Ask Microsoft

Dr. Ed Zabrek interviews Bill Keay

My interview with Bill Keay addresses the future of healthcare from Microsoft's perspective. Bill is Microsoft's "Enterprise Mobility Specialist for Microsoft Healthcare and Life Sciences." He is responsible for Windows Mobile devices and Tablet PCs as they relate to the healthcare market.

Why is Microsoft interested in healthcare?

Microsoft has placed an emphasis on healthcare for the past 10 years, and is committed to realizing the potential of an integrated infrastructure where physicians, nurses, researchers, scientists, and other healthcare workers can seamlessly share information, collaborate, and remain focused on improving the state of healthcare at reduced costs. Healthcare is one of the last frontiers where system interoperability and a common user interface have the ability to remove today's complicated, disconnected and disparate technologies, and replace them with an open data structure (XML), which allows healthcare workers to be healthcare workers, not computer technologists. Ultimately this results in better care and lower costs for all of us.

President Bush has an initiative requiring all doctors to become paperless by 2014. How will Microsoft help the medical community to achieve this?

It is estimated that 70% of all medical transactions in the U.S. are paper-based. Many analysts believe that we could cut $85 billion in hard costs (paper forms, storage, administration, etc.) just by moving to an Electronic Health Record (EHR). While this may not sound like it will have a big impact on reducing our total healthcare expenditures ($1.7 trillion in 2003), having a consolidated electronic medical record that patients and their healthcare providers can share seamlessly at the time of assessment or treatment, will significantly reduce medical errors and duplication of services, driving dramatic improvements in the quality of care we receive as patients. To this end, Microsoft and our partners continue to support the construction of this infrastructure using open standards and common user interfaces, thereby reducing training costs and removing barriers to adoption.

What other areas of healthcare do you see where Microsoft could drive improvements?

While Microsoft continues to make significant investments in R&D, it is our partners and end users that extend these core technologies to drive the next advancements in healthcare. Take, for example, Washington Hospital Medical Center in Washington D.C. This organization created its own solution built entirely on a Microsoft platform. Called InSight, the solution consolidates patient data from hundreds of data sources, making the information instantly available across a range of devices—including wireless delivery to Tablet PCs and Pocket PCs. The automation of manual processes enables Washington Hospital to bring in more than $3 million in new annual revenues, while saving additional millions by reducing its dependence on paper records.

How have Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones driven improvements in healthcare?