Microsoft Targets Health-Care Sector

Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it will offer software for use in the health-care industry—a shift toward providing industry-specific applications instead of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant’s typical business model of supplying operating systems, software and tools for other firms to build onto, The New York Times reports.

The company’s first effort under the new initiative is to buy software developed by physicians and other researchers from Washington Hospital Center, a not-for-profit hospital, according to the Times. Gates Inc. will also hire two of the three doctors who created the software system, as well as 40 members of the development group, the Times reports.

The software, called “Azyxxi,” is used to cull and rapidly display medical information on patients from a handful of sources, including EKG records, X-rays and MRI scans, according to the Times.

“This represents a change in our strategy,” said Peter Neupert, Microsoft’s vice president for health strategy, according to the Times. “This is the start for Microsoft. We’re just getting started.”

Neupert was with Microsoft for 11 years before leaving his post in 1998 for a chief executive position with DrugStore.com, a Web retailer of pharmacy and health-related products, the Times reports. In 2003, Neupert joined President Bush’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, where he stayed until rejoining Microsoft in September 2005, according to the Times. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, and Craig Mundie, senior strategy executive, brought Neupert back on staff after he convinced them that Microsoft could benefit from directing more of its attention to the health sector, the Times reports.

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