Coronavirus: Microsoft launches Azure-powered Healthcare Bot service to assist frontline organizations

Initially, the company’s Healthcare Bot service will be available on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

Healthcare Bot service is powered by Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing system. (Reuters)

The recent coronavirus outbreak has disrupted the world. Amid the ongoing pandemic, organisations are pooling in resources and developing new ones to help disseminate right information about the virus and help frontline organisations tackle the outbreak. Adding to this series, Microsoft has launched a Healthcare Bot service to assist frontline organisations.

The company's Healthcare Bot service is powered by its Azure cloud computing system that uses artificial intelligence to help organisations on the frontlines of the COVID-19 outbreak to screen patients for potential infection and care.

Initially, the company's Healthcare Bot service will be available on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website wherein it will help "quickly assess the symptoms and risk factors for people worried about infection, provide information and suggest a next course of action such as contacting a medical provider or, for those who do not need in-person medical care, managing the illness safely at home," Microsoft wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft says that its Healthcare Bot service is a scalable public cloud service that can also be used by other organizations to 'quickly build and deploy an AI-powered bot for websites or applications that can offer patients or the general public personalized access to health-related information through a natural conversation experience.'

Separately, Microsoft has also launched a Bing-based tracker that tracks the number of coronavirus cases around the world. It aggregates information from sources such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and CDC and gives country-wise stats as to the users.