Hospitals and health insurers are deploying artificial intelligence to cut paperwork, speed up clinical trials and defend against cyberattacks, according to a Microsoft blog post drawing on research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The research, conducted with senior healthcare executives in the United States, found a widening gap between organisations that have built the governance and security foundations needed to scale AI and those still running small pilot projects.
Microsoft highlighted several real-world deployments and their reported results.
Intermountain Health, a US hospital network, said its use of Microsoft's Dragon Copilot voice tool cut the time clinicians spend writing up appointment notes by 27%.
Cooper University Health Care reported that doctors and nurses saved more than four minutes per patient visit, while Mercy, another US health system, said its highest-use nurses saved between eight and 24 minutes per shift and patient satisfaction rose by 4.5%.
CareSource, a managed care organisation, said it cut documentation time by 75% and saved more than $125,000 through automation.
St. Luke's University Health Network reported that AI security tools are saving nearly 200 hours per month in the time staff spend reviewing potential cyber threats.
Syneos Health, a clinical research company, said AI helped reduce the time needed to activate new sites in clinical trials by roughly 10%.
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Kees Hertogh, writing in the Microsoft blog, advised healthcare organisations to focus on specific workflows before choosing technology, and to invest in training staff so that AI adoption spreads beyond early enthusiasts.
The post also emphasised the importance of human oversight, responsible AI policies and strong data security as prerequisites for scaling the technology safely across large health systems.
The recap
- Microsoft reports healthcare AI moving from pilots into production.
- Intermountain reported a 27% reduction in documentation time.
- Microsoft recommends prioritizing secure access, identity and governance.