7 ways AI is advancing healthcare and wellbeing around the world
Healthcare systems are embracing AI in a drive to give clinicians more time and better tools to improve access to patient care.
Facing tight budgets and growing demand for healthcare services, hospitals, pharmacies and doctor’s offices around the world are deploying AI technology to reduce time spent on documentation, speed the flow of important health information and improve working conditions for overworked nurses, physicians and pharmacists.
From pharmacies in Kenya to emergency services in Munich and a hospital weathering a ransomware attack in Japan, AI-powered tools are being used to bring greater efficiency and security to healthcare systems and increase access to medicines and care. Yet all these interventions have one thing in common: a focus on ensuring clinicians remain in control and at the center of decision-making and patient care.
Below are seven examples of how healthcare systems are deploying Microsoft’s AI technology to help improve health and wellbeing.
At the Munich Fire Department, saving time for emergencies with an AI operator that handles routine transport calls
At the Munich Fire Department, an AI operator is helping ease the relentless pressure on dispatchers by handling non‑emergency calls — keeping humans in the loop. The system was designed by the people who know the job firsthand — firefighters, paramedics and dispatchers — and created in collaboration with Microsoft experts.
The AI operator uses natural language in multiple languages to arrange non‑emergency patient transports, freeing dispatchers to focus on life‑threatening emergencies. Built using Microsoft Foundry, Azure Speech (HD Voice) and Foundry’s Azure AI Search, the system can verify critical details — while handing calls to humans whenever needed.
The system is currently in beta testing at the emergency department at LMU Klinikum, Munich’s largest hospital.
Crucially, the people behind the technology still respond to emergencies. As one of the system’s creators, Florian Dax, put it: “It’s important for us to be part of shaping AI in emergency services. For all the support tasks and low-priority calls, AI can really help.”
A hospital system in the UK uses ambient technology to relieve doctors of time spent on paperwork and give it back to patients
At Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, doctors are adopting a new way to reduce paperwork and reclaim time with patients. They’re using Microsoft Dragon Copilot, an ambient AI tool that listens to clinical conversations and turns them into structured medical notes automatically.
Instead of typing during appointments, clinicians can focus fully on the people in front of them, while Dragon Copilot transcribes visits, organizes information and drafts patient documentation for electronic patient records in the background.
Cardiologist Dr. Charles Pearman has been testing the system for several months now; he said he has been able to save several minutes per patient — time that quickly adds up in his busy practice. He estimates he could see one more patient per day because of the time saved on administrative work. Manchester University NHS Chief Executive Mark Cubbon said early results suggest the technology could help the hospital system treat up to a quarter of a million additional patients each year.
AI helps Kenyan pharmacists serve more patients
Pharmacies do more than dispense medicines in Africa, where healthcare needs far outstrip the capacity of healthcare providers. In Kenya, that’s especially true of small, independent pharmacies that serve neighbors within walking distance. These pharmacies are valuable for the community, yet they struggle to be profitable.
An AI-powered app called Zendawa — a word that combines “zen” and “dawa,” which is Swahili for medicine — helps pharmacies track inventories, cutting waste and saving money. Wilfred Chege, co-founder and CEO of Zendawa, created the app, powered by Microsoft Copilot 365 and using tools in Power BI. The app helps pharmacies forecast their needs and collects sales data that goes into a credit score so a pharmacy can apply for a loan to grow.
Zendawa has helped some pharmacies make a huge leap, from pen and paper to AI. The company helps them digitize first, then learn to use the app.
A father in Spain waited 10 months for a diagnosis — his AI tool now takes minutes
When Julián Isla’s infant son Sergio began suffering seizures, his family endured a 10‑month odyssey through misdiagnoses, uncertainty and missed treatment before learning he had Dravet syndrome, a rare neurological condition. The experience — marked by fear and improper care that led to dozens of seizures in a single day — left Isla convinced that technology could help prevent other families from facing the same ordeal.
A longtime Microsoft software engineer, Isla believed AI could dramatically shorten the time it takes to diagnose rare diseases by analyzing vast amounts of symptom data. After Sergio’s tortuous diagnosis, Isla became a leading advocate for rare‑disease patients in Spain and, in 2017, co‑founded Foundation 29 to apply AI to healthcare.
That work led to DxGPT, an AI‑powered diagnostic support tool built on Microsoft Azure. Now used by hundreds of thousands worldwide and integrated into Madrid’s public health system, and expanding to two additional Spanish regions, the tool helps doctors and patients reach answers faster — transforming personal pain into quicker diagnosis.
Addressing clinician burnout in the Western US with integrated AI
Intermountain Health, one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the Western US, partnered with Microsoft to address rising clinician burnout and administrative burden driven by documentation demands. With a long-standing relationship with Microsoft, Intermountain deployed Microsoft Dragon Copilot — an AI-powered clinical workflow assistant — integrated directly into its electronic health record. The solution uses natural language and ambient and generative AI to capture patient-clinician conversations and automatically generate high-quality clinical notes, allowing clinicians to spend less time charting and more time with patients.
Following a systemwide rollout, Intermountain has scaled Dragon Copilot to more than 2,500 active clinicians. The organization reports faster documentation, reduced cognitive load, and improved clinician satisfaction and patient engagement. By prioritizing technology that works seamlessly within existing workflows, Intermountain is advancing its mission to improve caregiver wellbeing while delivering more connected, human-centered care across its hospitals and clinics.
A Japanese hospital turned its ransomware crisis into a cybersecurity reset
When a ransomware attack crippled systems at Osaka General Medical Center in 2022, it forced a hard reset. Servers became inaccessible. Patient data was locked. Internal communications went dead.
Things returned to normal within two months. But the management knew they had to revamp security.
“We realized that the same cybersecurity measures wouldn’t be enough,” said Dr. Takeshi Shimazu, the hospital’s president.
Osaka General, one of Japan’s leading hospitals, turned to Microsoft’s AI‑powered security and cloud technologies to mount stronger defenses.
The hospital now deploys Microsoft Defender, including Endpoint Detect and Response, and Microsoft Entra ID to control access across its network, both on-premises and in the Microsoft Azure cloud. Microsoft Defender uses machine learning to identify threats and block malware, while Microsoft Entra ID applies AI‑driven risk analysis.
It also rolled out Microsoft 365 for its 2,000 employees, enabling smarter workflows and collaboration via apps like SharePoint, Teams and Copilot Chat, a web-based general-purpose AI assistant.
A European hospital system uses technology to help keep patients — and budgets — healthy
Ribera, a private operator of 16 hospitals and 74 medical centers in Spain, Portugal and Central Europe, faces the same challenges as healthcare providers everywhere: greater demand for services, mostly due to an aging population, and tight budgets. Ribera employs Dynamics 365 Contact Center, OpenAI models for generative AI projects, Azure Machine Learning tools for non-generative AI applications, Microsoft Fabric, Dynamics Business Central and Microsoft 365 Copilot to keep patients healthy. Ribera’s healthcare professionals use the in-house Cynara Citizen app to monitor patients with chronic conditions and react before problems become crises.
Ribera developed a model using Azure Machine Learning to identify patients at risk of developing pressure ulcers, a huge concern in hospitals. Another model helps predict the risk of patients falling. It is testing generative AI to help draft discharge letters for some routine procedures, saving doctors time that can be directed back to actual patient care.
Images top to bottom:
- Pharmacist Dr. Bramwel Othieno checks stocks at Ryche Pharmacy in Nairobi. Photo by Afrikanna Production.
- From left, Florian Dax, Christian Schnepf and Mathias Duensing of the Munich Fire Department’s IT department. Photo by Nur Bayraktepe for Microsoft.
- Dr. Charles Pearman, left, and a patient at the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Photo by Chris Welsch for Microsoft.
- Dr. Bramwel Othieno is a pharmacist at Ryche Pharmacy in Nairobi. Photo by Afrikanna Production.
- Intermountain Health’s hospital in Murray, Utah. Photo courtesy of Intermountain Health.
- Neurologist Dr. Haku Tanaka looking at a brain scan shared on his Microsoft Teams chat. Photo by Toru Hanai for Microsoft.
- Marina Sánchez Grau, a diagnostic radiographer, left, and María Isabel Pérez Zaragoza, a nuclear medicine technologist, at Ribera’s Hospital Universitario del Vinalopó, Spain. Photo by Miguel Vizcaíno for Microsoft.
Sally Beatty writes about AI and innovation at Microsoft, focusing on the company’s most cutting-edge breakthroughs and how emerging technologies are improving the lives of ordinary people. Previously, Sally was a feature reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York, where she broke news about media and marketing. A California native, Sally lived in Hong Kong in the early 1990s, where she wrote for the Journal about the societal impact of economic and political reforms and consumer spending trends. You can contact Sally at LinkedIn.