Microsoft has hired Dr. Gregory Moore as its corporate vice president of health and technology alliances, who will work alongside the company’s vice president of Microsoft Healthcare Peter Lee. Dr. Moore previously worked at Google, having served as the Mountain View giant’s vice president of the Google Cloud Healthcare and Life Sciences department. According to Lee on the Microsoft Industry blog:
“Clearly, managing such partner-focused collaborative efforts is one of the most important things we need to get right, and that starts with choosing the right leader. Greg will be taking on the key responsibility to shepherd the dedicated research and development collaborations with our strategic partners, to deliver next-generation technologies and experiences for healthcare. He will bring into these partnerships the new AI and machine learning solutions that are being developed across Microsoft, to enable personalized care and empower care teams. And he will help provide internal and external thought leadership that can lead to a more open, interoperable, and AI-infused foundation for healthcare delivery.”
The hiring of Moore is interesting given the recent shutdown of Microsoft’s other health-related products and services, namely the Microsoft Band and the Health app, and this week’s decision to discontinue HealthVault on November 20. Although the tech giant doesn’t seem to be offering many health solutions for consumers anymore, it’s still heavily invested in the enterprise space, recently intoducing new healthcare-focused features in Microsoft 365.
Right now, it’s hard to tell if Microsoft will eventually rejoin the competition that is already dominated by the likes of Fitbit, Apple, Google, and Samsung. Despite that, at least we know the company will continue to invest in research and innovation when it comes to the healthcare space.
