Kathleen O'Connor Interviews Dr. Bill Crounse, MD, Sr. Director, Worldwide Health, Microsoft Corp.

I attended a conference in May and heard Dr. Bill Crounse, MD, Senior Director of Microsoft’s Worldwide Health Division speak.  I was fortunate enough to be able to interview him later about some of Microsoft’s activities.  I was stunned with the implication of these new tools and technologies and their potential major impact on the practice of medicine.

Dr. Crounse believes improved technologies will provide solutions that make health care dramatically more available and at lower cost.  Additionally, a more consumer-centric model will give people more control and better tools to manage their care.

“People want good, reliable information, when they are looking for it.  More than 60% of search inquiries on the Internet now are related to health and healthcare,” Dr. Crounse observes.  “People need to have a range of tools to help them find and manage this information for themselves and their families.” 

A range of tools developed by Microsoft, Google, Revolution Health and others are creating more refined ways to search for health information and create secure, central repositories for personal healthcare data, working in partnerships with provider systems.  In addition, Microsoft and its partners are working on technologies that will make it possible for providers to deliver health information and certain kinds of medical services into the home.  Dr. Mike Magee, MD, of Health Commentary blog (http://healthcommentary.org/), and author of Home-Centered Health Care: The Populist Transformation of the American Health Care System, makes one of the most persuasive cases for how home-centered health care could actually work. 

With the proper tools, he envisions a home health care manager for the family.  Because of these tools, individuals have the ability to retrieve their own health care information at home and the ability to communicate more efficiently and electronically with physician-led and nurse directed virtual health networks.  They can now have community-based 24/7 educational and emotional support.  Basic diagnostics can be performed automatically or by the home health care manager and transmitted electronically to their health care provider team.  As more of health care can be managed electronically, physician practice office capacity can grow, because so much of the care that now requires a visit can be done electronically.  This new technology does not eliminate the physician’s role, but focuses it more on diagnosis and treatment and makes the routine aspects of care more automated, requiring less of the physician’s time, thereby freeing them to focus on the practice of medicine.

“Many of the tools Dr. Magee refers to are already in use. Today, they are used more overseas in countries like Norway, Australia and Singapore than here in the US.  That’s because these nations have national health systems that are more fully integrated than the very fragmented system in the U.S.  In fact, these more integrated national systems are really driving technology today overseas,” Dr. Crounse indicates. “Where we tend to see the most innovated use of information technologies here in the United States is in managed care organizations that serve as both payers and providers of care.  In such systems incentives are more perfectly aligned for using technology to deliver the most appropriate levels of care wherever that might be; in the hospital, clinic or home. ”
Microsoft’s interest in the healthcare industry has grown from a small team set aside to study the industry 10 years ago to now having 800 people working to develop and market healthcare solutions around the globe.  Last October, the company launched HealthVault, an internet based service that helps people search for health information, and securely store and share their personal health data.   Microsoft also has a solution known as Amalga.  It helps large enterprise hospitals and clinics aggregate all of their clinical and financial data giving managers, clinicians and researchers powerful tools to analyze the data to improve patient care quality, safety, and efficiency.  Besides developing some of its own solutions for the healthcare industry and for consumer health, the company also works with more than 600 partners worldwide.  One example is NxOpinion, a type of computer assisted diagnosis software, which was developed largely for providers in emerging nations. 

“Being able to have ready access to all of a patient’s health information would make the physician’s life much easier,” Crounse notes.  “It would improve care quality, reduce medical errors, and help avoid unnecessary tests and procedures.  What physicians need is a ’GPS’ for patient care.  That is the promise of information technology”, Crounse says. 

For more information and updates on health care technologies follow Dr. Crounse’s blog:  http://blogs.msdn.com/healthblog/