In healthcare, there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. Just as patients need care tailored to their condition, healthcare systems need technology that supports care delivery and improves efficiency. As AI tools multiply, organizations are under pressure to adopt solutions that they can trust and that fit securely into existing work processes.
“There’s no longer a question of ‘if’ AI will be a part of healthcare,” says Kenneth Harper, general manager of Dragon product management at Microsoft. “Organizations now are asking how quickly they can equip teams with tools that scale safely, assist across roles, and enable clinicians to focus on patient care, without adding additional steps.”
That’s why Microsoft developed Dragon Copilot as a unified, AI clinical assistant that enables customers to integrate partner-built apps and agents through Microsoft Marketplace. In one location, Dragon Copilot customers can access tools focused on areas such as revenue cycle, clinical insights, and decision support, helping them to improve care while operating within the security, compliance, and governance standards they already trust from Microsoft.
“The Marketplace opens up a world of possibilities by offering solutions to common challenges in healthcare and putting them at the fingertips of more than 100,000 clinicians across the country who are using Dragon Copilot,” Harper says. “As a result, we expect to continue to see a reduction in cognitive and administrative burdens, and a deeper commitment to the human side of healthcare.”
Regard: A Microsoft Marketplace mini case study
As an intensive care unit physician, David Kirk, M.D., knows that minutes can mean the difference between life and death in healthcare. Electronic health records, while essential, can be overwhelming in critical moments. “The chart is too big for one brain to completely comprehend,” he says.
Regard was built for exactly that type of challenge.
Kirk is chief medical officer for Regard, a proactive documentation platform that reviews a patient’s entire electronic health record, recommends diagnoses that might otherwise be missed, and delivers the right information at the point of care. Available through Microsoft Marketplace, Regard integrates into Dragon Copilot and is seamless for clinicians to use within their regular workflow. “As I’m doing my work, taking care of the patient, I can get all of that information in real time and get the true clinical picture,” Kirk says.
As a result, doctors have more time to interact directly with patients, while patients receive more informed care and, potentially, more accurate diagnoses. Kirk shared an example of a patient who came to the hospital suffering an embolic stroke; the team wasn’t sure what caused it until Regard identified an old EKG that indicated the patient had paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. In another instance, a patient was septic, and their condition was declining. Regard uncovered that the patient was not receiving an antibiotic they needed, and the healthcare team quickly intervened.
By recommending diagnoses at the point of care, AI can potentially help clinicians improve outcomes. Those effects can then ripple through healthcare operations by supporting quality scores, reimbursement, risk capture and star ratings. It can also affect something harder to measure: peace of mind. Because Regard helps physicians develop a fuller sense of a patient’s story, its value is unmistakable.
“Once they’ve seen it firsthand, a lot of clinicians tell us it feels irresponsible not to use a tool like this,” says Nate Wilson, Regard’s co-founder and president.
To date, Regard has recommended more than 14 million diagnoses that may have otherwise been missed, and it is used by thousands of clinicians across 150 hospitals nationwide. Its integration into Dragon Copilot means even more clinicians can access those recommendations without leaving their existing workflow, and more growth is on the horizon.
“We believe AI is good enough to save lives,” Wilson says, “and there’s a moral responsibility to bring this to more people more quickly.”
Technology built for patient-centered care
Dragon Copilot is designed to fit seamlessly into the day-to-day work of physicians. Similarly, Microsoft Marketplace makes it easy to add secure, scalable capabilities into Dragon Copilot based on an organization’s needs.
In addition to Regard, healthcare organizations can access Canary, which uses biomarker technology to analyze a patient’s voice for anxiety and depression. Organizations can also access Humata, an AI-powered prior-authorization tool that gathers the information needed for faster approvals. By bringing these tools together in a unified workflow, Dragon Copilot is helping healthcare organizations automate clinical documentation, retrieve relevant patient information and reduce administrative burdens. Plus, it’s continuing to evolve with the Marketplace.
“The way we practice medicine is transforming, and it’s being underpinned, supported and augmented by AI,” Wilson says. “When you have a trusted AI partner with an ecosystem behind it, you get the best of both worlds.”
That’s because customers benefit from a single interface that can continually evolve with new apps designed to fundamentally improve how health systems operate and how patients receive care.
“This,” Wilson says, “is the future.”
Explore Dragon Copilot’s partner apps on Microsoft Marketplace.
