Microsoft is helping New Jersey-based Cognizant deliver virtual digital healthcare to enhance remote patient monitoring.

Cognizant’s product, leveraging components of the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, is the first of several planned offerings that combine remote patient monitoring and virtual health, using products such as smart watches, blood pressure monitors and glucose meters to collect and communicate patient health data to providers.

Built-in analytics allow providers to cross-reference historical health information to gain patient insights and potentially identify early warning signs of chronic conditions so preventative measures can be taken. Additionally, remote capabilities enable telehealth visits, which continue to be an option to mitigate barriers of care for patients with accessibility constraints, as well as implement time-sensitive interventions and improve personalised care.

With chronic diseases expected to account for 70% of global deaths by 2030, advancements in digital integration are quickly becoming recognised as an optimal approach to preventing, managing and treating disease.

As an early Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare partner, Cognizant has designed a product that leverages Microsoft Azure services including FHIR, API services and Teams integration to improve scalability and reliability. This digital healthcare endeavour is backed by Cognizant’s dedicated Microsoft Business Group, bringing together Cognizant’s digital modernisation expertise with Microsoft’s focus on building industry clouds to deliver commercially available, comprehensive, healthcare.

This is the first in a series of digital healthcare options from Cognizant as the company accelerates its client offerings aimed at implementing healthcare technology to increase patient engagement, enhance personalised care, provide remote patient monitoring, and facilitate improved patient outcomes. Future offerings will build upon existing capabilities to help expedite implementation.

“The bridging of technology and healthcare is creating new opportunities to improve how providers monitor the health of their patients and engage with them for time-sensitive interventions,” said Surya Gummadi, head of Cognizant Healthcare. “Utilising data analytics, secure cloud technology and interoperability products, our collaboration with Microsoft offers a unique, scalable solution that aims to connect providers and patients, and enhances the quality, timeliness and personalisation of healthcare.”

Tom McGuinness, corporate vice president at Microsoft, added: “Cognizant’s new virtual healthcare utilises differentiated capabilities, built on the secure and compliant Microsoft Cloud, that make it easy for people to collect and share health data using their own devices, while ensuring that providers have the data and insights they need to diagnose and treat patients. We look forward to combining our technologies and collective expertise to deliver additional solutions that offer high quality healthcare and enable patient well-being.”