As CVS Well being revamps its well being technique, it’s placing a partnership with Microsoft to digitize extra of its operations. CVS will migrate a few of its current processes to Microsoft’s cloud service, Azure, and also will work with the corporate to construct extra consumer-facing well being instruments because it seems to construct out its digital presence.
The businesses introduced the strategic alliance on Thursday, although they didn’t disclose the phrases of the deal. It comes shortly after CVS introduced it could shut 900 of its shops, and renovate different places to focus extra on well being and wellness companies.
“We’re quickly remodeling right into a consumer-centric, built-in well being options firm, taking a digital-first, know-how ahead strategy to all that we do,” CVS Chief Data Officer Roshan Navagamuwa stated in a information launch.
One side of the partnership shall be to construct out consumer-facing instruments that may present personalized well being suggestions utilizing affected person information. For instance, the corporate would possibly remind somebody in danger for melanoma to purchase sunscreen, in accordance with Forbes.
The corporate additionally plans to construct out its retail loyalty and personalization packages utilizing Azure.
CVS has already used Azure to automate some duties previously. For instance, it makes use of pc imaginative and prescient and textual content analytics to assist digitize consumption for specialty pharmacy, when prescriptions typically arrive by paper or fax machine, making it simpler and quicker to fill prescriptions. CVS stated it is going to work with Microsoft to search out extra methods like this to simplify processes.
Lastly, the partnership can even contain CVS rolling out Microsoft merchandise for its workforce, comparable to Groups for videoconferencing and Microsoft Workplace.
Microsoft has been taking current strides to carve out its position in healthcare, as cloud opponents Google and Amazon additionally search for a slice of the market. Microsoft struck a strategic partnership final yr with competitor Walgreens, and in addition struck an integration with Teladoc for Microsoft Groups. It additionally made an enormous, $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance, which makes speech recognition instruments for documentation.
Photograph credit score: CVS Well being