Five-year agreement will support Johns Hopkins Medicine inHealth in driving new medical discoveries to improve disease management and patient care
REDMOND, Wash. – June 18, 2020 – On Thursday, Microsoft Corp. and (JHM) announced a five-year relationship centered on Microsoft’s Azure and analytical tools that will support new discoveries as part of JHM’s precision medicine initiative. The work will bring together JHM’s leading global research expertise with the power of Microsoft Azure, and its AI capabilities, to help advance JHM’s discoveries that will benefit personalized health care. JHM will maintain total control over its data.
inHealth embodies Johns Hopkins’ commitment to precision medicine, using new tools to understand and manage patients’ health, informed by their broader health history and environment. This program integrates JHM’s longstanding leadership in health care research and delivery with the expertise of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.
In support of inHealth, JHM has established 16 Precision Medicine Centers of Excellence, where researchers are pursuing breakthroughs in numerous disease settings, such as prostate cancer and multiple sclerosis. JHM aims to have 50 centers in the next five years.
“Johns Hopkins is committed to leading the way in precision medicine, and our relationship with Microsoft will help us achieve that goal,” said Paul B. Rothman, M.D., CEO of JHM and the Frances Watt Baker, M.D., and Lenox D. Baker Jr., M.D., dean of the medical faculty. “Using Azure will improve our ability to develop innovative solutions and treatments for our patients, and we are excited to collaborate with Microsoft to push the boundaries of science and medicine even further.”
Ethical use of patient data is a cornerstone of all of JHM’s partnerships with patients, including this important work with Microsoft in precision medicine. All projects are compliant with all appropriate privacy regulations, and JHM maintains strict control over all data, including through the use of its Institutional Review Board and its internal Data Trust Council that reviews data use across JHM.
“It is a distinct privilege to partner with many of the world’s leading physicians, scientists and engineers at JHM as they use Microsoft Azure and its AI and machine learning capabilities to support some of the most advanced research and breakthroughs in precision medicine,” said Gregory Moore, M.D., Ph.D., corporate vice president of Microsoft Health. “I’m inspired by the collaboration and its bold goals to improve health for all by bringing together some of the world’s best minds in medicine and technology to deliver the future of medical science innovation.”
JHM has previously used Microsoft services as JHM developed its pioneering Precision Medicine Analytics Platform (PMAP), a highly innovative data platform that allows collection and analysis information from a broad array of sources in a secure environment. This new agreement will enable inHealth to expand use of other Microsoft resources, such as advanced services, AI, machine learning and analytics.
