Microsoft announced a new joint partnership with health care giant Walgreens Boots Alliance aiming to combine the latter's customer reach and experience in health care services with the former's cloud and AI platform.
According to the new partnership's vision, the new venture would lead to faster technology and retail innovations, as well as to accelerated development of new health care delivery models in a shorter amount of time.
The two companies have decided to combine their forces given that there's an increasing need of system integration on the health care market because, at the moment, innovation only targets smaller areas instead of focusing on the larger picture.
Walgreens Boots Alliance is a large health and wellbeing enterprise present in roughly 25 countries and employing approximately 415,000 people around the world. It also owns a multitude of global health, business, retail, and beauty product brands, ranging from Walgreens, Duane Reade, Boots, and Alliance Healthcare, to No7, Soap & Glory, Liz Earle, and Sleek MakeUP and Botanics.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO said that:
Improving health outcomes while lowering the cost of care is a complex challenge that requires broad collaboration and strong partnership between the health care and tech industries. Together with Walgreens Boots Alliance, we aim to deliver on this promise by putting people at the center of their health and wellness, combining the power of the Azure cloud and AI technology and Microsoft 365 with Walgreens Boots Alliance’s deep expertise and commitment to helping communities around the world lead healthier and happier lives.
Furthermore, according to Stefano Pessina, executive vice chairman and chief executive officer of WBA:
Our strategic partnership with Microsoft demonstrates our strong commitment to creating integrated, next-generation, digitally enabled health care delivery solutions for our customers, transforming our stores into modern neighborhood health destinations and expanding customer offerings. WBA will work with Microsoft to harness the information that exists between payors and health care providers to leverage, in the interest of patients and with their consent, our extraordinary network of accessible and convenient locations to deliver new innovations, greater value and better health outcomes in health care systems across the world.
The Microsoft press release announcing this new strategic partnership established with Walgreens Boots Alliance also mentions a multi-year research and development plan to build health care solutions, lower the cost of care, and improve health outcomes.
The companies' R&D investment plans include subject-matter experts, technology, tools, and the funding needed for the new partnership to achieve its goals within the timeframe set at the time it was established.
They also plan to establish joint innovation centers targeting key markets around the globe, as well as take advantage of Walgreens Boots Alliance's goal of opening "up to 12 store-in-store “digital health corners” aimed at the merchandising and sale of select health care-related hardware and devices."
Comments
ladyh - 5 years ago
Will never use Walgreens again!