July 21, 2021, Hong Kong — The healthcare industry is facing significant challenges. An aging population and shortage of healthcare workers, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic, are stretching healthcare systems all over the world. The need for accurate and efficient diagnosis and care for all has never been more important. Microsoft Hong Kong is empowering customers and partners to provide better experiences, insights, and care within the healthcare industry, striving for efficiency in medical care by accelerating technology development into our modern healthcare system.
In Hong Kong, the pandemic has already caused an acceleration in the adoption of virtual health services. It has shown how digital capabilities and solutions that use data, cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can transform and innovate healthcare and life sciences in profoundly positive ways.
Take UMP as an example. UMP is a leading medical and healthcare platform in Hong Kong and Macau offering reliable and affordable services. With the aim of bringing doctors and patients closer to each other amid the pandemic, UMP uses Microsoft Teams to enable remote consultation services and streamline booking processes, ensuring the delivery of timely and quality healthcare services to people in need. Patients are protected from minimizing the exposure to COVID-19, as well as shortened waiting time at the clinic. Prescription medicine is delivered following their virtual consultation.
Another example is Tseung Kwan O Hospital. Tseung Kwan O Hospital is the first public hospital in the city that supports 5G medical services. By incorporating 5G in surgical procedures, the use of HoloLens-enabled mixed-reality technology, smart glasses and 3D endoscope enable more precise surgeries by providing more accurate surgical guidance, and allow the off-site senior doctors to give immediate professional advice. These can enhance the success and safety of operations. HoloLens is also widely used in other markets such as the Ten-Chan General Hospital in Taiwan.
Tseung Kwan O Hospital is the first public hospital in Hong Kong that supports 5G medical services.
Microsoft Industry Cloud for Healthcare
Microsoft’s support for the digital transformation of the healthcare industry was expanded in October 2020 with the launch of its first industry-specific cloud solution Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. It provides trusted and integrated capabilities that deliver automation and efficiency for high-value workflows, managing health data at scale and supporting end-to-end security, compliance, and interoperability of health data.
Serena Cheung, Director, Public Sector Group, Microsoft Hong Kong shared the latest trends in healthcare industry
“The pandemic has accelerated the need for healthcare to embrace digital transformation. A secure, trusted cloud platform provides a foundation for better patient engagement, facilitating health team collaboration and improving clinical and operational insights. We are committed to empowering Hong Kong’s healthcare professionals and patients with technology, and we will continue building partnerships with more healthcare organizations to achieve more,” said Serena Cheung, Director, Public Sector Group, Microsoft Hong Kong.
Reimagine Traditional Chinese Medicine with AI
Emerging technologies like AI are providing healthcare organizations with powerful tools to analyze massive amounts of data, facilitating physicians to make better clinical decisions and support more accurate diagnosis from research to cancer imaging.
A team of students from Hong Kong’s Ying Wa College put forward a unique idea for a healthcare app for Traditional Chinese Medicine programmed using AI, which has been recognized globally at this year’s Microsoft Imagine Cup Junior AI for Good Challenge competition. From the left: Ethan Lau, Mr Eric Chan, teacher at Ying Wa College, Preston Wong and Ryan Sin.
Traditional Chinese Medicine can also be transformed by technology. Recently, a team of students from Hong Kong’s Ying Wa College put forward a unique idea for a healthcare app for Traditional Chinese Medicine programmed using AI and machine learning. Based on the major principles of Chinese Medicine, their digital platform would assist Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners to process and analyze patient data with the help of AI and provide a holistic overview of the patient’s condition, potentially increasing the speed of diagnosis. This idea has been recognized globally at this year’s Microsoft Imagine Cup Junior AI for Good Challenge competition, of which thousands of students, aged 13 through 18, were invited to come up with ideas to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges using the power of AI. The student team is one of the 10 global winners for their innovative AI solution.
“The students of Ying Wa College have applied highly original thinking to the traditional healthcare practice of Chinese medicine, and we are excited and proud to see how the young talent of today is inspired by the potential of AI. Microsoft is committed to using AI for good, and we strive to support local healthcare systems with technological advancement, empowering the sector to build resiliency and efficiency,” said Cheung.
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