interactive and easy to use.
Microsoft’s AI infiltration into healthcare comes in response to the poor year that was 2022, during which around half of US healthcare organizations failed to balance the books.
“The urgent and critical challenges facing healthcare systems and their providers demand a comprehensive approach combining Azure OpenAI Service with Epic’s industry-leading technology,” explains Eric Boyd, Corporate VP for AI Platform at Microsoft, detailing the company’s long-term collaboration with Epic and its commitment to responsible AI.
Microsoft isn’t the only company looking to establish itself in the healthcare sector, though. Late last year, Google announced its own AI-powered medical imaging platform to help practitioners diagnose illnesses more fluently.
While some have criticized Big Tech for its global dominance, raising concerns about companies’ infiltration into life-dependent sectors, ultimately the goal of providing better healthcare while managing budgets more effectively will play a pivotal part in our medical landscape going forward.
