The Ohio State University and Microsoft have announced a five-year strategic partnership to accelerate innovation across clinical care, research and education. The collaboration brings together Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s healthcare and academic expertise with Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technologies.
The partnership aims to strengthen patient care, accelerate scientific discovery, support healthcare professionals and expand opportunities for students and communities across Ohio.
As part of the collaboration, Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and Microsoft will work together to develop a smart hospital model, modernize clinical and research applications through cloud infrastructure, establish a unified data foundation and introduce AI capabilities to support care teams. The organisations will continue identifying new opportunities throughout the five-year partnership as healthcare requirements and technology evolve.
“Artificial intelligence represents one of the most significant opportunities to transform and improve how hospitals care for patients,” said John J. Warner, MD, chief executive officer of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and executive vice president at Ohio State. “Through this collaboration, we have an opportunity to help reimagine the future of healthcare as we bring together Ohio State’s academic medical expertise with Microsoft’s technological capabilities to accelerate the pace of innovation across patient care, research and education.”
“Ohio State is demonstrating what it means to modernize healthcare with purpose — connecting cloud, data and AI to empower the people who care for patients and advance discovery,” said Heather Danforth, vice president, US State, Local and Education, Microsoft. “Together we’re building a trusted foundation grounded in Ohio State’s institutional context for AI-powered innovation — one that can give clinicians more time with patients, help researchers accelerate discovery, and turn promising ideas into meaningful advances in care.”
Developing a Smart Hospital Model
One of the partnership’s priorities is to co-develop a smart hospital model that connects facility, operational and clinical-support systems. The initiative is intended to make healthcare environments more adaptive, efficient and responsive.
The smart hospital platform is already being used at the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital and the James Outpatient Care facility. Initial work focuses on improving energy efficiency and resource utilisation while establishing a common technology foundation powered by Microsoft Azure and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities.
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center plans to extend the platform to additional healthcare facilities. The work is also expected to inform operations at the medical center’s new University Hospital and establish a reusable foundation for further innovation across the health system.
Moving Clinical and Research Workloads to Microsoft Azure
The organisations will also modernize clinical and research workloads by moving key systems to Microsoft Azure. Ohio State Wexner Medical Center aims to migrate approximately 70% to 80% of its storage and compute infrastructure to Azure, including digital pathology and imaging workloads.
The medical center is also moving its electronic health record system to Azure as a backup for business continuity. These efforts are intended to strengthen resilience, simplify infrastructure and help maintain access to critical systems.
The cloud modernisation programme is expected to give technology teams more capacity to focus on improving patient care, supporting research and delivering better outcomes.
Establishing a Unified Data Foundation
Another major focus is the development of a next-generation data foundation using Microsoft Fabric and OneLake. The platform is designed to connect clinical, operational and research data across the medical center, Ohio State colleges and regional campuses.
With the high-level design completed, potential early applications include forecasting surgical demand, staffing requirements and operating room utilisation to better align resources with patient needs.
A secure research environment on Azure will also provide investigators with governed access to appropriate de-identified data while maintaining privacy protections. The unified approach is intended to reduce fragmented data systems, improve coordination and help researchers access reliable insights more efficiently.
Applying AI to Support Clinicians and Researchers
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and Microsoft are deploying AI capabilities to reduce administrative workloads, support collaboration and give clinicians more time to focus on patients. The partnership emphasises human oversight, clinical judgment and patient relationships.
Clinicians are already using the ambient capabilities of Dragon Copilot to draft clinical notes securely from patient visits. These notes are reviewed and finalised by clinicians.
The organisations are also exploring AI-supported tumour board workflows. These could bring pathology, imaging, genomics and clinical history into a more coordinated view, helping multidisciplinary teams collaborate across locations, discuss complex cases and develop care plans more efficiently.
Expanding AI Skills and Workforce Training
Beyond healthcare technology, the partnership will focus on strengthening AI skills among caregivers, researchers, faculty, staff and students.
Microsoft and Ohio State will expand access to Microsoft Learn resources, training programmes and certification opportunities. The initiative is intended to help participants develop the skills required to use AI responsibly across healthcare, research, education and other sectors.
As a Microsoft Training Services Provider, Ohio State will have opportunities to extend Microsoft training and certifications to students, employees and community members. The programme aims to create pathways to in-demand careers, strengthen Ohio’s talent pipeline and support the university’s ambition to become a leader in AI fluency.
Through the five-year collaboration, Ohio State and Microsoft aim to establish a secure and scalable technology foundation that can evolve alongside healthcare needs. The partnership will build on existing initiatives to improve patient and clinician experiences, accelerate research, strengthen workforce readiness and demonstrate how cloud, data and responsible AI can support the mission of an academic health system.