Microsoft teams with Mass General, University of Wisconsin to develop radiology AI solutions
Microsoft Corp. is teaming with two top academic health systems to develop artificial intelligence solutions for overworked radiologists, the three said Wednesday.
The technology giant is working with Mass General Brigham, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the latter’s partnering health system, UW Health, to further advance AI foundation models in imaging. Such machine learning models are pretrained to perform tasks—assisting with report generation, disease classification and structured data analysis, Microsoft said.
Those involved said they will collaborate on the development, testing and validation of breakthrough technology, deploying new AI tools in real-world scenarios. The three have already worked together previously, with this marking an expansion of their collaboration.
“Along with other industry partners, our joint efforts aim to leverage the power of imaging foundation models to improve experiences and workflow efficiency across the radiology ecosystem in a way that is reliable, transparent and secure,” Peter Durlach, corporate VP of Microsoft Health and Life Sciences, said in an announcement. “Together, we are not only advancing medical imaging, but also helping deliver more accessible and better-quality patient care in a very resource-constrained environment.”
Health systems spend approximately $65 billion per year on medical imaging, according to one estimate. And about 80% of all hospital visits include at least one imaging exam covering over 23,000 conditions, Microsoft noted. But amid this heavy demand, many are grappling with challenges including radiologist burnout and staffing shortages. This has left healthcare institutions seeking AI solutions to enhance efficiencies, reduce workloads and improve accuracy. UW and Mass General plan to test what the partners develop in their own health systems via PowerScribe and other products offered by Microsoft company Nuance.
“We are excited to collaborate with Microsoft on the development, validation and thoughtful clinical investigation of generative AI in the medical imaging space,” Scott Reeder, MD, PhD, chair of the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Radiology and a radiologist at UW Health, said in the announcement. “Our focus is to bridge the gap within medical imaging from innovation to patient care in ways that improve outcomes and make innovative care more accessible.”
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.