Microsoft Teams embraces healthcare professionals with latest updates

Microsoft today debuted a trio of new features for Microsoft Teams, aimed at giving healthcare workers a secure way to communicate urgent messages and integrate electronic health records in their communications.

One of the biggest additions is support for priority notifications. Currently in private preview, priority notifications allow an urgent message to send alerts to the recipient every two minutes for up to 20 minutes, Microsoft says. Bolstering priority notifications is message delegation, which allows the recipient of an urgent message to delegate it to another person if they can't take action on it right away.

Today's rollout also includes the option to integrate electronic health records built with the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard with Teams. From Microsoft:

Now, hospital and clinical staff on-the-go can securely access patient records, chat with other team members, and even start a video meeting, all without having to switch between apps. The ability to view EHR data in Teams is enabled through partnerships between Microsoft and leading interoperability providers, including Infor Cloverleaf, Dapasoft, Datica, Kno2, and Redox.

FHIR-based electronic health records can now be integrated with Teams. Priority notifications are currently in private preview, while message delegation will be coming soon.

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Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl