UCLA Health set to use Microsoft Azure for data processing

The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is set to deploy Microsoft Azure in a bid to make sense of debt in service to improving patient care.

The AI and machine learning capabilities are intended to integrate data, including lab results, medical scans, documentation or prescription information—drawing in both structured and unstructured information. The founding of the Institute for Precision Health in 2017 and the creation of a department of computational medicine marked the start of UCLA's efforts which are planned to encompass large-scale genomic research.

"By connecting health data and systems in the cloud in an interoperable way, we're excited we can help advance health care data for more efficient and personalized care," said Peter Lee, corporate vice president for Microsoft Health in a statement.

"Using machine learning to analyze a combination of clinical and genomics data can provide critical insights, but doing so with a traditional computing infrastructure can require significant processing time. Azure enables us to quickly deploy and scale high-performance computing environments that can reduce the required processing time — sometimes from months to days — to make discoveries," stated Mohammed Mahbouba, MD and chief data officer for UCLA Health.