On November 10, 2026, The Ohio State University and Microsoft announced a five-year strategic partnership spanning clinical care, research and education. Ohio State’s ambition is to move approximately 70%–80% of its storage and compute to Azure, alongside work on hospital data, clinical documentation and staff training, according to Microsoft’s announcement.
Azure migration and a shared data foundation
The Azure ambition includes digital pathology and imaging workloads. Azure is also being used as a backup for the electronic health record to support business continuity.
Ohio State is developing a data foundation with Microsoft Fabric and OneLake. The high-level design is complete, and the intended scope connects clinical, operational and research data across the medical center, colleges and regional campuses. Early use cases include forecasting surgical demand, staffing needs and operating-room use.
A related Azure research environment is intended to give investigators governed access to appropriate de-identified data. That access is part of the research initiative, alongside the broader plan to connect institutional data.
Dragon Copilot supports clinical notes; tumor-board work is exploratory
Clinicians are using Dragon Copilot’s ambient capabilities to draft visit notes. Clinicians review and finalize those drafts, with clinical judgment and human oversight remaining central to the described workflow.
A separate tumor-board initiative is still exploratory. The proposed workflow could bring pathology, imaging, genomics and clinical history into a coordinated view for multidisciplinary teams. It is a different stage of work from note drafting already described as in use.
The practical distinction is project maturity: Dragon Copilot note drafting is described as in use, while tumor-board coordination remains exploratory.
Two facilities are using the smart-hospital platform
The smart-hospital platform is in use at Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital and James Outpatient Care. The partners describe initial work focused on energy efficiency and resource use, with expansion to additional facilities planned.
Training is another part of the partnership
The partners plan to expand Microsoft Learn resources and certification opportunities for caregivers, researchers, faculty, staff and students. Ohio State is also to become a Microsoft Training Services Provider.
