{"id":649,"date":"2017-05-18T13:26:33","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T17:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/industry\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/"},"modified":"2017-05-18T13:26:33","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T17:26:33","slug":"taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking a holistic approach to virtual health"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was a medical student, I was stationed in the outback of Australia for a time. I was the only person with medical training for more than a hundred miles to provide care for the indigenous aboriginals living in that remote region. Sometimes I had to make decisions about whether or not to trigger the expense of having one of my patients transported to the nearest base hospital. I could consult with other clinicians over the phone, but I would have loved to be able to use the video technology we have today. That way, the remote clinician could have seen what I saw via video and I\u2019d have had more support in making diagnostic and treatment decisions, rather than relying on my limited medical student acumen. I also would have learned more from the interaction.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the great benefits of today\u2019s technologies such as Skype\u2014care teams can collaborate and confer with each other and their patients more effectively from anywhere. It\u2019s one of the ways virtual health is helping to scale quality care at lower costs.<\/p>\n

This kind of technology has been around for a long time, but now health organizations can empower care teams to communicate with each other and their patients using web and mobile experiences that integrate presence, chat, audio, and video with customized clinical processes. We recently announced Microsoft Office 365 Virtual Health Templates, which provide new functionality<\/a> to connect people and providers through voice, video and messaging in any interface or application.<\/p>\n

The open source templates make it easy for industry partners, developers, and enterprises to build customized virtual health solutions using Skype for Business as an extensible platform. Portals and apps tailored for a health organization\u2019s virtual health scenario needs can be integrated with other healthcare applications like electronic health record (EHR) management systems and scheduling systems.<\/p>\n

Cohesive virtual health<\/h2>\n

To shift from a sickness system to a wellness system, the health industry needs to enable new care and communication models. Today, we have the technology to do so.<\/p>\n

We have mature cloud-based communication tools such as high-definition video conferencing that can make people feel as if they\u2019re in the same room together and help doctors visually examine a patient. We have mature EHR systems. We have proven Internet of Things solutions that can connect the health and medical devices people have at home with CRM and clinical systems to help care teams and patients stay on top of chronic conditions. We have tools that can help health organizations automate targeted, preventive outreach.<\/p>\n

In order for health organizations to provide quality, precision care and proactively engage those they serve to help them live healthier lives, they need to be able to make the most of all these technologies. That means they need virtual health solutions to be tied in with other health systems. And they need virtual health experiences to be easy for care teams and patients to use from any interface or application.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019m excited that health organizations can achieve a holistic, tailored, and easy-to-use approach to virtual health with solutions from our partners built on the extensible Skype platform.<\/p>\n

To learn more and read about customers and partners that are already benefiting from our Virtual Health Templates read the Office team\u2019s blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And to learn how an extensible productivity platform can accelerate the benefits of virtual health and help you achieve economies of scale, read Paul Smolke\u2019s recent blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Questions or comments? Please reach out via email<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, or Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health organizations can now take a customized, comprehensive approach to virtual health to scale its benefits. We recently announced Microsoft Office 365 Virtual…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":1448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"post_tag":[],"content-type":[],"coauthors":[175],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"yoast_head":"\nTaking a holistic approach to virtual health - Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Health organizations can now take a customized, comprehensive approach to virtual health to scale its benefits.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taking a holistic approach to virtual health - Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Health organizations can now take a customized, comprehensive approach to virtual health to scale its benefits.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-18T17:26:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/05\/Device20with20Patient20private20office201_grid.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"290\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"125\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Simon Kos\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. Simon Kos\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/\"},\"author\":[{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/author\/dr-simon-kos\/\",\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@name\":\"Dr. Simon Kos\"}],\"headline\":\"Taking a holistic approach to virtual health\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-18T17:26:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-18T17:26:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/\"},\"wordCount\":601,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/05\/Device20with20Patient20private20office201_grid.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Health\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/\",\"name\":\"Taking a holistic approach to virtual health - Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/05\/Device20with20Patient20private20office201_grid.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-18T17:26:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-18T17:26:33+00:00\",\"description\":\"Health organizations can now take a customized, comprehensive approach to virtual health to scale its benefits.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/05\/Device20with20Patient20private20office201_grid.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/05\/Device20with20Patient20private20office201_grid.jpg\",\"width\":290,\"height\":125},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Taking a holistic approach to virtual health\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2019\/08\/Microsoft-Logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2019\/08\/Microsoft-Logo.png\",\"width\":259,\"height\":194,\"caption\":\"Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Taking a holistic approach to virtual health - Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada","description":"Health organizations can now take a customized, comprehensive approach to virtual health to scale its benefits.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Taking a holistic approach to virtual health - Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada","og_description":"Health organizations can now take a customized, comprehensive approach to virtual health to scale its benefits.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/","og_site_name":"Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada","article_published_time":"2017-05-18T17:26:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":290,"height":125,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/05\/Device20with20Patient20private20office201_grid.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dr. Simon Kos","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dr. Simon Kos","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/"},"author":[{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/author\/dr-simon-kos\/","@type":"Person","@name":"Dr. Simon Kos"}],"headline":"Taking a holistic approach to virtual health","datePublished":"2017-05-18T17:26:33+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-18T17:26:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/"},"wordCount":601,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/05\/Device20with20Patient20private20office201_grid.jpg","articleSection":["Health"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/","name":"Taking a holistic approach to virtual health - Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/05\/Device20with20Patient20private20office201_grid.jpg","datePublished":"2017-05-18T17:26:33+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-18T17:26:33+00:00","description":"Health organizations can now take a customized, comprehensive approach to virtual health to scale its benefits.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/05\/Device20with20Patient20private20office201_grid.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/05\/Device20with20Patient20private20office201_grid.jpg","width":290,"height":125},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/health\/2017\/05\/18\/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-virtual-health\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Taking a holistic approach to virtual health"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/","name":"Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#organization","name":"Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2019\/08\/Microsoft-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2019\/08\/Microsoft-Logo.png","width":259,"height":194,"caption":"Microsoft Industry Blogs - Canada"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_tag?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-ca\/industry\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}