Adobe and Microsoft are teaming up with Change Healthcare to tackle consumer engagement, including a way to aggregate patient data, the companies announced Tuesday, marking another consumer company partnership that's jumping into healthcare.
As part of the alliance, the companies will create a new tool to bring together patient data from electronic health records, registration, scheduling, billing and other systems. To do so, they'll use revenue cycle and analytics firm Change Healthcare's Intelligent Healthcare Network, Adobe's Experience Cloud collection of cloud services, and Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.
"This alliance aims to merge the finest consumer capabilities with unrivaled healthcare data, AI-enhanced workflows, and operational expertise," Change Healthcare President and CEO Neil de Crescenzo said in a statement.
Providers will use the tool for engagement campaigns similar to what retailers use to engage customers.
"Patients today expect the same seamless, personalized experiences with healthcare providers they already know from other consumer brands," Matt Thompson, Adobe executive vice president of field operations, said in a statement.
Adobe and Microsoft are already consumer brands. They're following in the footsteps of other tech giants that have recently moved into healthcare—notably, Apple and Amazon. Like Apple, these companies are interested in aggregating patient data.
And like Apple, Adobe and Microsoft are working with a large health IT company, Change Healthcare. McKesson Corp. merged its technology business with Change Healthcare in March 2017 in a multibillion-dollar deal and still owns 70% of the combined company.
More recently, behavioral health IT company Netsmart announced its plans to acquire Change Healthcare's home care and hospice products, a deal that's slated to go through in the second quarter of 2018.
