Allscripts, Microsoft re-up their cloud EHR collaboration deal

The focus is on the cloud-based Sunrise platform, with Azure, Power BI and other tools helping improve security, scalability and flexibility to build out analytics and add third-party apps.

By Mike Miliard

July 13, 2020

03:29 PM

Allscripts and Microsoft are extending their strategic alliance focused on the development and innovation of new cloud-based healthcare technologies.

WHY IT MATTERS
Specifically, the new five-year re-up will see Microsoft designated as the dedicated cloud service provider to support Allscripts' Sunrise electronic health record.

More generally, the collaboration will enable Allscripts to innovate its technologies' capabilities and user experience suite with help from tools such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Teams and Power BI.

THE LARGER TREND
Allscripts says the cloud-based Sunrise platform – linking acute, ambulatory, surgical, pharmacy, radiology, laboratory and rev cycle services with integrated analytics to help deliver better health outcomes – will continue to be refined with Microsoft's help.

The company, which says new updates to Sunrise are on the way this year, points to improved enhanced security, scalability and flexibility, and the ability to add new capabilities according to new business needs or technology changes. The platform will also feature a marketplace enabling third-party apps to more easily integrate with the EHR.

Back in 2018, Allscripts CEO Paul Black described the cloud-based EHR, saying, "built from the ground up natively within the Microsoft Azure cloud, it functions like an app, not a traditional EHR, and gets technology out of the way of patient care."

Among their other recent collaborations, Allscripts and Microsoft have worked together to build cloud-based clinical research technology.

ON THE RECORD
"Healthcare delivery is no longer defined by location – providers need to have the capability to reach patients where they are to truly deliver the care they require. Cloud solutions, mobile options, telehealth functionality – these are the foundational tools for not just the future of healthcare, but the present," Black said in a statement. "Collaborating with Microsoft, the leader in the public cloud sector, we will efficiently deliver the tools caregivers need to improve the clinical outcomes of their patients and operational performance of their organizations."

"Through our strategic alliance with Allscripts, we aspire to be a transformational force in the healthcare industry, delivering smarter, innovative solutions that power the essential human connections of care delivery and create a healthier future for patients worldwide," added Patty Obermaier, Microsoft VP of U.S. health and life sciences. "We believe the future of healthcare is an interoperable one, where cloud-enabled solutions will be critical in putting patients fully in charge of their own healthcare information."