Microsoft Cloud Agreement Aims To Boost NZ Health Service Equity

Microsoft New Zealand has welcomed the signing of a three-year cloud services agreement that will see the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) do more with data to help prevent re-injuries and address inequities of care around New Zealand.

Under this agreement, which will focus on Microsoft Azure cloud services, ACC will migrate its New Zealand operations to Azure. It’s the first government agency to sign this kind of commitment since the All of Government Agreement was inked between Microsoft and the Department of Internal Affairs earlier this year.

“We’ve had a long relationship with Microsoft, which stood us in very good stead during the huge disruption we and all organisations faced in 2020. We’ve been investing in Microsoft 365 over the past couple of years, rolling out Teams and Sharepoint and refreshing our remote access solutions, and within the first week of lockdown we scaled this to our entire team of 3,800 people. Not only did we not miss a beat in terms of the services we provided New Zealanders, we saw a real bump in employee engagement,” said Peter Fletcher, Chief Technology and Transformation Officer at ACC.

“This new agreement reaffirms and builds on that partnership to enable more linked-up use of data, so we can provide better pathways through care and deliver more equitable health outcomes for all regions and ethnicities in Aotearoa.”

An example of the potential benefits of ACC’s cloud strategy will be using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop targeted programmes that prevent re-injury. One of the greatest challenges ACC has identified is the frequency of patient re-injury while they’re on the road to recovery. Through the Microsoft Azure platform, ACC will have access to massive data analytics capability that will reveal patterns in the likelihood of injuries recurring and help identify why this happens. Individualised programmes can then be developed to help patients stay well, depending on their injury and lifestyle.

“We’re hugely excited to be renewing our relationship with ACC and taking it to the next level with this cloud agreement. Nothing is more important than our health and wellbeing, as the past 18 months have shown us, and I want to congratulate ACC on leading the way in cloud and AI to help all New Zealanders stay safe and healthy. With greater insights, we’re not only helping prevent injury and creating more joined-up pathways through our health system, but saving our healthcare providers time that can be spent seeing more patients,” says Vanessa Sorenson, Managing Director of Microsoft New Zealand.

ACC is also looking forward to the arrival of Microsoft’s forthcoming hyperscale datacenter region, which will enable sensitive patient data to be stored within New Zealand’s borders. As New Zealand’s population grows, the virtually unlimited capacity of public cloud will also enable ACC’s data storage and processing capabilities to scale up along with it, without needing to invest in new infrastructure.

“Thanks to this agreement, we’ll have the flexibility to manage data in a way that meets the needs of our organisation as well as our regulatory requirements, and which provides even greater security for personal information at less cost. It’s a win-win-win for our teams, our partners and for all New Zealanders,” Fletcher said.

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