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Microsoft Health Subsidiary Nuance Backs 'AI Collaborative'
Nuance, which was acquired by Microsoft earlier this year, is contributing its medical artificial intelligence (AI) expertise to a newly formed community of healthcare executives and experts dubbed the "AI Collaborative."
The AI Collaborative will officially launch in September 2022, according to a press release Wednesday announcing the launch, and will aim to connect "senior leaders from the nation's Leading Health Systems (LHS) who are deploying these technologies [AI and machine learning] in the clinical and operational settings, as well as planning for future use-cases."
Nuance is a co-founder of the AI Collaborative. The other co-founder is The Health Management Academy, a network of healthcare executives and companies that's committed to sharing data about the healthcare industry, learning and development opportunities, and opportunities for partnerships. According to its site, The Academy has over 1,600 "LHS executive relationships," over 450 members in the C-suite and over 150 "innovative industry members."
The new AI Collaborative will bring these members opportunities to expand their knowledge of AI, machine learning and data analytics in health care. Programming will include workshops, annual summits and visits to Microsoft's Redmond, Wash. headquarters.
"Our members have expressed their desire for a dedicated space to explore AI in healthcare and its enormous potential to improve outcomes and clinical workflow," said The Academy CEO Renee DeSilva in a prepared statement, adding that The AI Collaborative is "designed exclusively for clinical and operational executives who lead their organization's approach to investing in AI as a strategic initiative."
Acquired by Microsoft for $19.7 billion, Nuance's portfolio of healthcare technologies, particularly enterprise AI solutions for the medical industry, makes it an ideal backer of the AI Collaborative. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described Nuance as providing "the AI layer at the healthcare point of delivery" when announcing the planned acquisition back in April 2021.
"The key to successful healthcare innovation using AI is understanding at a deep level the problems that you're trying to solve and focusing on the outcomes you want to achieve," said Nuance CSO Peter Durlach.