Insurance Giant AXA Partners Microsoft to Develop Digital Healthcare platform

AXA is joining hands with its technology partner Microsoft to create a digital health platform that will enable customer’s healthcare journey and provide access to a fully integrated ecosystem.

A pilot program with self-assessment tool, teleconsultation and a medical concierge was successfully launched in late 2020 for AXA customers in Germany and Italy. Following the strong response, the service will be deployed by 2022 in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain and Switzerland to be followed by other countries globally.

The upcoming digital healthcare platform will provide a virtual healthcare ecosystem that is accessible to anyone. This collaboration is expected to combine AXA’s global reach, strong background in healthcare and insurance, business and technology architecture skills with Microsoft’s industry knowledge in cloud-based computing, artificial intelligence, and array of partnerships with clinical partners and third-party vendors. The new platform will utilize the extensive portfolio of technology in Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, including Azure API for FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) that will allow for patient insights without compromising patient privacy.

Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare offers capabilities to manage large amounts of health data and make it easier for healthcare organizations to improve the patient experience, coordinate care, and drive operational efficiency, while helping support end-to-end security, compliance, and interoperability of health data.

Through this virtual healthcare platform, AXA’s customers will be able to access the digital health services for a holistic e-health experience. These health services include a self-assessment and prevention tool, a medical concierge, a teleconsultation interface, a digital document vault, home care services (e.g. medicine delivery) or a directory of healthcare professionals. In addition, the platform will remove healthcare service silos to drive better outcomes for research, prevention and disease prevention.

This ecosystem is customized to the care offerings and specificities of local health networks. In the future, the platform aims to introduce third-party services, with the ambition of creating an open, global service for healthcare providers and patients, regardless of whether they are AXA customers.

With health expenditure outpacing GDP growth over the next 15 years in almost every OECD country (from OECD), all health players involved in the patient journey, from providers to payers, must adjust their services and deliver on the promise of lower cost and more personalized services. This has been easy, given the rapidly evolving healthcare landscape.

Through this effort, AXA hopes to break down the barriers to access to care, which is more relevant than ever in the face of the ongoing pandemic.